Greg Kroah-Hartman | bdcffc5 | 2011-02-22 15:41:47 -0800 | [diff] [blame^] | 1 | config VT |
| 2 | bool "Virtual terminal" if EXPERT |
| 3 | depends on !S390 |
| 4 | select INPUT |
| 5 | default y |
| 6 | ---help--- |
| 7 | If you say Y here, you will get support for terminal devices with |
| 8 | display and keyboard devices. These are called "virtual" because you |
| 9 | can run several virtual terminals (also called virtual consoles) on |
| 10 | one physical terminal. This is rather useful, for example one |
| 11 | virtual terminal can collect system messages and warnings, another |
| 12 | one can be used for a text-mode user session, and a third could run |
| 13 | an X session, all in parallel. Switching between virtual terminals |
| 14 | is done with certain key combinations, usually Alt-<function key>. |
| 15 | |
| 16 | The setterm command ("man setterm") can be used to change the |
| 17 | properties (such as colors or beeping) of a virtual terminal. The |
| 18 | man page console_codes(4) ("man console_codes") contains the special |
| 19 | character sequences that can be used to change those properties |
| 20 | directly. The fonts used on virtual terminals can be changed with |
| 21 | the setfont ("man setfont") command and the key bindings are defined |
| 22 | with the loadkeys ("man loadkeys") command. |
| 23 | |
| 24 | You need at least one virtual terminal device in order to make use |
| 25 | of your keyboard and monitor. Therefore, only people configuring an |
| 26 | embedded system would want to say N here in order to save some |
| 27 | memory; the only way to log into such a system is then via a serial |
| 28 | or network connection. |
| 29 | |
| 30 | If unsure, say Y, or else you won't be able to do much with your new |
| 31 | shiny Linux system :-) |
| 32 | |
| 33 | config CONSOLE_TRANSLATIONS |
| 34 | depends on VT |
| 35 | default y |
| 36 | bool "Enable character translations in console" if EXPERT |
| 37 | ---help--- |
| 38 | This enables support for font mapping and Unicode translation |
| 39 | on virtual consoles. |
| 40 | |
| 41 | config VT_CONSOLE |
| 42 | bool "Support for console on virtual terminal" if EXPERT |
| 43 | depends on VT |
| 44 | default y |
| 45 | ---help--- |
| 46 | The system console is the device which receives all kernel messages |
| 47 | and warnings and which allows logins in single user mode. If you |
| 48 | answer Y here, a virtual terminal (the device used to interact with |
| 49 | a physical terminal) can be used as system console. This is the most |
| 50 | common mode of operations, so you should say Y here unless you want |
| 51 | the kernel messages be output only to a serial port (in which case |
| 52 | you should say Y to "Console on serial port", below). |
| 53 | |
| 54 | If you do say Y here, by default the currently visible virtual |
| 55 | terminal (/dev/tty0) will be used as system console. You can change |
| 56 | that with a kernel command line option such as "console=tty3" which |
| 57 | would use the third virtual terminal as system console. (Try "man |
| 58 | bootparam" or see the documentation of your boot loader (lilo or |
| 59 | loadlin) about how to pass options to the kernel at boot time.) |
| 60 | |
| 61 | If unsure, say Y. |
| 62 | |
| 63 | config HW_CONSOLE |
| 64 | bool |
| 65 | depends on VT && !S390 && !UML |
| 66 | default y |
| 67 | |
| 68 | config VT_HW_CONSOLE_BINDING |
| 69 | bool "Support for binding and unbinding console drivers" |
| 70 | depends on HW_CONSOLE |
| 71 | default n |
| 72 | ---help--- |
| 73 | The virtual terminal is the device that interacts with the physical |
| 74 | terminal through console drivers. On these systems, at least one |
| 75 | console driver is loaded. In other configurations, additional console |
| 76 | drivers may be enabled, such as the framebuffer console. If more than |
| 77 | 1 console driver is enabled, setting this to 'y' will allow you to |
| 78 | select the console driver that will serve as the backend for the |
| 79 | virtual terminals. |
| 80 | |
| 81 | See <file:Documentation/console/console.txt> for more |
| 82 | information. For framebuffer console users, please refer to |
| 83 | <file:Documentation/fb/fbcon.txt>. |
| 84 | |
| 85 | config UNIX98_PTYS |
| 86 | bool "Unix98 PTY support" if EXPERT |
| 87 | default y |
| 88 | ---help--- |
| 89 | A pseudo terminal (PTY) is a software device consisting of two |
| 90 | halves: a master and a slave. The slave device behaves identical to |
| 91 | a physical terminal; the master device is used by a process to |
| 92 | read data from and write data to the slave, thereby emulating a |
| 93 | terminal. Typical programs for the master side are telnet servers |
| 94 | and xterms. |
| 95 | |
| 96 | Linux has traditionally used the BSD-like names /dev/ptyxx for |
| 97 | masters and /dev/ttyxx for slaves of pseudo terminals. This scheme |
| 98 | has a number of problems. The GNU C library glibc 2.1 and later, |
| 99 | however, supports the Unix98 naming standard: in order to acquire a |
| 100 | pseudo terminal, a process opens /dev/ptmx; the number of the pseudo |
| 101 | terminal is then made available to the process and the pseudo |
| 102 | terminal slave can be accessed as /dev/pts/<number>. What was |
| 103 | traditionally /dev/ttyp2 will then be /dev/pts/2, for example. |
| 104 | |
| 105 | All modern Linux systems use the Unix98 ptys. Say Y unless |
| 106 | you're on an embedded system and want to conserve memory. |
| 107 | |
| 108 | config DEVPTS_MULTIPLE_INSTANCES |
| 109 | bool "Support multiple instances of devpts" |
| 110 | depends on UNIX98_PTYS |
| 111 | default n |
| 112 | ---help--- |
| 113 | Enable support for multiple instances of devpts filesystem. |
| 114 | If you want to have isolated PTY namespaces (eg: in containers), |
| 115 | say Y here. Otherwise, say N. If enabled, each mount of devpts |
| 116 | filesystem with the '-o newinstance' option will create an |
| 117 | independent PTY namespace. |
| 118 | |
| 119 | config LEGACY_PTYS |
| 120 | bool "Legacy (BSD) PTY support" |
| 121 | default y |
| 122 | ---help--- |
| 123 | A pseudo terminal (PTY) is a software device consisting of two |
| 124 | halves: a master and a slave. The slave device behaves identical to |
| 125 | a physical terminal; the master device is used by a process to |
| 126 | read data from and write data to the slave, thereby emulating a |
| 127 | terminal. Typical programs for the master side are telnet servers |
| 128 | and xterms. |
| 129 | |
| 130 | Linux has traditionally used the BSD-like names /dev/ptyxx |
| 131 | for masters and /dev/ttyxx for slaves of pseudo |
| 132 | terminals. This scheme has a number of problems, including |
| 133 | security. This option enables these legacy devices; on most |
| 134 | systems, it is safe to say N. |
| 135 | |
| 136 | |
| 137 | config LEGACY_PTY_COUNT |
| 138 | int "Maximum number of legacy PTY in use" |
| 139 | depends on LEGACY_PTYS |
| 140 | range 0 256 |
| 141 | default "256" |
| 142 | ---help--- |
| 143 | The maximum number of legacy PTYs that can be used at any one time. |
| 144 | The default is 256, and should be more than enough. Embedded |
| 145 | systems may want to reduce this to save memory. |
| 146 | |
| 147 | When not in use, each legacy PTY occupies 12 bytes on 32-bit |
| 148 | architectures and 24 bytes on 64-bit architectures. |
| 149 | |
| 150 | |