On Wed, 7 Nov 2001, Cheryl Homiak wrote: <snip> > I either get a keypad where the right alt doesn't work, so > that i have to do left alt plus F-1 to change consoles; > this keyboard also ... This is normal behavior, unless you customize. Right-alt F1 through F12 are normally set up to reach consoles 13 through 24. Your distribution probably doesn't even have all the devices made in /dev for all the 64 possible virtual terminals (who needs them), but there is a script, /dev/MAKEDEV, to assist in making such things. Then you can add gettys in /etc/inittab, for as many as you can keep track of. (grin) You can also do alt-right-arrow, and alt-left-arrow to move between consoles, and other mappings are possible, such as alt-SysRq, to toggle between two. Finally, there's a daemon you can run that will dynamically start new gettys on additional consoles on demand, and you can probably use the "open" command to start anything you want on an unused console, provided it is SUID (a security hole), or you have permissions for the tty. Now here's what I'm wondering about: is it possible to independently assign some ttys or pseudo terminals to a second keyboard (say, a USB one), while allowing sighted family members or co-workers to use the normal console (probably with X-windows running in one of the consoles)? LCR -- L. C. Robinson reply to no_spam+munged_lcr@onewest.net.invalid People buy MicroShaft for compatibility, but get incompatibility and instability instead. This is award winning "innovation". Find out how MS holds your data hostage with "The *Lens*"; see "CyberSnare" at http://www.netaction.org/msoft/cybersnare.html