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 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.

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 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.

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.

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).

KEYBOARD SYSCTL TUNABLES

These settings control whether certain special key combinations are enabled or ignored. The specific key combinations can be configured by using 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) command.

FILES

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)

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)).

YOS OPENSONAR