Terminal.app in console mode

Hi.

For anyone of you who knows and has used Linux before, it's widely known
that the console mode can be obtained pressing CTRL+ALT+F1 through F6,
to gain access to tty1 through tty6 screens; the X-windows high
resolution screen can be reset with CTRL+ALT+F7 or F9, depending on the
distribution. The console mode is a fully text-only mode, with black
background (similar to what you get on Mac OS X pressing Apple+V on
starting) and white fixed-size characters.

I wonder:

a) is there a way to have the same console mode with Mac OS X, with at
least one tty?

b) if not, is there a way to run Terminal.app in full text mode? I take
as model the GLTerminal for 10.4, which can simulate an old VT100
terminal, with screen curves and old pixelized characters, and it can
run at full screen mode in no-graphic screen. I could use this as a
console, but I cannot save the preferences, and so it's rather annoying
to set them anytime I start the program.

Thanks anyone answering.

-- Antonio

 

I seem to remember that the early Terminal had a "full screen" switch,
that used to crash. It's not there any more. Now you can "zoom" the
srceen (Window/Zoom) so that the window fills all the available space on
your monitor (and you can set a key to do it for you). I know this isn't
what you're looking for, but I use it this way, and it's not so bad. As
for no being able to save the GLTerminal prefs, I think that may be a
permissions thing; you may have to keep an rc file in your home
directory, or somewhere where you have write permission.

 

At the login window, type ">console" in the username field. This will
get you into full-screen mode.

 

I tried, but all I get is a notice saying that /dev/console cannot be
executed (or something). After that, the login crashes (I can digit, but
the system is deaf), and I must return to the login window, and login as
a common user. I heard that this is because I have a disabled root, but
I tried to enable it giving it a password (and Netinfo confirmed that it
was enabled), but this didn't work the same. So I disabled it again.

-- Antonio

 

My root has never been enabled, and it works fine for me. Are you sure you
typed into the name field of the login window? Not the password field.

 

I'm sure, I'm not that dumb... ;-)

Can you tell me the permissions and the owner (name and group) of the
file /dev/console?

You can do

ls -la /dev/console

from your terminal.

Thanks

 

I suppose ethant is the name of the admin superuser!

-- Antonio

 

Why in a terminal? The result is different in full-screen console mode.
The device is owned by the user (a non-admin user, in the case I tried),
and the group is "tty". The result in a Terminal window under my own
login is different.

Admin privileges are irrelevant, because you do not authenticate as a
user (any user, admin or otherwise) until *after* you are already in
full-screen mode. Any valid username and password is acceptable to
continue in full-screen mode.

And by the way, I don't think this will work with fast user switching.
You can get to a login window that way, but I don't think the ">console"
trick will work if any users are currently logged in.

 

I tried with logged in users and with no one logged in. The result is
the same. As fast as I can (next night, that is twelve hours from now
according to Central Europe zone) I will try again and report the exact
message that the console at full screen reports. In the meantime, thanks
to everyone of you.

-- Antonio

 

I think you have to set the "Login Options" to "Name and Password"
rather than just "List of Users" or else you won't see an input box.

 

To sum up the things I did:

0) checked system: Mac OS X 10.4.6 on eMac Superdrive
Processor G4 1.42 GHz PowerPC
1 GB DDR SDRAM

1) set up the "username & password" (prompting for username *and*
password), and disabling the "list of users" option in the login windows
(system preferences/accounts)

2) logged out all users (of course, all users form the /Users dir, since
I cannot logout service users...)

3) checked for existence of /dev/console (that curiously, but not too
much, is reported to belong to me); here's the answer on Terminal.app

crw------- 1 tonibin tonibin 0, 0 Jun 2 13:29 /dev/console

4) typed ">console" (without double quotes) in the username field of the
login prompt and left the password field empty

5) obtained the following message, in the upper line of the full black
screen in text mode (I couldn't Copy & Paste it):
-----
Jun 2 13:32:06 eMac-G4 getty: /dev/console: Operation not supported by
device
-----

6) This message is displayed for about 20 seconds, and then the login
window reappear

I guess there's a sort of wrong configuration or some wrong permissions
for some system file.

-- Antonio