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VIRTUAL TERMINALS(4) BSD Kernel Interfaces Manual VIRTUAL TERMINALS(4) NAME vt -- virtual terminal console driver SYNOPSIS options TERMINAL_KERN_ATTR=_attribute_ options TERMINAL_NORM_ATTR=_attribute_ options VT_MAXWINDOWS=N options VT_ALT_TO_ESC_HACK=1 options VT_TWOBUTTON_MOUSE options VT_FB_DEFAULT_WIDTH=X options VT_FB_DEFAULT_HEIGHT=Y options SC_NO_CUTPASTE device vt In loader.conf(5): hw.vga.textmode=1 kern.vty=vt In loader.conf(5) or sysctl.conf(5): kern.vt.kbd_halt=1 kern.vt.kbd_poweroff=1 kern.vt.kbd_reboot=1 kern.vt.kbd_debug=1 kern.vt.kbd_panic=0 DESCRIPTION The vt device provides multiple virtual terminals with an extensive fea- ture set: Unicode UTF-8 text with double-width characters. Large font maps in graphics mode, including support for Asian char- acter sets. Graphics-mode consoles. Integration with KMS (Kernel Mode Setting) video drivers for switching between the X Window System and virtual terminals. Virtual Terminals Multiple virtual terminals are provided on a single computer. Up to six- teen virtual terminals can be defined. A single virtual terminal is con- nected to the screen and keyboard at a time. Key combinations are used to select a virtual terminal. Alt-F1 through Alt-F12 correspond to the first twelve virtual terminals. If more than twelve virtual terminals are created, Shift-Alt-F1 through Shift-Alt-F4 are used to switch to the additional terminals. Copying and Pasting Text with a Mouse Copying and pasting text from the screen with a mouse is supported. Press and hold down mouse button 1, usually the left button, while moving the mouse to select text. Selected text is highlighted with reversed foreground and background colors. To select more text after releasing mouse button 1, press mouse button 3, usually the right button. To paste text that has been selected, press mouse button 2, usually the middle button. The text is entered as if it were typed at the keyboard. The VT_TWOBUTTON_MOUSE kernel option can be used with mice that only have two buttons. Setting this option makes the second mouse button into the paste button. See moused(8) for more information. Scrolling Back Output that has scrolled off the screen can be reviewed by pressing the Scroll Lock key, then scrolling up and down with the arrow keys. The Page Up and Page Down keys scroll up or down a full screen at a time. The Home and End keys jump to the beginning or end of the scrollback buf- fer. When finished reviewing, press the Scroll Lock key again to return to normal use. DRIVER CONFIGURATION Kernel Configuration Options These kernel options control the vt driver. TERMINAL_NORM_ATTR=attribute TERMINAL_KERN_ATTR=attribute These options allow changing the default colors used for normal and kernel text. Available colors are defined in <sys/terminal.h>. See EXAMPLES below. VT_MAXWINDOWS=N Set the number of virtual terminals to be created to N. The value defaults to 12. VT_ALT_TO_ESC_HACK=1 When the Alt key is held down while pressing another key, send an ESC sequence instead of the Alt key. VT_TWOBUTTON_MOUSE If defined, swap the functions of mouse buttons 2 and 3. In ef- fect, this makes the right-hand mouse button perform a paste. These options are checked in the order shown. SC_NO_CUTPASTE Disable mouse support. VT_FB_DEFAULT_WIDTH=X Set the default width to X. VT_FB_DEFAULT_HEIGHT=Y Set the default height to Y. BACKWARDS COMPATIBILITY Several options are provided for compatibility with the previous console device, sc(4). These options will be removed in a future FreeBSD ver- sion. vt Option Name sc Option Name TERMINAL_KERN_ATTR SC_KERNEL_CONS_ATTR TERMINAL_NORM_ATTR SC_NORM_ATTR VT_TWOBUTTON_MOUSE SC_TWOBUTTON_MOUSE VT_MAXWINDOWS MAXCONS none SC_NO_CUTPASTE START-UP OPERATION WITH X86 BIOS SYSTEMS The computer BIOS starts in text mode, and the FreeBSD loader(8) runs, loading the kernel. If hw.vga.textmode is set, the system remains in text mode. Otherwise, vt switches to 640x480x16 VGA mode using vt_vga. If a KMS (Kernel Mode Switching) video driver is available, the display is switched to high resolution and the KMS driver takes over. When a KMS driver is not available, vt_vga remains active. LOADER TUNABLES These settings can be entered at the loader(8) prompt or in loader.conf(5). hw.vga.textmode Set to 1 to use virtual terminals in text mode instead of graph- ics mode. Features that require graphics mode, like loadable fonts, will be disabled. kern.vty Set this value to `vt' or `sc' to override the default driver used for the system console. By default, sc(4) is used on com- puters that boot from BIOS, and vt is used on computers that boot from UEFI. KEYBOARD SYSCTL TUNABLES These settings control whether certain special key combinations are en- abled or ignored. The specific key combinations can be configured by us- ing a keymap(5) file. These settings can be entered at the loader(8) prompt or in loader.conf(5) and can also be changed at runtime with the sysctl(8) com- mand. kern.vt.kbd_halt Enable halt keyboard combination. kern.vt.kbd_poweroff Enable power off key combination. kern.vt.kbd_reboot. Enable reboot key combination, usually Ctrl+Alt+Del. kern.vt.kbd_debug Enable debug request key combination, usually Ctrl+Alt+Esc. kern.vt.kbd_panic Enable panic key combination. FILES /dev/console /dev/consolectl /dev/ttyv* virtual terminals /etc/ttys terminal initialization information /usr/share/vt/fonts/*.fnt console fonts /usr/share/vt/keymaps/*.kbd keyboard layouts EXAMPLES This example changes the default color of normal text to green on a black background, or black on a green background when reversed. Note that white space cannot be used inside the attribute string because of the current implementation of config(8). options TERMINAL_NORM_ATTR=(FG_GREEN|BG_BLACK) This line changes the default color of kernel messages to be bright red on a black background, or black on a bright red background when reversed. options TERMINAL_KERN_ATTR=(FG_LIGHTRED|BG_BLACK) SEE ALSO kbdcontrol(1), login(1), vidcontrol(1), atkbd(4), atkbdc(4), keyboard(4), screen(4), splash(4), syscons(4), ukbd(4), kbdmap(5), rc.conf(5), ttys(5), config(8), getty(8), kbdmux(8), kldload(8), moused(8) HISTORY The vt driver first appeared in FreeBSD 9.3. AUTHORS The vt device driver was developed by Ed Schouten <ed@FreeBSD.org>, Ed Maste <emaste@FreeBSD.org>, and Aleksandr Rybalko <ray@FreeBSD.org>, with sponsorship provided by the FreeBSD Foundation. This manual page was written by Warren Block <wblock@FreeBSD.org>. CAVEATS Paste buffer size is limited by the system value {MAX_INPUT}, the number of bytes that can be stored in the terminal input queue, usually 1024 bytes (see termios(4)). BSD October 16, 2014 BSD
NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | DRIVER CONFIGURATION | BACKWARDS COMPATIBILITY | START-UP OPERATION WITH X86 BIOS SYSTEMS | LOADER TUNABLES | KEYBOARD SYSCTL TUNABLES | FILES | EXAMPLES | SEE ALSO | HISTORY | AUTHORS | CAVEATS
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