[gentoo-dev] limiting the number of virtual consoles in user mode linux

[gentoo-dev] limiting the number of virtual consoles in user mode linux

[Anupam Kapoor]

hi all,

is it possible to limit the number of virtual consoles that are spawned
when a user mode linux kernel boots ? right now, i have 8 virtual
consoles (vc0-vc7) launched when i boot a gentoo uml kernel.

i have tried the following without any success:
  - comment out relevant lines from /etc/inittab. this does not
    suppress the number of virtual consoles being launched. however, i
    get the login prompt on only 1 virtual console.

  - look for something 'obvious' in scripts in /sbin but i cannot find
    anything that might be the culprit.
  
  - i have tried passing con=tty:/dev/pts/XXX.

  - tried using deallocvt (as suggested by andrew farmer on gentoo-user),
    but it doesn't help.

can you please suggest a place that i can configure this.

also, i tried booting a debian uml kernel and rootfs on a gentoo host
(with appropriate lines commented from /etc/inittab), i get only 1
virtual console. which is _exactly_ what i want.

any help will be greatly appreciated.

thank you
kind regards
anupam

-- 
...mathematicians do it smoothly and continuously or discretely in groups and in fields.


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Re: [gentoo-dev] limiting the number of virtual consoles in user mode linux

[Sven Vermeulen]

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On Wed, Jul 09, 2003 at 12:43:34PM -0700, Anupam Kapoor wrote:
> is it possible to limit the number of virtual consoles that are spawned
> when a user mode linux kernel boots ? right now, i have 8 virtual
> consoles (vc0-vc7) launched when i boot a gentoo uml kernel.

Edit /etc/init.d/consolefont, search for the string
	for x in 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
and change it to
	for x in 1 2
to obtain 2 vc's...

Wkr,
	Sven Vermeulen

-- 
Thanks to DRM, you know that something has been built in environment of 
unspecified degree of security, from source you cannot check, written by 
programmers you don't know, released after passing QA of unknown quality and 
which is released under a license that disclaims any responsibility...

[-- Attachment #2: Type: application/pgp-signature, Size: 189 bytes --]

Re: [gentoo-dev] limiting the number of virtual consoles in user mode linux

[Anupam Kapoor]

Sven Vermeulen <swift@gentoo.org> writes:

> On Wed, Jul 09, 2003 at 12:43:34PM -0700, Anupam Kapoor wrote:
>> is it possible to limit the number of virtual consoles that are spawned
>> when a user mode linux kernel boots ? right now, i have 8 virtual
>> consoles (vc0-vc7) launched when i boot a gentoo uml kernel.
>
> Edit /etc/init.d/consolefont, search for the string
> 	for x in 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
> and change it to
> 	for x in 1 2
> to obtain 2 vc's...

hmmm...i tried looking for consolechars and it is not installed on my
machine. from the comments in the /etc/init.d/consolefont it seems that
it is begin used for setting user fonts.

the man page for consolechars (found from google) says that it is
responsible for :

"... loads a font into the EGA/VGA character generator, and optionally
outputs the previous font. This command reads an  8x H font from the
file and loads it into the character generator memory."

i am not sure i understand how it is related to spawning multiple
consoles during system boot.

can you please explain ?

thank you
kind regards
anupam


>
> Wkr,
> 	Sven Vermeulen
>
> -- 
> Thanks to DRM, you know that something has been built in environment of 
> unspecified degree of security, from source you cannot check, written by 
> programmers you don't know, released after passing QA of unknown quality and 
> which is released under a license that disclaims any responsibility...

-- 
...mathematicians do it smoothly and continuously or discretely in groups and in fields.


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Re: [gentoo-dev] limiting the number of virtual consoles in user mode linux

[Sven Vermeulen]

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On Wed, Jul 09, 2003 at 01:22:38PM -0700, Anupam Kapoor wrote:
[...]
> i am not sure i understand how it is related to spawning multiple
> consoles during system boot.

