Questions tagged [virtual-console]

Virtual consoles reachable with Ctrl+Alt+F1-F6

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Why is a virtual terminal "virtual", and what/why/where is the "real" terminal?

I hope the question is self-explanatory. My understanding is that gnome-terminal and konsole are virtual terminals, and they are basically serving the same purpose, i.e. a command line environment ...
Peter.O's user avatar
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79 votes
3 answers
231k views

How to search strings inside files like in Windows without search monkey?

I am using Ubuntu on VMWare but I cannot connect to internet because of security restrictions. I was wondering if there was a way to search for strings through the terminal and find which line the ...
user138056's user avatar
75 votes
6 answers
113k views

Why does switching to the tty give me a blank screen?

After booting to the GUI in 12.04, I attempt to move to the virtual terminal (or shell, or tty) via Ctrl-Alt-F1 (F1 through F6), and the screen remains blank. I have tried all 6 tty instances and the ...
SeanO's user avatar
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60 votes
1 answer
32k views

How do I switch between console mode and GUI in 17.10 and newer?

After upgrading to 17.10 like a true pioneer, I found the old CtrlAltF1 no longer switches between console mode and GUI, and a quick Google search brought up nothing useful. Was this feature removed ...
Aero Windwalker's user avatar
53 votes
3 answers
186k views

How do I disable messages or logging from printing on the console/virtual terminals?

My wireless driver is noisy. It prints out messages to the console every 10-30 seconds. So, if I'm working on VT1 or something, I get messages scrolling by all the time. Is there a way to shut this ...
dpb's user avatar
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47 votes
2 answers
51k views

How do I switch between virtual terminals in a guest system?

I want to access virtual consoles in my Ubuntu guests running VirtualBox with Ubuntu guest. However, even if the focus is within the guest window, if I press Ctrl+F1 thru F6 I move in a virtual ...
lurscher's user avatar
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39 votes
2 answers
19k views

Can I change the Linux console (Ctrl+Alt+F1) font to Ubuntu Mono?

Is there a way to set a specific TTF font to be used on the console? (I believe you might have to convert it to a bitmap font?) If it needs to be converted, what tools can I use to do the conversion? ...
Azendale's user avatar
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38 votes
4 answers
56k views

What is a virtual terminal for?

When I press Ctrl+Alt+F1 it goes to virtual terminal. What is this virtual terminal for? When do you need to use it?
shin's user avatar
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34 votes
4 answers
12k views

Why so many Virtual consoles?

What is the reason for having so many virtual consoles? I would understand if there was one in case the GUI crashes but 6 more besides the default? What are they for? I even see no usage for any of ...
Hinklo's user avatar
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33 votes
2 answers
49k views

How do I get to the GUI after switching to a virtual console?

I just jumped into a command line virtual console using Ctrl-Alt-F1, and i would now like to return to the gui. startx gives me something along the lines of 'this server is already active for display ...
expiredninja's user avatar
30 votes
2 answers
6k views

Alt+Left and Right arrow keys change from GUI to console

I'm using Ubuntu GNOME 16.10 and recently I noticed that by pressing Alt+Left changes from the GUI to the tty. I use that shortcut regularly and this behavior interferes with my workflow. How can I ...
Ricardo Rodrigues's user avatar
25 votes
4 answers
133k views

How to exit the virtual terminal? [duplicate]

After I press ctrl + alt + f4 the virtual terminal appears but I can't exit anymore because it is always back to "input username" and "password". Any idea how to go back to my desktop?
Kerth G.'s user avatar
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23 votes
2 answers
5k views

Can I take a screenshot of a virtual console?

Is there a way for me to take a screenshot in a virtual console?
ændrük's user avatar
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23 votes
4 answers
15k views

How can I customize a full-screen console background (TTY)?

I used to use full-screen consoles (those opened with Ctrl+Alt+F1...F6) actively and have come to an idea that I would like to try decorating it with a "wallpaper" of a sort (a rather dark and ...
Ivan's user avatar
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22 votes
3 answers
12k views

Enable Ctrl+Alt+F1 Virtual Consoles in GNOME (Ubuntu 17.04+)

In previous versions of Ubuntu, Ctrl+Alt+F1 through F6 opened up virtual consoles. On Ubuntu Gnome 17.04 Ctrl+Alt+F1 opens another GUI and the others do nothing. How do I restore the old behavior?
jumpnett's user avatar
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20 votes
3 answers
5k views

How do I get Ctrl+Left / Ctrl+Right to jump a word again in byobu?

On my Ubuntu 11.10 machines running byobu 4.37 I can use the key combination Ctrl+← / Ctrl+→ to jump a word at a time in the terminal. However, on my Ubuntu 12.04 machines with byobu 5.17 this no ...
chmac's user avatar
  • 449
19 votes
1 answer
19k views

How can I use the mouse in a virtual terminal?

