How do you scroll up/down on the console of a Linux VM

Question

I recognize that Up/Down will give you the command history. But, how do you look at past output by scrolling up and down?

I have used Shift+Page Up/Page Down, Alt+Shift+Up/Down and Page Up/Page Down but none of these seem to work.

It is a Redhat Linux box.

I mean how are you accessing the shell. Which terminal emulator? — teppic, Mar 06 '13 at 18:55
Is that a vmware thing? If you're not using a regular terminal emulator, you won't have terminal functions like scrollback. — teppic, Mar 06 '13 at 20:50
I guess it makes a difference whether Jane Doh is looking at an X session with gnome terminals or the actual console output that comes as text to a "VM Console Screen" Ancient history here, at 2013, but it's an interesting question over all. — BenPen, Aug 23 '16 at 18:33

score 271 · Answer 1 · edited Jun 28 '17 at 08:52

271

SHIFT+Page Up and SHIFT+Page Down. If it doesn't work try this and then it should:

Go the terminal program, and make sure
Edit/Profile Preferences/Scrolling/Scrollback/Unlimited
is checked.

The exact location of this option might be somewhere different though, I see that you are using Redhat.

edited Jun 28 '17 at 08:52

LostMyGlasses

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answered Mar 06 '13 at 18:36

meyumer

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That would be a completely different question. OP was talking about stuff like gnome terminal – sdaffa23fdsf Jan 21 '15 at 13:48
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Cool, thanks! How would you go about setting the scrollback size from a native ('real') terminal? – starbeamrainbowlabs Jan 03 '18 at 19:18
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Only the first line of this answer is useful on the Linux console, the rest *might* be useful on a GUI terminal like gnome-terminal, though unlimited is not needed. – Gringo Suave Sep 20 '18 at 16:22
@GringoSuave gets it. – Daniel Baker Nov 12 '18 at 21:59
For those of you who didn't find it work, don't forget to turn `NumLock` off – Irfandy Jip Jul 04 '23 at 04:05

score 131 · Answer 2 · edited Nov 01 '16 at 02:45

131

Shift+Fn+ UP or DOWN on a Macbook will allow you to scroll.

edited Nov 01 '16 at 02:45

A.D.

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answered Nov 16 '13 at 14:52

Lauren

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exactly what I was looking for for Ubuntu Server. Thanks! – dcoffey3296 Mar 04 '14 at 21:25
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Works well on CentOS vm in Mac host – Miro Markaravanes Sep 10 '14 at 00:20
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Thank you. Works for me (Ubuntu Server inside VirtualBox VM on Mac OSX10.10) – Chris Jacob Dec 29 '14 at 23:39
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Thanks for this Lauren, and thanks @anizzomc. I was on my macbook pro running Ubuntu server in virtual box and was having a heck of a time trying to figure this out. – CaseyB Feb 22 '15 at 21:30
Shift + Ctrl + Up / Down works for me on Ubuntu laptop – Anthony Dec 20 '15 at 08:02
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As the comments show, this is the only correct answer. Everyone else is talking about terminal emulators, which is not what the OP is asking. It is the only thing which worked for me on Ubuntu Server 14.04 emulation in Parallels on Macbook Pro – Roobie Nuby Jan 04 '16 at 13:55
I Would love to hear from the OP on this answer. Shift Pg-UP and Shift pg-Down are the canonical answer which are documented not to work in VMware, so maybe this doesn't work either... – BenPen Aug 18 '16 at 17:59
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that's simply because your PageUp/PageDown keys are mapped to Fn+Up/Down, it won't work in other keyboards. And Fn is not a real key that the OS recognizes (except on Macs) – phuclv Jun 17 '18 at 06:00

score 89 · Answer 3 · edited Mar 07 '16 at 21:10

89

Alternative: you can use the less command.

Type in console:

"your_command" | less

This will allow you to scroll with the up and down arrow keys.

Basically your output has been piped with the less command.

edited Mar 07 '16 at 21:10

Drew Gaynor

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answered Jan 10 '14 at 06:18

igauravsehrawat

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Interesting enough this was the only way that actually worked when using the shell on a FreeNAS install disk. – ZeroInputCtrl Jul 26 '15 at 15:59
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FreeNAS is FreeBSD based, and there you scroll differently. First you press `scroll lock` to get into paging mode and then use plain arrows and `page up`/`page down` to scroll. Press `scroll lock` again to get back to typing mode. – arrowd Jun 21 '17 at 18:30
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This is the only solution that works on headless servers. Other solutions are for servers with GUI. – learner Mar 26 '20 at 10:30

score 28 · Answer 4 · edited Nov 15 '16 at 07:37

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ALTERNATIVE FOR LINE-BY-LINE SCROLLING

Ctrl + Shift + Up Arrow or Down Arrow

Unlike Shift + Page Up or Page Down, which scrolls the entire page, this will help with a smoother line-by-line scrolling, which is exactly what I was looking for.