I'm not sure, but I believe that the following commands will create the vc's
(which is not what you want):

                   echo -ne "\033(K" > /dev/vc/${x}
or
                   echo -ne "\033(K" > /dev/tty${x}
in /etc/init.d/consolefont (in case you don't have consolechars)

By delimiting ${x} to the number of VC's you want you make sure that the
kernel only starts that number of xterms when loading the UML...

Wkr,
	Sven Vermeulen

-- 
Thanks to DRM, you know that something has been built in environment of 
unspecified degree of security, from source you cannot check, written by 
programmers you don't know, released after passing QA of unknown quality and 
which is released under a license that disclaims any responsibility...

[-- Attachment #2: Type: application/pgp-signature, Size: 189 bytes --]

Re: [gentoo-dev] limiting the number of virtual consoles in user mode linux

[Anupam Kapoor]

Sven Vermeulen <swift@gentoo.org> writes:

> On Wed, Jul 09, 2003 at 01:22:38PM -0700, Anupam Kapoor wrote:
> [...]
>> i am not sure i understand how it is related to spawning multiple
>> consoles during system boot.
>
> I'm not sure, but I believe that the following commands will create the vc's
> (which is not what you want):
>
>                    echo -ne "\033(K" > /dev/vc/${x}
> or
>                    echo -ne "\033(K" > /dev/tty${x}
> in /etc/init.d/consolefont (in case you don't have consolechars)
>
> By delimiting ${x} to the number of VC's you want you make sure that the
> kernel only starts that number of xterms when loading the UML...
i think the consoles are created by devfsd, with :
MAKEDEV /dev/vc/XXX c 4 ....
or some such.

i think 'echo' does not create any devices.

kind regards
anupam

>
> Wkr,
> 	Sven Vermeulen
>
> -- 
> Thanks to DRM, you know that something has been built in environment of 
> unspecified degree of security, from source you cannot check, written by 
> programmers you don't know, released after passing QA of unknown quality and 
> which is released under a license that disclaims any responsibility...

-- 
...mathematicians do it smoothly and continuously or discretely in groups and in fields.


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Re: [gentoo-dev] limiting the number of virtual consoles in user mode linux

[Georgi Georgiev]

On 09/07/2003 at 20:54:35(-0700), Anupam Kapoor used 1.3K just to say:
> Sven Vermeulen <swift@gentoo.org> writes:
> 
> > On Wed, Jul 09, 2003 at 01:22:38PM -0700, Anupam Kapoor wrote:
> > [...]
> >> i am not sure i understand how it is related to spawning multiple
> >> consoles during system boot.
> >
> > I'm not sure, but I believe that the following commands will create the vc's
> > (which is not what you want):
> >
> >                    echo -ne "\033(K" > /dev/vc/${x}
> > or
> >                    echo -ne "\033(K" > /dev/tty${x}
> > in /etc/init.d/consolefont (in case you don't have consolechars)
> >
> > By delimiting ${x} to the number of VC's you want you make sure that the
> > kernel only starts that number of xterms when loading the UML...
> i think the consoles are created by devfsd, with :
> MAKEDEV /dev/vc/XXX c 4 ....
> or some such.
> 
> i think 'echo' does not create any devices.

No, it doesn't. 

However, I see a few misunderstandings about terms "creating" the device, and
"creating" the console. I am not sure that I am calling them correctly either.
In fact I am pretty sure, I am calling things the wrong way, but I'll try to
explain what I mean anyway, so it shouldn't really matter.

I have device files numbered 0 to 63 in /dev/vc/. These are the devices that
are either created by devfs or by MAKEDEV. Their number is fixed when compiling
the kernel (I guess).

However, pressing Alt+F7 when X is not running would do nothing here, since the
/dev/vc/7 device has not been used ever. Another example. Pressing Alt+Right
arrow (when using the vc/1 console) would in turn switch to vc/2, vc/3... vc/6,
vc/1, vc/2 etc... I.e. it switches between the "created consoles". Now try to
do
	
	echo "something" > /dev/vc/7

Alt + Right would now switch over this new console as well.

