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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"
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 TERMINAL_NORM_ATTR=_attribute_
112 .It Dv TERMINAL_KERN_ATTR=_attribute_
113 These options allow to change the default colors used for normal and kernel
115 Available colors are defined in
120 .It Dv VT_MAXWINDOWS=N
121 Set the number of virtual terminals to be created to
123 The value defaults to 12.
124 .It Dv VT_ALT_TO_ESC_HACK=1
125 When the Alt key is held down while pressing another key, send an ESC
126 sequence instead of the Alt key.
127 .It Dv VT_TWOBUTTON_MOUSE
128 If defined, swap the functions of mouse buttons 2 and 3.
129 In effect, this makes the right-hand mouse button perform a paste.
130 These options are checked in the order shown.
131 .It Dv SC_NO_CUTPASTE
132 Disable mouse support.
133 .It VT_FB_DEFAULT_WIDTH=X
134 Set the default width to
136 .It VT_FB_DEFAULT_HEIGHT=Y
137 Set the default height to
140 .Sh BACKWARDS COMPATIBILITY
141 Several options are provided for compatibility with the previous
144 These options will be removed in a future
147 .Bl -column -offset indent ".Sy vt VT_TWOBUTTON_MOUSE" ".Sy SC_TWOBUTTON_MOUSE"
148 .It Sy vt Option Name Ta Sy sc Option Name
149 .It Dv TERMINAL_KERN_ATTR Ta Dv SC_KERNEL_CONS_ATTR
150 .It Dv TERMINAL_NORM_ATTR Ta Dv SC_NORM_ATTR
151 .It Dv VT_TWOBUTTON_MOUSE Ta Dv SC_TWOBUTTON_MOUSE
152 .It Dv VT_MAXWINDOWS Ta Dv MAXCONS
153 .It none Ta Dv SC_NO_CUTPASTE
155 .Sh START-UP OPERATION WITH X86 BIOS SYSTEMS
156 The computer BIOS starts in text mode, and
160 runs, loading the kernel.
163 is set, the system remains in text mode.
166 switches to 640x480x16 VGA mode using
169 .Pq Kernel Mode Switching
170 video driver is available, the display is switched to high resolution
171 and the KMS driver takes over.
172 When a KMS driver is not available,
176 These settings can be entered at the
180 .Bl -tag -width indent
181 .It Va hw.vga.textmode
182 Set to 1 to use virtual terminals in text mode instead of graphics mode.
183 Features that require graphics mode, like loadable fonts, will be
187 The following line will change the default color of normal text.
188 Normal text will be green on black background.
189 Reversed normal text will be black on green background.
190 Note that you cannot put any white space inside the quoted string,
191 because of the current implementation of
194 .Dl "options TERMINAL_NORM_ATTR=(FG_GREEN|BG_BLACK)"
196 The following line will change the default color of kernel messages.
197 Kernel messages will be printed bright red on black background.
198 Reversed kernel messages will be black on bright red background.
200 .Dl "options TERMINAL_KERN_ATTR=(FG_LIGHTRED|BG_BLACK)"
202 .Bl -tag -width /usr/share/syscons/keymaps/* -compact
204 .It Pa /dev/consolectl
208 terminal initialization information
233 driver first appeared in
239 device driver was developed by
240 .An Ed Schouten Aq ed@FreeBSD.org ,
241 .An Ed Maste Aq emaste@FreeBSD.org ,
243 .An Aleksandr Rybalko Aq ray@FreeBSD.org ,
244 with sponsorship provided by the
247 This manual page was written by
248 .An Warren Block <wblock@FreeBSD.org>.
250 Paste buffer size is limited by the system value
252 the number of bytes that can be stored in the terminal
253 input queue, usually 1024 bytes