OpenIndiana Distribution

I think the problem is that the code has problems -- there may be logindevperm problems, and I think overall the code for VC isn't 100% complete and bug free.

I second this motion that virtual consoles should be available.

Can't say regarding "bug-free", but they did work acceptably in SXCE when the feature was introduced (integrated into downloadable ISOs). They do not work for me now on oi_148a.

It seems I can switch to another console, but there's nothing there except the blinking cursor, and I can't successfully switch back to the original console. Also I can't switch between text and X11 consoles (I can drop from X11 to the blinking cursor screen, and never go back). The situation makes the machine console nearly useless after attempts to switch "virtual terminals", however I can SSH from another machine and restart "console-login" or "gdm" services as appropriate to get the interactive console back :)

I have roughly traced the SMF scripts and the programs they call, it seems they do what they should. So it may be a permissions/RBAC problem...

On a side note, "xconsole" occasionally fails to work and attach to console (from a root X11 session via "user -> su - root -> export DISPLAY=:0 ; xconsole"). I am not sure if this is anyhow related, maybe merely a coincidence.

//Jim Klimov

Also, and I'm not sure how related, occasionally when the keyboard is not touched for a few minutes, the screen goes blank (but not off as expected for a screensaver) and the X11 session falls back to text mode and never returns into graphics. Text mode console is also not available at that moment, so I have to either reset the machine or SSH into it to restart the console services.

It seems to have been caused by screensaver; at least disabling it stopped this type of problem for me.

The computer has an ATI Radeon graphics card, but I think I still had the default "vga" driver at that time.