MONKEY LINUX
current version 06 @(õ õ)@
released 9/5/1997 (Y) [ VIRTUAL TERMINAL TUTORIAL ]
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Monkey has 6 virtual terminals (named tty1, tty2,...,tty6) that are
accessible by pressing the Alt+Fx keys, where Fx represents the function
keys labeled F1 through F6. Using an example is the simplest way I can
think of to explain what a virtual terminal is and how to use it.
Here's the scenario, I'm logged in under a user account and I'm
working on the Project Devolve web page. Things are going alright, but a
little bit of mood music would definitely increase production. I pick an
80's album out my CD collection, pop it into the computer, and start up
Workbone 2.3 so I can jam out to "Shock the Money," by Peter Gabriel,
while typing. Uh oh, something has gone awry. The computer spits out
the following message:
As root, please run
chmod 666 /dev/cdrom
to give yourself permission to access the CD-ROM device.
Aw man, what a bummer...I'd hate to have to save all my work, log
out, log in as root, make the file ownership changes to /dev/cdrom, log
out of root, log back into my user account, open up the file I'm working
on, and then start up Workbone. All that would definitely get me out of
the mood. If only there were such a thing as a "virtual terminal," in
which I could log in as root and make the ownership changes to /dev/cdrom
without having to log out of my user account. If only I could have more
than one work terminal running on this single machine...if only!
Then it occurs to me, Monkey Linux is equipped with 6 virtual
terminals. The first terminal, also know as the tty1 terminal, is the
one I logged into immediately after the boot process. That means I've
got five more terminals, tty2 through tty6, that I can log into. Woo
hoo! Now I don't have to interrupt my current work by logging out. So,
I press Alt+F2 to enter the tty2 terminal and I encounter a fresh login
prompt. As happy as a clam during low tide, I log in as root, make the
necessary /dev/cdrom ownership changes so I can operate Workbone under my
user account, and then log out. Now all I have to do is press Alt+F1 to
return to my user account on the tty1 terminal and start up Workbone so I
can get back to typing. Can you feel the chi circulating in the room?
Heck if I wanted to, I could simultaneously work in six different
virtual terminals logged in as six different users. One for each of my
split personalities. Lucky for me, keeping track of all of the terminals
that I'm using isn't as difficult as keeping track of all of my multiple
personalities. If I only need to see which user I'm logged in as within
the current terminal then all I have to do is type the "whoami" command
and Monkey will be kind enough to remind me which user ID I logged in
under.
monkey:~# whoami
me
If I ever forget which terminals (tty1 to tty6) I'm logged into then
all I have to do is type the "who" command and I'll get a nice list of
all of the active terminals and the name of the user logged in to each
one.
monkey:~# who
me tty1 Dec 4 23:30
myself tty2 Dec 4 23:51
irene tty3 Dec 4 23:57
Suppose I want even more information, like which processes are
running on each terminal, then all I need to do is type the "w" command.
monkey:~# w
11:58pm up 28 min, 3 users, load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00
User tty1 From login@ idle JCPU PCPU what
me tty1 11:30pm 18 -tcsh
myself tty2 11:51pm -tcsh
irene tty3 11:57pm w
***OTHER THINGS TO NOTE...X Window is on the 8th console (ttyp0 or
Shift+F8) but the desktop is on the 7th console (Shift+F7). To access
the virtual terminals, when in the X Window desktop, you must use
Ctrl+Alt+Fx, where Fx represents the function keys from F1 to F6. To
shutdown X press Ctrl+Alt+Backspace (not Delete) and you'll be returned
to the command line user interface.
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