[TUHS] virtual consoles / Alt-Fx
Heinz Lycklama
heinz at osta.com
Wed Mar 15 14:26:19 AEST 2023
Charlie,
I do not recall PC/IX having a virtual console capability,
but I could be wrong - we are talking almost 40 years
ago now.
BTW, I do have some rather complete sets of documents
and diskettes for INTERACTIVE UNIX for Intel 386.
If anyone has an interest, send me a private email.
Heinz
On 3/14/2023 3:46 PM, Charles H Sauer (he/him) wrote:
> On 3/14/2023 11:42 AM, Derek Fawcus via TUHS wrote:
>> On Mon, Mar 13, 2023 at 11:24:24AM -0400, Clem Cole wrote:
>>> The virtual consoles using the function keys predate Linux and
>>> 386BSD by a
>>> number of years. I used them only early x86 Unix ports to the IBM
>>> PC such
>>> as Xenix.
>>
>> I'm pretty sure that the 386 version of ISC UNIX I used on a PC in
>> the '88/89
>> timeframe had them. I vaguely recall it having a more awkward key
>> sequence
>> than Linux for switching between consoles.
>>
>> Here we go:
>> https://virtuallyfun.com/2010/02/09/fun-with-interactive-unix/
>>
>> "On a text console side, the OS has virtual consoles switchable via
>> SYSRQ + F key. Console is on F8."
>>
>> DF
>
> The real question in my mind is whether PC/IX had this sort of thing.
> PC/IX was the first Unix I used regularly, and my recollection is that
> it did have something along these lines, but Heinz or someone else
> with ISC back then might be able to say definitively.
>
> When I got a PC/AT, I started using (SCO?) Xenix because it better
> utilized the hardware than PC/IX. I'm pretty sure Clem is correct that
> Xenix had virtual consoles selected by the function keys.
>
> AIX for the RT/PC definitely had such virtual consoles from the
> beginning. See the article by Baker et al in the RT Book
> (https://technologists.com/sauer/SA23-1057_IBM_RT_Personal_Computer_Technology_1986.pdf).
> By the time I had my own RT, we had X in AIX, so I probably chose to
> use xterms.
>
> I'm pretty sure that the SVR3 Dell Unix would have had these along the
> lines described by Antoni, cited above, since SVR3 Dell Unix began
> with code from ISC, probably a little earlier than what Antoni used. I
> probably chose to use xterms instead.
>
> I just powered up my Dell 450DGX (“JAWS”) and verified that the
> SVR4-based Dell Unix had such virtual consoles. man keyboard excerpt:
>
> Switching Screens
> To change screens (virtual terminals), first run the vtlmgr command
> [see vtlmgr(1M)]. Switch the current screen by typing ALT-SYSREQ
> (also labelled ALT-PRINTSCRN on some systems) followed by a key which
> identifies the desired screen. Any active screen may be selected by
> following ALT-SYSREQ with Fn, where Fn is one of the function keys.
> F1 refers to the first virtual terminal screen, F2 refers to the
> second virtual terminal screen, etc. ALT-SYSREQ `h' refers to the
> main console display (/dev/console). The next active screen can be
> selected with ALT-SYSREQ `n,' and the previous screen can be selected
> with ALT-SYSREQ `p.'
>
> I doubt that I ever used them with Dell SVR4 before today, used xterms
> instead.
>
> CHS
>
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