Switching virtual terminals

[Patrick O'Callaghan]

On Sat, 2008-06-07 at 14:09 +0100, Anne Wilson wrote:
> On Saturday 07 June 2008 08:29:12 Jim Dever wrote:
> > g wrote:
> > > Jim Dever wrote:
> > >> Tim wrote:
> > >>> On Fri, 2008-06-06 at 05:11 -0400, Jim Dever wrote:
> > >>>> I just tried it again to make sure.  From an X session CTRL+ALT+Fn
> > >>>> works but from a text console Alt-Fn does nothing.  It's remains at
> > >>>> the same tty I was at when I issued the CTRL+ALT+Fn from X.  Any
> > >
> > > you are saying 'from an x session', then 'from a text console' and
> > > 'same tty'.
> > >
> > > so, 'from an x session to a text console, aka, virtual console,
> > > staying in same tty, aka, same virtual console'.
> > >
> > > correct?
> >
> > Let me try and explain better.  From X:  Alt-CTRL-F1 takes me to a
> > virtual console (tty1).  From X:  Alt-CTRL-F2 takes me to a virtual
> > console (tty2).  But once I'm at a text, virtual console Alt-F1 or
> > Alt-F2 or Alt-F3....  don't do anything.  I remain at the terminal where
> > I came out of X.  And I can't get back into X either.  I'm stumped.
> >
> > >>> I am back on Fedora 9, now, and both ALT+Fn and CTRL+ALT+Fn are working
> > >>> for me, so the problem is probably specific to your setup.
> > >
> > > for me with f8, saa.
> > >
> > >> It's definitely a straight plain vanilla installation.
> > >
> > > as in what type keyboard? 102 -> 110 key? special music / power, etc?
> > > din, pc, usb port?
> >
> > Machine is about a 7 year old Dell with a 110 key PC keyboard.  It's not
> > USB or wireless or anything like that.
> >
> FWIW my ~6-year-old Packard Bell laptop has the same problem.  The only wayout 
> I can find is to shut down.

It would be interesting to see if the Alt key is actually being detected
in console mode. The keyboard tables are loaded at boot time but they
can change when X starts up, so it's possible that Alt in console mode
is simply not being read. Can't think of an easy test off the top of my
head but I'm sure somebody out there can :-)

/usr/share/doc/kbd-1.12/kbd.FAQ.html (part of kbd.rpm) would probably be
the place to start.

poc