Virtual consoles

ManOfSteel · Post by **ManOfSteel** » Thu Oct 26, 2006 3:16 am

Hello,
I would like to know if every virtual console in systems such as Unix form separate processes or if they are just one process using separate buffers to store every virtual screen in?
Thank you in advance.

Pype.Clicker · Post by **Pype.Clicker** » Thu Oct 26, 2006 3:18 am

> ps aux | less
...
root 7135 0.0 0.0 1556 416 tty3 Ss+ Jan25 0:00 /sbin/getty 38400 tty3
root 7136 0.0 0.0 1560 416 tty4 Ss+ Jan25 0:00 /sbin/getty 38400 tty4
root 7137 0.0 0.0 1560 416 tty5 Ss+ Jan25 0:00 /sbin/getty 38400 tty5
root 7138 0.0 0.0 1556 416 tty6 Ss+ Jan25 0:00 /sbin/getty 38400 tty6
...

So they quite look to be different process to me. now, how exactly the frame buffer access is shared among them goes beyond my knowledge.

ManOfSteel · Post by **ManOfSteel** » Thu Oct 26, 2006 3:29 am

2 minutes, super fast, eh!
Thanks.

lode · Post by **lode** » Thu Oct 26, 2006 1:01 pm

Getty is not a virtual console driver, it's just responsible for keeping the login prompt up. It doesn't even care (nor know) if it's launched on a serial port. I believe most of the unixes have their virtual console drivers inside their kernels, eg. no processes.