Hello Bill!

 BS> The kernel.
   >
   > More specifically, the console device driver subsystem
   > provides multiple virtual consoles.

Excellent, thanks Bill! So presumably the shell doesn't
know or care that it's running on a virtual console?

Here's another question that I'm wondering about: I'm
assuming that I need at least one console (either virtual or
physical) and that the console subsystem will need to keep
some status information for each console.  Presumably then,
the more virtual consoles I have the more memory is used for
them.  If they share common code, the first console will use
more memory than each additional console.  Am I barking up
the right tree here?

I suppose the next step would be to look at the console
subsystem source code (if I can find it, and make head or
tail of it).

I was talking to some friends about TTL mono monitors and
their associated display adaptors.  I liked MDA, probably
because its simplicity appealed to me (4Kb ought to be
enough display RAM for everybody! ;o) I know someone who has
been asking about using a Hercules card under NetBSD.  I
imagine its MDA emulation could be used to provide a single
console, but can't help wondering whether its extra RAM
might be used to provide a few virtual consoles. Is there an
easy way to find out whether anyone has looked at this
possibility?

Regards,
  - Andy.



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