Non-X text mode console

[Chris Snook]

Arthur Pemberton wrote:
> On Mon, Sep 15, 2008 at 8:05 PM, Chris Snook <csnook at redhat.com> wrote:
>> sean darcy wrote:
>>> David A. Wheeler wrote:
>>>> I routinely use text mode console without X, for a
>>>> variety of reasons.  For example:
>>>> * I have a number of systems (servers) at runlevel 3
>>>> * console is critically important when X fails. "Log in with ssh"
>>>>  doesn't work when ssh or the network fails.
>>> Have I missed something...big? If I can't ssh into those boxes, can't I
>>> have someone just use the console in person? Some of these boxes are ooold -
>>> 600mhz 256mb, which BTW, works superbly at runlevel 3. X would be a real
>>> strain, and is generally not even installed.
>>>
>>> Tell me it ain't so.
>>>
>>> sean
>>>
>> It ain't so.  This is a gross misunderstanding of the fact that we're moving
>> to using a kernel framebuffer by default, like some distros did almost a
>> decade ago.  And you can opt out with 'nomodeset' on the boot command line,
>> to get the old vga BIOS framebuffer.
> 
> 
> Sorry for acting dumb, but I'll ask the question that I have:
> 
> Will I be able to do Ctrl+Alt+F1? And will I be able to use a machine
> locally without X?
> 

Yes.  The only difference will be that the framebuffer is managed by the kernel 
instead of the video BIOS.  On most non-x86 architectures, this is how it has 
been done since the dawn of time.  It's been supported on x86 for a very long 
time too, but we've chosen not to enable it by default, for various reasons, 
until now.

-- Chris