Edit /etc/ttys and add entries for ``ttyv4'' to
``ttyvc'' after the comment on ``Virtual terminals'' (delete
the leading whitespace in the following example):
# Edit the existing entry for ttyv3 in /etc/ttys and change
# "off" to "on".
ttyv3 "/usr/libexec/getty Pc" cons25 on secure
ttyv4 "/usr/libexec/getty Pc" cons25 on secure
ttyv5 "/usr/libexec/getty Pc" cons25 on secure
ttyv6 "/usr/libexec/getty Pc" cons25 on secure
ttyv7 "/usr/libexec/getty Pc" cons25 on secure
ttyv8 "/usr/libexec/getty Pc" cons25 on secure
ttyv9 "/usr/libexec/getty Pc" cons25 on secure
ttyva "/usr/libexec/getty Pc" cons25 on secure
ttyvb "/usr/libexec/getty Pc" cons25 on secure
Use as many or as few as you want. The more virtual terminals
you have, the more resources that are used; this can be important
if you have 8MB RAM or less. You may also want to change the
``secure'' to ``insecure''.
IMPORTANT NOTE if you want to run X Window, you MUST leave a virtual terminal unused (or turned off). For example, if you want to attach a virtual terminal to all of your twelve Alt-function keys, you can only attach virtual terminals to eleven of them. The last must be left unused, because X Windows will use it, and you will use the last Alt-function key to switch back to X Window (after you have switched from X Window to a virtual console via a Ctrl-Alt-function key). The easiest way to do this is to disable a console by turning it off. For example, if you have a keyboard with twelve function keys, you would change settings for virtual terminal 12 from:
ttyvb "/usr/libexec/getty Pc" cons25 on secure
to:
ttyvb "/usr/libexec/getty Pc" cons25 off secure
If your keyboard has only ten function keys, you would end up with:
ttyv9 "/usr/libexec/getty Pc" cons25 off secure
ttyva "/usr/libexec/getty Pc" cons25 off secure
ttyvb "/usr/libexec/getty Pc" cons25 off secure
(You could also just delete these lines.)
Once you have edited /etc/ttys, the next step is to make
sure that you have enough virtual terminal devices. The easiest
way to do this is:
cd /dev
./MAKEDEV vty12 # For 12 devices
Next, the easiest (and cleanest) way to activate the virtual
consoles is to reboot. However, if you really don't want to
reboot, you can just shut down X Window and execute (as
root):
kill -HUP 1
It's imperative that you completely shut down X Window if it is running, before running this command. If you don't, your system will probably appear to hang/lock up after executing the kill command.