Lately I saw some of my friends using a mouse to copy & paste text around in the virtual terminal (Ctrl+Alt+F1). I was amazed that this was possible and would like to use this too. He wasn't sure ...
gertvdijk's user avatar
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18 votes
6 answers
31k views

How do I get my blacked out ttys back?

Original Question: After I replaced my Ubuntu 10.10 with 11.04 all I get when I Ctrl+Alt+F1–F6 into a tty is a black screen. Also when I boot there's a while of black screen after grub2 menu is ...
18 votes
6 answers
25k views

Access terminal from login screen on Ubuntu 18.04

I would like to open the terminal from the login screen. In previous Ubuntu releases I just used Ctrl+Alt+F1. However, when I press Ctrl+Alt+F1 in 18.04, nothing happens, the login screen just stays ...
Ethunxxx's user avatar
  • 496
16 votes
2 answers
4k views

How to increase Scrollback lines in Ubuntu(14.04.2) server edition?

I can see only limited lines on terminal by using shift+ pageup. in Ubuntu desktop version, there is option to make scroll-back lines unlimited. how to do it in Ubuntu server version. please suggest.
shail's user avatar
  • 161
16 votes
3 answers
72k views

Run both at the same time, Windows and Ubuntu

I had read in some sites that it is possible to run two OS'es in the same machine at the same time through a Virtual Machine software, so you can switch Virtual Terminals with keyboard hotkeys and be ...
Rodrigo Oliveira's user avatar
12 votes
2 answers
10k views

terra terminal for ubuntu 14.04

I would like to try the terra terminal but the ppa doesn't work for 14.04. Does terra support 14.04? If so, where can I find it?
dustin's user avatar
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12 votes
4 answers
1k views

Is there a way to see the text of tty7 without shutting down Xorg?

Is there a way to see the text of tty7 without shutting down Xorg, just like switching to another tty?
Fsando's user avatar
  • 595
10 votes
3 answers
3k views

Shutting down the system using a virtual console

My computer is freezing from time to time. It's because I make few mistakes and I ruined my system. I don't have any time to reinstall the system now. While my PC is frozen, it still works when I ...
KonradDos's user avatar
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10 votes
4 answers
8k views

How to detect the number of opened terminals by the user

I am using Ubuntu and can manually change the bash shell prompt color to green using export PS1="\e[0;32m[\u@\h \W]\$ \e[m" However, I want the shell prompt color to automatically change whenever I ...
manav m-n's user avatar
  • 276
10 votes
1 answer
17k views

Libvirt: virsh console - no response

Issue I have Ubuntu 16 as the host running Ubuntu 14 as a guest (kvm). I installed the VM using virt-install All settings and configuration seems fine # virsh list Id Name State ---------------...
orangesomethingorange's user avatar
10 votes
3 answers
2k views

Why does audio stop playing when switching to a virtual terminal?

When switching to a virtual terminal, e.g. using Ctrl+Alt+F2, audio from the desktop environment stops, e.g. music from Grooveshark or the VLC Media Player stops. Why is this? Is there any way to ...
Luc's user avatar
  • 993
10 votes
3 answers
7k views

Enabling virtual consoles in Ubuntu 18.04

I have used the virtual consoles (tty1-6) for decades in various Linuxes. I recently installed Ubuntu 18.04 (Bionic Beaver) on an x86-64 box. Everything is fine, except that the VCs don't work. As ...
Joe Schmoe's user avatar
10 votes
1 answer
832 views

How can I Simultaneous login to all the Virtual Terminals?

This is a Ubuntu 12.04 Minimal Install. When I scroll across these 6 terminals using Ctrl+Alt+F1 through Ctrl+Alt+F6 , I have to independently login each of them; one-by-one. Is their any way out ...
BhaveshDiwan's user avatar
9 votes
3 answers
1k views

How to have script detect if terminal emulator is running in a desktop session or not?

I have scripts I run that write out a text file, then open it in an editor. If I open a terminal emulator window in my desktop session and run the script, I'd like the editor to be a graphical one ...
Organic Marble's user avatar
9 votes
2 answers
42k views

What's the RGB values for Ubuntu's default terminal (Unity)?

I'm running Windows Subsystem for Linux and the color in Windows console is bad. I like the color palette in Ubuntu 16.04 very much. I've already known how to change the colors in a Windows console, ...
iBug's user avatar
  • 1,589
9 votes
1 answer
19k views

How do I change rxvt colors to white on black?

By default, on Ubuntu, rxvt terminal is black on white. How do I change it to white on black? I'm running Lubuntu 16.04 LTS
Nickolai Leschov's user avatar
9 votes
2 answers
22k views

How does /etc/default/console-setup work?