edited Nov 15 '16 at 07:37

jacefarm

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answered Nov 15 '16 at 06:25

Vicky Singh

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I needed scrolling for a Chromebook which doesn’t have `Page Up` and `Page Down`. Works well. – Sebastian Simon Dec 31 '17 at 17:45
Believe this requires `CONFIG_VGACON_SOFT_SCROLLBACK` to be enabled on the linux console. – Gringo Suave Sep 20 '18 at 16:10

score 24 · Answer 5 · answered Mar 08 '13 at 14:04

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SHIFT + Page Up and SHIFT + Page Down are the correct keys to operate on the linux (virtual) console, but vmware console doesn't have those terminal settings. The virtual console has fixed scroll back size, it sounds like it's limited to video memory size according to this Linux virtual console Scrolling behavior documentation.

answered Mar 08 '13 at 14:04

BenPen

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In order to prevent the Matthew Effect, from now on I will try to upvote the second and correct answer to encourage ppl to answer the questions who already have a correct answer. – WesternGun Dec 13 '17 at 09:11
Does this mean that VMWare intercepts those keystrokes? – Gringo Suave Sep 20 '18 at 16:24

score 19 · Answer 6 · answered Dec 08 '16 at 08:48

Another alternative, that might be already installed on your system is to use GNU screen :

# This starts screen which adds basic window management in terminals
screen

# This starts the copy mode you can use to scroll
<CTRL-A> [

# Now use the arrows to scroll

# To exit copy mode, do
<ESC>

See man screen for much more useful options (multiple windows, ...)...

score 13 · Answer 7 · answered Apr 01 '19 at 09:56

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Shift Pageup/End works for me.

answered Apr 01 '19 at 09:56

Rjj

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This should be a comment. – wscourge Apr 01 '19 at 10:15
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I cant comment yet :( – Rjj Apr 09 '19 at 08:37

score 10 · Answer 8 · edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

It seems as though this is not easily possible: The Arch Linux Wiki lists no way to do this on the console (while easily possible on the virtual terminal).

You could use tmux scrolling:

Ctrl-b then [ then you can use your normal navigation keys to scroll around (eg. Up Arrow or PgDn). Press q to quit scroll mode.

Alternatively you can press Ctrl-b PgUp to go directly into copy mode and scroll one page up (which is what it sounds like you will want most of the time)

score 8 · Answer 9 · answered Oct 04 '17 at 03:21

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VM Ubuntu on a Mac...fn + shift + up/down arrows

answered Oct 04 '17 at 03:21

duderweb2

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this is [exactly the same as Lauren's answer above, but with the OS mentioned](https://stackoverflow.com/a/20019785/995714) – phuclv Jul 03 '18 at 10:54

score 5 · Answer 10 · answered Jul 18 '16 at 07:42

5

I ran into the same problem with VMWare workstation with Ubuntu guest, turns out VmWare doesn't support scrolling back up from the server view. What I did was to install x GUI, then run xterm from there. For some reason it runs the same, but lets you scroll the normal ways. Hope this helps future readers in VmWare virtual boxes.

answered Jul 18 '16 at 07:42

kana

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Heavyweight solution. Another might be to install sshd and log in remotely. – Gringo Suave Sep 20 '18 at 16:12

score 3 · Answer 11 · answered Jan 08 '19 at 21:20

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In some VPS hostings (like linode) you have to click Ctrl+A and then ESC. Exit with double ESC too.

answered Jan 08 '19 at 21:20

T.Todua

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score 2 · Answer 12 · edited Mar 25 '19 at 13:23

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Fn + Up/Down can scroll Terminal in Mac OS X 10.11

edited Mar 25 '19 at 13:23

barbsan

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answered Jan 06 '16 at 12:00

likid1412

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score 1 · Answer 13 · answered Nov 09 '15 at 04:56

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Press the Shift key when scrolling the mouse up/down works for me when loggin in Ubuntu using Terminal ssh in Yosemite.

answered Nov 09 '15 at 04:56

ohho

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Slake · Answer 14 · 2021-03-04T10:24:28.823

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PERSISTENT, longterm solution

Add this line to your ~/.screenrc

termcapinfo xterm* ti@:te@

Now you can create a screen, and scroll it up/down with your mouse; Like you normally do.

edited Mar 04 '21 at 10:24

answered Apr 01 '18 at 09:14

Slake

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Where do you see OP talking about `screen`? This should be removed. – Atralb Oct 26 '20 at 22:01
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@Atralb if you think an answer is inappropriate you can downvote or flag it ;) no offense Slake that solution was probably helpful for you, but indeed does not really fit here – xeruf Feb 25 '21 at 17:00

score 0 · Answer 15 · answered Mar 03 '14 at 17:03

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For some commands, such as mtr + (plus) and - (minus) work to scroll up and down.

answered Mar 03 '14 at 17:03

mcbluefire

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How do you scroll up/down on the console of a Linux VM

15 Answers15