Virtual Consoles don't listen to the boss

[Freston]

Ehm...

Normally I press Ctrl+Alt+F[1-6] to switch to a virtual console.

Today I have a fresh install of Slackware 12.1, and who can describe my stupefaction when I unsuspectingly pressed Ctrl+Alt+F2 from within X, and be met with the familiar textual login.... that doesn't take input from the keyboard :amazed:


When I boot to textual mode it works fine and I can switch between virtual consoles as often as I like (but why would I? With screen patched to allow both horizontal and vertical splitting of tha console)

Pray, tell me, how do I go about fixing this? Anyone else have this (rather odd) behavior (and fixed it)?

[devils casper]

Hi Freston !

I had same problem in Ubuntu 8.04. It was coz of unsupported Graphics Card. I have onboard SIS card and sis driver doesn't work properly. vesa driver is not Generic anymore. Latest Xorg throws error on using vesa driver now. I had to switch back to Ubuntu 7.04. ( 7.10 is buggy in a lot of other areas ).

Anyways, which Graphics Card do you have and which driver are you using in xorg.conf?

[Freston]

Hmmm

Graphics driver?? No, I hadn't thought of that.

I use the vesa driver, although I have Intel Integrated Graphics. I'll try changing that.

[Freston]

Wow. I can't believe how much sharper my graphics are using the Intel driver. This is great!

The problem remains though

The virtual console that I used to switch to runlevel 4 (fresh install still boots into text mode) still accepts input from the keyboard. As does X, obviously. But the other consoles are dead.



Telling the machine to boot into graphics completely removes the textual login screens on the consoles. Only Ctrl+Alt+F1 brings a screen with boot messages, which responds to the keyboard only in the sense that it prints the keys that you press. But it doesn't respond to anything.
The other consoles are just black screens.

[devils casper]

I am not a Slackware user and dont know much about it.
Is there any /etc/inittab file? Whats in /etc/event.d folder?

[Freston]

I think this is the entry in inittab that deals with consoles:

# These are the standard console login getties in multiuser mode:
c1:1235:respawn:/sbin/agetty 38400 tty1 linux
c2:1235:respawn:/sbin/agetty 38400 tty2 linux
c3:1235:respawn:/sbin/agetty 38400 tty3 linux
c4:1235:respawn:/sbin/agetty 38400 tty4 linux
c5:1235:respawn:/sbin/agetty 38400 tty5 linux
c6:12345:respawn:/sbin/agetty 38400 tty6 linux

He, I've been lying. Reading the above I notice that c6, and only c6, has an entry for runlevel 4. And as it turns out, I have access to console #6. What odd behavior.

Anyway, I adjusted the above in inittab so all of them are now active on runlevel 4, and a reboot later all my consoles work like they should

Thanks DC for your help! I really appreciate it

[devils casper]

Reading the above I notice that c6, and only c6, has an entry for runlevel 4. And as it turns out, I have access to console #6. What odd behavior.

Yes, pretty odd. Is Runlevel 4 default runlevel in Slackware?

Glad to help you Freston !

[Freston]

Yes, pretty odd. Is Runlevel 4 default runlevel in Slackware?

Nope. By default it boots to runlevel 3 (textual mode). That's one of the things that frightens new users

It's an easy fix though, but the weird behavior of the consoles distracted me


Ah well, it's solved now