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
DESCRIPTION¶
The
vt
device provides multiple virtual
terminals with an extensive feature set:
- Unicode UTF-8 text with double-width characters.
- Large font maps in graphics mode, including support for Asian character
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 sixteen
virtual terminals can be defined. A single virtual terminal is connected 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.
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 buffer. 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 effect, 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 version.
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 graphics mode.
Features that require graphics mode, like loadable fonts, will be
disabled.
- kern.vty
- When both
vt
and
sc(4) have been compiled into the kernel, the
one to use for the system console can be selected by setting this value to
‘vt
’ or
‘sc
’. If this value is not set,
sc(4) is used.
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)).