virtual terminals not accessible

Carunkumar · 02-28-2007, 11:52 AM

I have installed fedora core 4. In the earlier distros I used to get a virtual terminal for the following combination ctrl+alt+[f1-f6] and X-window in f7. But in fedora core 4 I get nothing but a blank screen?

Please help!

macemoneta · 02-28-2007, 04:54 PM

Check /etc/inittab, and make sure you have:

Code:

# Run gettys in standard runlevels
1:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty1
2:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty2
3:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty3
4:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty4
5:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty5
6:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty6

If you do, check dmesg and /var/log/messages for errors during bootup.

Carunkumar · 03-01-2007, 06:24 AM

This is the contents of my /etc/inittab:

Code:

#
# inittab       This file describes how the INIT process should set up
#               the system in a certain run-level.
#
# Author:       Miquel van Smoorenburg, <miquels@drinkel.nl.mugnet.org>
#               Modified for RHS Linux by Marc Ewing and Donnie Barnes
#

# Default runlevel. The runlevels used by RHS are:
#   0 - halt (Do NOT set initdefault to this)
#   1 - Single user mode
#   2 - Multiuser, without NFS (The same as 3, if you do not have networking)
#   3 - Full multiuser mode
#   4 - unused
#   5 - X11
#   6 - reboot (Do NOT set initdefault to this)
# 
id:5:initdefault:

# System initialization.
si::sysinit:/etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit

l0:0:wait:/etc/rc.d/rc 0
l1:1:wait:/etc/rc.d/rc 1
l2:2:wait:/etc/rc.d/rc 2
l3:3:wait:/etc/rc.d/rc 3
l4:4:wait:/etc/rc.d/rc 4
l5:5:wait:/etc/rc.d/rc 5
l6:6:wait:/etc/rc.d/rc 6

# Trap CTRL-ALT-DELETE
ca::ctrlaltdel:/sbin/shutdown -t3 -r now

# When our UPS tells us power has failed, assume we have a few minutes
# of power left.  Schedule a shutdown for 2 minutes from now.
# This does, of course, assume you have powerd installed and your
# UPS connected and working correctly.  
pf::powerfail:/sbin/shutdown -f -h +2 "Power Failure; System Shutting Down"

# If power was restored before the shutdown kicked in, cancel it.
pr:12345:powerokwait:/sbin/shutdown -c "Power Restored; Shutdown Cancelled"


# Run gettys in standard runlevels
1:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty1
2:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty2
3:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty3
4:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty4
5:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty5
6:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty6

# Run xdm in runlevel 5
x:5:once:/etc/X11/prefdm -nodaemon

The entries you gave were there. I don't know where I should look in /var/log/messages.

I checked this ctrl+alt+f* in my college in fc4 machines and they didn't work. Is it anything like it is disabled in fc4 by default?

macemoneta · 03-01-2007, 09:25 AM

They work fine in FC1 through FC6, here. Perhaps its a keyboard issue; are you running a non-english keyboard map? If so, perhaps the keys are not mapped correctly.

It appears that others are reporting the issue as well up through FC6, but the source of the problem (why it is only happening to some) has not been identified yet. You can add yourself as a cc: on the bug to receive updates, and/or add your own comment to help resolve it more quickly.

Carunkumar · 03-01-2007, 10:58 AM

I am using english keyboard only! Will add myself as cc .

Thank you!