The above is simply my observation. Terminology may be wrong, some other stuff
may be wrong, but the overall idea is correct I hope.

-- 
\    Georgi Georgiev   \  Horner's Five Thumb Postulate: Experience    \
/     chutz@gg3.net    /  varies directly with equipment ruined.       /
\   +81(90)6266-1163   \                                               \

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Re: [gentoo-dev] limiting the number of virtual consoles in user mode linux

[c.wegener]

On Wed, Jul 09, 2003 at 12:43:34PM -0700, Anupam Kapoor wrote:
> hi all,
> 
> is it possible to limit the number of virtual consoles that are spawned
> when a user mode linux kernel boots ? right now, i have 8 virtual
> consoles (vc0-vc7) launched when i boot a gentoo uml kernel.

try to redirect the uml consoles to pty devices. that way you wont get
any xterms cluttering your screen.

./linux root=root_fs con=pty con0=xterm

> 
> i have tried the following without any success:
>   - comment out relevant lines from /etc/inittab. this does not
>     suppress the number of virtual consoles being launched. however, i
>     get the login prompt on only 1 virtual console.

that way it actually should work.

> 
>   - look for something 'obvious' in scripts in /sbin but i cannot find
>     anything that might be the culprit.
>   
>   - i have tried passing con=tty:/dev/pts/XXX.
> 
>   - tried using deallocvt (as suggested by andrew farmer on gentoo-user),
>     but it doesn't help.
> 
> can you please suggest a place that i can configure this.
> 
> also, i tried booting a debian uml kernel and rootfs on a gentoo host
> (with appropriate lines commented from /etc/inittab), i get only 1
> virtual console. which is _exactly_ what i want.

maybe it has something to do with devfs.

> 
> any help will be greatly appreciated.
> 
> thank you
> kind regards
> anupam
> 

christoph
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Re: [gentoo-dev] limiting the number of virtual consoles in user mode linux

[Anupam Kapoor]

c.wegener@itcampus.de writes:

> On Wed, Jul 09, 2003 at 12:43:34PM -0700, Anupam Kapoor wrote:
>> hi all,
>> 
>> is it possible to limit the number of virtual consoles that are spawned
>> when a user mode linux kernel boots ? right now, i have 8 virtual
>> consoles (vc0-vc7) launched when i boot a gentoo uml kernel.
>
> try to redirect the uml consoles to pty devices. that way you wont get
> any xterms cluttering your screen.
>
> ./linux root=root_fs con=pty con0=xterm
ok thanks. i will try it and post here.
>
>> 
>> i have tried the following without any success:
>>   - comment out relevant lines from /etc/inittab. this does not
>>     suppress the number of virtual consoles being launched. however, i
>>     get the login prompt on only 1 virtual console.
>
> that way it actually should work.
>
>> 
>>   - look for something 'obvious' in scripts in /sbin but i cannot find
>>     anything that might be the culprit.
>>   
>>   - i have tried passing con=tty:/dev/pts/XXX.
>> 
>>   - tried using deallocvt (as suggested by andrew farmer on gentoo-user),
>>     but it doesn't help.
>> 
>> can you please suggest a place that i can configure this.
>> 
>> also, i tried booting a debian uml kernel and rootfs on a gentoo host
>> (with appropriate lines commented from /etc/inittab), i get only 1
>> virtual console. which is _exactly_ what i want.
>
> maybe it has something to do with devfs.
right, that's what i think. so i was looking for a makedev line in some
config file that creates these vc's.

thank you
kind regards
anupam

>
>> 
>> any help will be greatly appreciated.
>> 
>> thank you
>> kind regards
>> anupam
>> 
>
> christoph
> --
> ^*^
>
> --
> gentoo-dev@gentoo.org mailing list
>
>

-- 
...mathematicians do it smoothly and continuously or discretely in groups and in fields.


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