Following up on modifying virtual consoles' keymaps, how can I edit /etc/default/console-setup? Will the file be parsed on each boot (then cached in /etc/console-setup/cached.kmap.gz), or do I need ...
user avatar
8 votes
1 answer
9k views

reset or completely remove an installation/htop

I usually use htop in tty when I need to kill a program... or whatever hangs or slows down my pc,now I screwed it up. I tried making changes in htop from the 'setup' option which is accessed by ...
abhishek khandal's user avatar
8 votes
2 answers
5k views

Is it possible to have dual monitors using a virtual terminal?

I'm a bit of a command line nuthead. I have a computer with dual monitors. Its setup works just fine in X11 - dual monitors, where my desktop stretches all the way across. However, what I would like ...
Wayne Werner's user avatar
  • 6,712
7 votes
3 answers
12k views

How do I increase the number of TTY consoles?

I often find it convenient to work entirely from the command line, and like to have several tty "consoles" open simultaneously. How do I make my system default to having more than the traditional 6 ...
haziz's user avatar
  • 2,929
7 votes
2 answers
840 views

Prevent extraneous formatting of apt output

When using apt from "dumb" terminal (this is a code word for Emacs), it produces many lines of garbage output (it probably tries to display progress, but it doesn't work on this kind of terminal). ...
wvxvw's user avatar
  • 358
7 votes
3 answers
2k views

What determines which virtual console the graphical interface is run on?

I've learned that I can switch between virtual consoles by pressing Ctrl+Alt+F1–F12, and I've found that the graphical interface was usually running at either F7/F8 (now on F2). Why does this vary, ...
ændrük's user avatar
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7 votes
2 answers
1k views

Can virtual terminals (ctrl+alt+f*) use external monitors?

My laptop has a broken screen (for a while now) and unfortunately I won't be able to fix/replace it for a little while longer than I hoped. Is there some way that I can get VT's to show on the ...
RolandiXor's user avatar
  • 51.5k
6 votes
3 answers
2k views

How can I record the screen (or screencast) in text mode?

Basically I want to capture the process of installing a driver in Ubuntu so I can watch it later. There are screen capture applications such as SimpleScreenRecorder, but they won't work in text mode ...
Hossein's user avatar
  • 1,680
6 votes
4 answers
11k views

Wrong MAC address error in virtual console

ERROR @wl_cfg80211_get_station : Wrong Mac address This message continuously prints out on my virtual console. What does it mean, what is its cause and how would one fix it?
wonton's user avatar
  • 163
6 votes
1 answer
584 views

Clickable link + popup menu

Is it possible to have a clickable link, in my PS1, that opens a pop-up menu or something similar? My scenario I've personalized my .bashrc, to show my PS1 as user@machine: path #/$ and if I'm ...
res's user avatar
  • 274
6 votes
1 answer
2k views

nVidia driver kills text virtual consoles - how to get them back?

I was recently reminded of one of the things I didn't like about nVidia cards & Linux. I've installed 3-4 of them over the years in different machines (different cards, driver versions), and ...
Charles Boling's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
3k views

Swap capslock and control in virtual consoles

I'm using System > Preferences > Keyboard > Layout > Options > Ctrl key position > Swap Ctrl and CapsLock, which works great for X. How can I get the same for virtual consoles (Ctrl+Alt+F1, etc.)?
user avatar
5 votes
3 answers
4k views

Command to switch to tty1?

I want to make a list of commands to install everything so it's easier the next time I do it, however, I wanted one of the commands to do CTRL+ALT+F1 for me.
Ethorbit's user avatar
5 votes
4 answers
14k views

Panel apps try to launch in xterm, even though it isn't installed

I have some panel applications that launch terminals, but when I click on them, they say xterm failed. Well yeah, xterm isn't installed, nor do I want it. I want mate-terminal to come up instead. How ...
j0h's user avatar
  • 14.8k
5 votes
2 answers
4k views

How can I disable Caps Lock on text-mode (tty) terminals?

I have disabled caps lock in Ubuntu via the System Settings -> Keyboard panel (see How to programmatically swap the caps lock and esc keys? on how to find this option), however when I switch to a text-...
Justin's user avatar
  • 154
5 votes
2 answers
14k views

Disable CTRL+ALT+F4 switching to virtual terminal

Is there a way that I can stop the Ctrl+Alt+F4 key combination from switching to a virtual terminal? I still want the other key combinations to switch to terminals - I just want to change the F4 one ...
Mario's user avatar
  • 161
5 votes
1 answer
305 views

Unlimited Terminal Scrollback in Server Edition?

Fairly simple question. I have a very powerful Ubuntu 14.04 server edition VM that I connect to via console (unless XenCenter isn't console). I found how to increase it to a set number, but is there ...
Andrew Core's user avatar
4 votes
2 answers
25k views

Changing the colors of lxterminal

How can I change the default colors of the lxterminal in Lubuntu using .bashrc?
user264934's user avatar
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