The virtual terminal sub-system is a undocumented, and unsupported feature of Solaris x86. Therefore if you use Virtual Terminals, you do so at YOUR OWN RISK.
The virtual terminals of Solaris work basically the same way as most other Intel based SVR4 VT sub-systems. However, there are a number of limitations documented below.
First, if you are running a Solaris 2.4 x86 system, and you want VT's, you will have to create the necessary devices first, so become root.
First verify the chanmux device driver's major number is 100:
# grep -i chanmux /etc/name_to_major
chanmux 100
#
If the number after 'chanmux' is anything but 100, I would suggest
you immediately abort your attempt to create virtual terminals, and
learn to live without them.
However, if it is 100, then as root type the following commands to create the maximum allowable number of virtual terminals.
# cd /dev
# mknod vt01 c 100 1
# mknod vt02 c 100 2
# mknod vt03 c 100 3
# mknod vt04 c 100 4
# mknod vt05 c 100 5
# mknod vt06 c 100 6
# mknod vt07 c 100 7
There is no need for a reconfiguration boot.
Secondly, for both 2.1, and 2.4 x86 systems, add a few lines to the
inittab
to enable logins on them.
(Note, do NOT make a mistake here, you could lock yourself out of the system)
--------------------->Snip Snip<----------------------------------------------- v1:234:respawn:/usr/lib/saf/ttymon -g -h -p "`uname -n` VT01 login: " -T AT386 -d /dev/vt01 -l console v2:234:respawn:/usr/lib/saf/ttymon -g -h -p "`uname -n` VT02 login: " -T AT386 -d /dev/vt02 -l console v3:234:respawn:/usr/lib/saf/ttymon -g -h -p "`uname -n` VT03 login: " -T AT386 -d /dev/vt03 -l console v4:234:respawn:/usr/lib/saf/ttymon -g -h -p "`uname -n` VT04 login: " -T AT386 -d /dev/vt04 -l console ---------------------->End Here<-----------------------------------------------These four lines enable four VT's on Alt-SysReq-F1 through Alt-SysReq-F4.
Then execute the command 'init q
' to immediately
enable the virtual
terminals.
The keys used for VT switching are as follows:
If you are using virtual terminals, you must leave at least one free for use by the Xserver.Alt-SysReq-F1
throughAlt-SysReq-F7
enable VT screens 1-7 respectively (if the VT is active).
Alt-SysReq-n
enables the next active VT screen.
Alt-SysReq-p
enables the previous active VT screen.
Alt-SysReq-h
returns to the console.
Limitations of the virtual terminal sub-system under Solaris x86:
There are only a total of 8 available VT's (7 normal VT's + 1 console) not the usual 15. If you have all 8 allocated, and you attempt to allocate a additional VT you will panic the system. (This bug is worked around in the Solaris XFree86 Xserver.)
From a programming stand point, they work pretty much as documented in
the AT&T Unix System V/386 Release 4 Integrated Software
Development
Guide, however a number of ioctl()
calls are broken.
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