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28 .Dt "VIRTUAL TERMINALS" 4
32 .Nd virtual terminal console driver
34 .Cd "options TERMINAL_KERN_ATTR=_attribute_"
35 .Cd "options TERMINAL_NORM_ATTR=_attribute_"
36 .Cd "options VT_MAXWINDOWS=N"
37 .Cd "options VT_ALT_TO_ESC_HACK=1"
38 .Cd "options VT_TWOBUTTON_MOUSE"
39 .Cd "options VT_FB_DEFAULT_WIDTH=X"
40 .Cd "options VT_FB_DEFAULT_HEIGHT=Y"
41 .Cd "options SC_NO_CUTPASTE"
51 device provides multiple virtual terminals with an extensive feature
53 .Bl -item -offset indent
55 Unicode UTF-8 text with double-width characters.
57 Large font maps in graphics mode, including support for Asian
60 Graphics-mode consoles.
64 .Pq Kernel Mode Setting
65 video drivers for switching between the
67 and virtual terminals.
70 Multiple virtual terminals are provided on a single computer.
71 Up to sixteen virtual terminals can be defined.
72 A single virtual terminal is connected to the screen and keyboard
74 Key combinations are used to select a virtual terminal.
75 Alt-F1 through Alt-F12 correspond to the first twelve virtual terminals.
76 If more than twelve virtual terminals are created, Shift-Alt-F1 through
77 Shift-Alt-F4 are used to switch to the additional terminals.
78 .Ss Copying and Pasting Text with a Mouse
79 Copying and pasting text from the screen with a mouse is supported.
80 Press and hold down mouse button 1, usually the left button, while
81 moving the mouse to select text.
82 Selected text is highlighted with reversed foreground and background
84 To select more text after releasing mouse button 1, press mouse button
85 3, usually the right button.
86 To paste text that has been selected, press mouse button 2, usually the
88 The text is entered as if it were typed at the keyboard.
90 .Dv VT_TWOBUTTON_MOUSE
91 kernel option can be used with mice that only have two buttons.
92 Setting this option makes the second mouse button into the
98 Output that has scrolled off the screen can be reviewed by pressing the
99 Scroll Lock key, then scrolling up and down with the arrow keys.
100 The Page Up and Page Down keys scroll up or down a full screen at a
102 The Home and End keys jump to the beginning or end of the scrollback
104 When finished reviewing, press the Scroll Lock key again to return to
106 .Sh DRIVER CONFIGURATION
107 .Ss Kernel Configuration Options
108 These kernel options control the
111 .Bl -tag -width MAXCONS
112 .It Dv TERMINAL_NORM_ATTR= Ns Pa attribute
113 .It Dv TERMINAL_KERN_ATTR= Ns Pa attribute
114 These options allow changing the default colors used for normal and kernel
116 Available colors are defined in
121 .It Dv VT_MAXWINDOWS=N
122 Set the number of virtual terminals to be created to
124 The value defaults to 12.
125 .It Dv VT_ALT_TO_ESC_HACK=1
126 When the Alt key is held down while pressing another key, send an ESC
127 sequence instead of the Alt key.
128 .It Dv VT_TWOBUTTON_MOUSE
129 If defined, swap the functions of mouse buttons 2 and 3.
130 In effect, this makes the right-hand mouse button perform a paste.
131 These options are checked in the order shown.
132 .It Dv SC_NO_CUTPASTE
133 Disable mouse support.
134 .It VT_FB_DEFAULT_WIDTH=X
135 Set the default width to
137 .It VT_FB_DEFAULT_HEIGHT=Y
138 Set the default height to
141 .Sh BACKWARDS COMPATIBILITY
142 Several options are provided for compatibility with the previous
145 These options will be removed in a future
148 .Bl -column -offset indent ".Sy vt VT_TWOBUTTON_MOUSE" ".Sy SC_TWOBUTTON_MOUSE"
149 .It Sy vt Option Name Ta Sy sc Option Name
150 .It Dv TERMINAL_KERN_ATTR Ta Dv SC_KERNEL_CONS_ATTR
151 .It Dv TERMINAL_NORM_ATTR Ta Dv SC_NORM_ATTR
152 .It Dv VT_TWOBUTTON_MOUSE Ta Dv SC_TWOBUTTON_MOUSE
153 .It Dv VT_MAXWINDOWS Ta Dv MAXCONS
154 .It none Ta Dv SC_NO_CUTPASTE
156 .Sh START-UP OPERATION WITH X86 BIOS SYSTEMS
157 The computer BIOS starts in text mode, and
161 runs, loading the kernel.
164 is set, the system remains in text mode.
167 switches to 640x480x16 VGA mode using
170 .Pq Kernel Mode Switching
171 video driver is available, the display is switched to high resolution
172 and the KMS driver takes over.
173 When a KMS driver is not available,
177 These settings can be entered at the
181 .Bl -tag -width indent
182 .It Va hw.vga.textmode
183 Set to 1 to use virtual terminals in text mode instead of graphics mode.
184 Features that require graphics mode, like loadable fonts, will be
190 .Xr sc 4 have been compiled into the kernel, the one to use for the
191 system console can be selected by setting this value to
195 If this value is not set,
200 .Bl -tag -width /usr/share/vt/keymaps/* -compact
202 .It Pa /dev/consolectl
206 terminal initialization information
207 .It Pa /usr/share/vt/fonts/*.fnt
209 .It Pa /usr/share/vt/keymaps/*.kbd
213 This example changes the default color of normal text to green on a
214 black background, or black on a green background when reversed.
215 Note that white space cannot be used inside the attribute string
216 because of the current implementation of
219 .Dl "options TERMINAL_NORM_ATTR=(FG_GREEN|BG_BLACK)"
221 This line changes the default color of kernel messages to be bright red
222 on a black background, or black on a bright red background when reversed.
224 .Dl "options TERMINAL_KERN_ATTR=(FG_LIGHTRED|BG_BLACK)"
247 driver first appeared in
253 device driver was developed by
254 .An Ed Schouten Aq ed@FreeBSD.org ,
255 .An Ed Maste Aq emaste@FreeBSD.org ,
257 .An Aleksandr Rybalko Aq ray@FreeBSD.org ,
258 with sponsorship provided by the
261 This manual page was written by
262 .An Warren Block <wblock@FreeBSD.org>.
264 Paste buffer size is limited by the system value
266 the number of bytes that can be stored in the terminal
267 input queue, usually 1024 bytes