| config VT |
| bool "Virtual terminal" if EXPERT |
| depends on !S390 |
| select INPUT |
| default y |
| ---help--- |
| If you say Y here, you will get support for terminal devices with |
| display and keyboard devices. These are called "virtual" because you |
| can run several virtual terminals (also called virtual consoles) on |
| one physical terminal. This is rather useful, for example one |
| virtual terminal can collect system messages and warnings, another |
| one can be used for a text-mode user session, and a third could run |
| an X session, all in parallel. Switching between virtual terminals |
| is done with certain key combinations, usually Alt-<function key>. |
| |
| The setterm command ("man setterm") can be used to change the |
| properties (such as colors or beeping) of a virtual terminal. The |
| man page console_codes(4) ("man console_codes") contains the special |
| character sequences that can be used to change those properties |
| directly. The fonts used on virtual terminals can be changed with |
| the setfont ("man setfont") command and the key bindings are defined |
| with the loadkeys ("man loadkeys") command. |
| |
| You need at least one virtual terminal device in order to make use |
| of your keyboard and monitor. Therefore, only people configuring an |
| embedded system would want to say N here in order to save some |
| memory; the only way to log into such a system is then via a serial |
| or network connection. |
| |
| If unsure, say Y, or else you won't be able to do much with your new |
| shiny Linux system :-) |
| |
| config CONSOLE_TRANSLATIONS |
| depends on VT |
| default y |
| bool "Enable character translations in console" if EXPERT |
| ---help--- |
| This enables support for font mapping and Unicode translation |
| on virtual consoles. |
| |
| config VT_CONSOLE |
| bool "Support for console on virtual terminal" if EXPERT |
| depends on VT |
| default y |
| ---help--- |
| The system console is the device which receives all kernel messages |
| and warnings and which allows logins in single user mode. If you |
| answer Y here, a virtual terminal (the device used to interact with |
| a physical terminal) can be used as system console. This is the most |
| common mode of operations, so you should say Y here unless you want |
| the kernel messages be output only to a serial port (in which case |
| you should say Y to "Console on serial port", below). |
| |
| If you do say Y here, by default the currently visible virtual |
| terminal (/dev/tty0) will be used as system console. You can change |
| that with a kernel command line option such as "console=tty3" which |
| would use the third virtual terminal as system console. (Try "man |
| bootparam" or see the documentation of your boot loader (lilo or |
| loadlin) about how to pass options to the kernel at boot time.) |
| |
| If unsure, say Y. |
| |
| config HW_CONSOLE |
| bool |
| depends on VT && !S390 && !UML |
| default y |
| |
| config VT_HW_CONSOLE_BINDING |
| bool "Support for binding and unbinding console drivers" |
| depends on HW_CONSOLE |
| default n |
| ---help--- |
| The virtual terminal is the device that interacts with the physical |
| terminal through console drivers. On these systems, at least one |
| console driver is loaded. In other configurations, additional console |
| drivers may be enabled, such as the framebuffer console. If more than |
| 1 console driver is enabled, setting this to 'y' will allow you to |
| select the console driver that will serve as the backend for the |
| virtual terminals. |
| |
| See <file:Documentation/console/console.txt> for more |
| information. For framebuffer console users, please refer to |
| <file:Documentation/fb/fbcon.txt>. |
| |
| config UNIX98_PTYS |
| bool "Unix98 PTY support" if EXPERT |
| default y |
| ---help--- |
| A pseudo terminal (PTY) is a software device consisting of two |
| halves: a master and a slave. The slave device behaves identical to |
| a physical terminal; the master device is used by a process to |
| read data from and write data to the slave, thereby emulating a |
| terminal. Typical programs for the master side are telnet servers |
| and xterms. |
| |
| Linux has traditionally used the BSD-like names /dev/ptyxx for |
| masters and /dev/ttyxx for slaves of pseudo terminals. This scheme |
| has a number of problems. The GNU C library glibc 2.1 and later, |
| however, supports the Unix98 naming standard: in order to acquire a |
| pseudo terminal, a process opens /dev/ptmx; the number of the pseudo |
| terminal is then made available to the process and the pseudo |
| terminal slave can be accessed as /dev/pts/<number>. What was |
| traditionally /dev/ttyp2 will then be /dev/pts/2, for example. |
| |
| All modern Linux systems use the Unix98 ptys. Say Y unless |
| you're on an embedded system and want to conserve memory. |
| |
| config DEVPTS_MULTIPLE_INSTANCES |
| bool "Support multiple instances of devpts" |
| depends on UNIX98_PTYS |
| default n |
| ---help--- |
| Enable support for multiple instances of devpts filesystem. |
| If you want to have isolated PTY namespaces (eg: in containers), |
| say Y here. Otherwise, say N. If enabled, each mount of devpts |
| filesystem with the '-o newinstance' option will create an |
| independent PTY namespace. |
| |
| config LEGACY_PTYS |
| bool "Legacy (BSD) PTY support" |
| default y |
| ---help--- |
| A pseudo terminal (PTY) is a software device consisting of two |
| halves: a master and a slave. The slave device behaves identical to |
| a physical terminal; the master device is used by a process to |
| read data from and write data to the slave, thereby emulating a |
| terminal. Typical programs for the master side are telnet servers |
| and xterms. |
| |
| Linux has traditionally used the BSD-like names /dev/ptyxx |
| for masters and /dev/ttyxx for slaves of pseudo |
| terminals. This scheme has a number of problems, including |
| security. This option enables these legacy devices; on most |
| systems, it is safe to say N. |
| |
| |
| config LEGACY_PTY_COUNT |
| int "Maximum number of legacy PTY in use" |
| depends on LEGACY_PTYS |
| range 0 256 |
| default "256" |
| ---help--- |
| The maximum number of legacy PTYs that can be used at any one time. |
| The default is 256, and should be more than enough. Embedded |
| systems may want to reduce this to save memory. |
| |
| When not in use, each legacy PTY occupies 12 bytes on 32-bit |
| architectures and 24 bytes on 64-bit architectures. |
| |
| |