Switching virtual terminals

[Patrick O'Callaghan]

On Mon, 2008-06-09 at 22:56 -0400, Jim Dever wrote:
> Ric Moore wrote:
> > On Sun, 2008-06-08 at 08:15 +0100, Anne Wilson wrote:
> >> On Sunday 08 June 2008 05:09:44 Ric Moore wrote:
> >>> 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.
> >>> You can't ctrl-alt F7 to get back to X?? Ric
> >>>
> >> Correct.  Ctrl-alt plus some Fx do nothing.  One, I think it's F5, changes the 
> >> screen resolution.  F7 does nothing.  At this point the only way out is to 
> >> shut down - it won't even reboot.  If you have any apps open they crash on 
> >> the way out.
> > 
> > Wow, it must be in the way the key combination works out in the
> > resultant ASCII code. I wonder if you switched your keyboard setting to
> > US instead of "Hail the Queen" if that would set ctrl-alt-F7 to rights,
> > as well as your other keys?? It's a thought. When trouble shooting with
> > a shotgun, you gotta hit something! Ric
> > 
> 
> Well you won't believe this but I found the problem.  This keyboard has 
> ALT keys on both sides of the space bar.  The one on the left works 
> fine.  Switches terminals and even takes me back to X.  The ALT key on 
> the right does nothing.  How's that for strange!

Well yeah, they're two different keycodes. I (along with everyone else
I'm guessing) assumed you meant the left Alt key. Right-Alt doesn't seem
to do anything by default, either in console mode or under X. I use it
as a Compose key for latin characters such as ¿).

poc