1 .\" Copyright (c) 2014 Warren Block
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28 .Dt "VIRTUAL TERMINALS" 4
32 .Nd virtual terminal console driver
34 .Cd "options VT_MAXWINDOWS=N"
35 .Cd "options VT_ALT_TO_ESC_HACK=1"
36 .Cd "options VT_TWOBUTTON_MOUSE"
37 .Cd "options VT_FB_DEFAULT_WIDTH=X"
38 .Cd "options VT_FB_DEFAULT_HEIGHT=Y"
39 .Cd "options SC_NO_CUTPASTE"
40 .Cd "options SC_NO_SYSMOUSE"
50 device provides multiple virtual terminals with an extensive feature
52 .Bl -item -offset indent
54 Unicode UTF-8 text with double-width characters.
56 Large font maps in graphics mode, including support for Asian
59 Graphics-mode consoles.
63 .Pq Kernel Mode Setting
64 video drivers for switching between the
66 and virtual terminals.
69 Multiple virtual terminals are provided on a single computer.
70 Up to sixteen virtual terminals can be defined.
71 A single virtual terminal is connected to the screen and keyboard
73 Key combinations are used to select a virtual terminal.
74 Alt-F1 through Alt-F12 correspond to the first twelve virtual terminals.
75 If more than twelve virtual terminals are created, Shift-Alt-F1 through
76 Shift-Alt-F4 are used to switch to the additional terminals.
77 .Ss Copying and Pasting Text with a Mouse
78 Copying and pasting text from the screen with a mouse is supported.
79 Press and hold down mouse button 1, usually the left button, while
80 moving the mouse to select text.
81 Selected text is highlighted with reversed foreground and background
83 To select more text after releasing mouse button 1, press mouse button
84 3, usually the right button.
85 To paste text that has been selected, press mouse button 2, usually the
87 The text is entered as if it were typed at the keyboard.
89 .Dv VT_TWOBUTTON_MOUSE
90 kernel option can be used with mice that only have two buttons.
91 Setting this option makes the second mouse button into the
97 Output that has scrolled off the screen can be reviewed by pressing the
98 Scroll Lock key, then scrolling up and down with the arrow keys.
99 The Page Up and Page Down keys scroll up or down a full screen at a
101 The Home and End keys jump to the beginning or end of the scrollback
103 When finished reviewing, press the Scroll Lock key again to return to
105 .Sh DRIVER CONFIGURATION
106 .Ss Kernel Configuration Options
107 These kernel options control the
110 .Bl -tag -width MAXCONS
111 .It Dv VT_MAXWINDOWS=N
112 Set the number of virtual terminals to be created to
114 The value defaults to 12.
115 .It Dv VT_ALT_TO_ESC_HACK=1
116 When the Alt key is held down while pressing another key, send an ESC
117 sequence instead of the Alt key.
118 .It Dv VT_TWOBUTTON_MOUSE
119 If defined, swap the functions of mouse buttons 2 and 3.
120 In effect, this makes the right-hand mouse button perform a paste.
121 These options are checked in the order shown.
122 .It Dv SC_NO_CUTPASTE
123 Disable mouse support.
124 .It VT_FB_DEFAULT_WIDTH=X
125 Set the default width to
127 .It VT_FB_DEFAULT_HEIGHT=Y
128 Set the default height to
131 .Sh BACKWARDS COMPATIBILITY
132 Several options are provided for compatibility with the previous
135 These options will be removed in a future
138 .Bl -column -offset indent ".Sy vt VT_TWOBUTTON_MOUSE" ".Sy SC_TWOBUTTON_MOUSE"
139 .It Sy vt Option Name Ta Sy sc Option Name
140 .It Dv VT_TWOBUTTON_MOUSE Ta Dv SC_TWOBUTTON_MOUSE
141 .It Dv VT_MAXWINDOWS Ta Dv MAXCONS
142 .It none Ta Dv SC_NO_CUTPASTE
143 .It none Ta Dv SC_NO_SYSMOUSE
145 .Sh START-UP OPERATION WITH X86 BIOS SYSTEMS
146 The computer BIOS starts in text mode, and
150 runs, loading the kernel.
153 is set, the system remains in text mode.
156 switches to 640x480x16 VGA mode using
159 .Pq Kernel Mode Switching
160 video driver is available, the display is switched to high resolution
161 and the KMS driver takes over.
162 When a KMS driver is not available,
166 These settings can be entered at the
170 .Bl -tag -width indent
171 .It Va hw.vga.textmode
172 Set to 1 to use virtual terminals in text mode instead of graphics mode.
173 Features that require graphics mode, like loadable fonts, will be
176 Set to vt to choose the
178 driver for the system console, if the
180 driver is also compiled in and is the default.
183 .Bl -tag -width /usr/share/syscons/keymaps/* -compact
185 .It Pa /dev/consolectl
189 terminal initialization information
211 .\" WB: to be uncommented when an actual release contains vt(4)
215 .\" driver first appeared in
221 device driver was developed by
222 .An Ed Schouten Aq Mt ed@FreeBSD.org ,
223 .An Ed Maste Aq Mt emaste@FreeBSD.org ,
225 .An Aleksandr Rybalko Aq Mt ray@FreeBSD.org ,
226 with sponsorship provided by the
229 This manual page was written by
230 .An Warren Block Aq Mt wblock@FreeBSD.org .
232 Paste buffer size is limited by the system value
234 the number of bytes that can be stored in the terminal
235 input queue, usually 1024 bytes