VP/ix

[Dr. Emilio Lizardo]

A correction on my earlier posting about virtual terminals --

I said that the vtlmgr:

>                         ... allows the console user to access the virtual
>terminals (/dev/vtnn) by pressing "<ctrl>-<sysreq>" followed by a function
>key (on my system, there are seven vt devices, so only F1-F7 are active;
>I don't know if it's possible to have more).

I meant to specify the key sequence as "<alt>-<sysreq>"

------------
In a related article, Bill Kennedy (bill at ssbn.WLK.COM) writes:

>                             ...You can have 7 of them, just fire up a
>getty on /dev/vt0n where n is the number of what you want.  Also use the
>virtcon gettydef and you're on your way.  Alt-SysReq-Fn will get you to
>that virtual console and Alt-SysReq-F8 will get you back to the "real"
>console.

This is true for SVR 3.1 for 6386; it is not true for SVR3.2.  First of all,
there is an "/etc/vtgetty" running on console instead of /etc/getty. If you
try to add more such vtgettys to /etc/inittab, you will not have access to
them -- you get an error to the effect that /dev/vt00 is still open and must
be closed first. You can add /etc/getty processes for the virtual terminals,
but using <alt><sysreq>F8 will not return you to the console session; perhaps
a different keystroke sequence works (I solved it by su'ing and removing
the  vt01 entry from inittab, and control returned to my console session as
soon as I logged out).

Also, my system did not have a "virtcon" gettydef already defined.

Personally, I think the SVR3.2 implementation is somewhat better, since it's
spawning a shell on the virtual terminal instead of a getty, so that you don't
have to log in again.  Virtual terminal shells are spawned only as they are
used, so you don't have extra processes being run by init.  However, the vtlmgr
apparently spawns the shells in a linear fashion, as if each virtual
terminal shell were a child of the invoking process (in fact, the vtlmgr is
the parent to all vt shells).  Thus, the only way to get back to console
without terminating all of the virtual terminals is to use <alt><sysreq>Fn,
where n is the number of the vitrual terminal that was invoked first. 
Terminating that virtual session will return control to the console without
killing the other vt processes.

-- 
Tom Gillespie                   |AT&T/EDS Product Marketing Technical Center
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ATTMAIL: tgillespie             |(201) 952-1178
"Don't take life so serious ... it ain't nohow permanent."  -- Walt Kelly