# virtual consoles?



## ksignorini (Aug 8, 2002)

Why are there no virtual consoles on OS X?  This would be sooooooo handy....

Kent!


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## btoneill (Aug 8, 2002)

What do you mean by a virtual console?

Brian


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## howardm4 (Aug 8, 2002)

if you want virtual desktops, there are a
few products out there like codetek.com

If you just want consoles, then GNU 'screen'
will do.


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## ksignorini (Aug 12, 2002)

Not virtual desktops and not just terminal windows.

Virtual consoles/terminals.

For example, in Slackware (my fav. Linux distro) I can ALT-F1...ALT-Fx (where ALT-F7 is reserved for X) and get an entirely new text login screen (much like how things look in single-user mode on OS X).  I can also configure (with some work) more than one graphical login.  

In Linux having multiple consoles is handy so that if, for example, X locks up and you can't kill the X server in that session (ALT-Backspace) you can switch to another console, login, and kill the actual X server process with "kill."  It could be handy running two graphical logins if say, you use one for the main user, and one for root (though I wouldn't suggest this in any kind of real environment--home is OK).  

Anyway, that's what I was asking about.

Any other ideas?

Kent!

edit: terminology


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## lethe (Aug 12, 2002)

yeah, i like virtual console a lot myself.  no idea about that in OSX, i would only point out that it might have to have support for that in the kernel; i think that is the case with linux.

i am interested in what it takes to have an X server run on more than one virtual console.  i did not know that was possible.  can you tell me briefly how thats done?


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## ksignorini (Aug 12, 2002)

It's been a long time since I set one up.  The notes I had (and the process I followed) were for a RedHat type system (RH, Mandrake, etc.) but I'll see if I can dig them up.

I did have it working on my machine, though.  I have a buddy at work that also helped me do it.  I'll ask him tomorrow.  Might take me a day or two to sift through all my notes but I know I still have them.

Kent!


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## ksignorini (Aug 12, 2002)

Hold on.  Two links:

http://www.linuxdot.org/cgi-bin/nlm.cgi?page=vt-x

http://www.cv.nrao.edu/~pmurphy/Talks/virtual_consoles/virtual_consoles_03.html

This works great.  I just tried it on my slack box.

startx -- :1

will start another X session that you can switch into with Ctr-Alt-F8.

Kent!


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## baldwinsung (Aug 15, 2002)

I hope this is what your looking for? You can go into the console mode on OS X by adding an account called ">console" as the account name. 

Select the ">console" user at the login menu and you will be at the Darwin console.

BTW, If some application companies would start to allow their applications to be started via command line or GUI... there would be enough justification for me to utilize Xserve's.


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