[H-GEN] VNC for console apps??

Robert Brockway robert at timetraveller.org
Sat May 31 00:30:16 EDT 2003


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On Thu, 16 May 2003, Russell Stuart wrote:

> The system is RedHat 7.2 running kernel-2.4.18-27.7.x, to be precise.
> By the term "console" I mean as defined by "man 4 console" on the said
> Red Hat system.  These are the virtual consoles whose /dev entries are
> /dev/tty1..tty63, which you can flip between by pressing Alt+Fn, or
> Ctrl+Alt+Fn.  /dev/console always points to the current one, and as

Actually that isn't the case anymore.  Formerly /dev/console and /dev/tty0
were exactly the same as far as the kernel was concerned - but no more.

/dev/tty0 will always point to the current virtual console on the "VGA
console"[1].  This is not the case for /dev/console which may well be a
serial port (or even something else entirely).

These changes were brought about to allow for the inclusion of non-VGA
consoles in Linux/x86.  The change was actually made sometime ago
(pre2.2?) but (IIRC) the devices were made backwards compatible so if a
system did not redefine /dev/console it would continue to work properly
with the older device numbering.

[1] ie, the keyboard & screen of a PC.

Rob

-- 
Robert Brockway B.Sc. email: robert at timetraveller.org  ICQ: 104781119
Linux counter project ID #16440 (http://counter.li.org)
"The earth is but one country and mankind its citizens" -Baha'u'llah

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