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I was wondering if

a) it's possible to use a real hardware terminal/console/teletype with Ubuntu/Debian instead of an emulated one

b) Where can I find the specifications for the way data are transmitted (ie character encoding, linebreaks, checksums/error correction(if applicable) )

c) with what kind of interface I can use to connect the hardware (if there are limitations)

I know it's probably an obscure question, but I aren't almost all linux distros are supposed to be still backwards compatable with physical terminals?

Nikos Nikolaou
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1 Answers1

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a)Yes, there is a hardware Terminal in Ubuntu / Debian.

It's called TTY in short ... (TeleTYpe/TeleTYpewrite)

There are different levels of TTY where user Programs / GUI and other Kernel functions are executed.

In case of Ubuntu, tty7 is usually used by Xorg, do provide your graphical environment (to be more exact, it provides a "windowing system" only, and things like the gnome - as a desktop environment solution - runs "top of it").

to switch to a hardware terminal use the following key combinations in Ubuntu/ Debian: ALT +CTRL +F1

to switch back to the GUI use ALT+ CTRL+ F7

You can have multiple Hardware Terminals -- using the combinations: ALT+CTRL+ (F1-F6)

b) for the answer to this question you may refer: How to get terminal's Character Encoding

c)Yes there are limitations.... You will be limited to use a keyboard.

There are 3 standard I/O available for the tty terminal. &0 - standard input (keyboard) &1 - standard output (display / Monitor) &2 - standard Error (File /standard Output)

Usage $ bash script.sh > &2

Community
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Sherwin Varghese
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