>From your login shell prompt just enter the command screen. e.g. $ screen You should get a page with the authors blurb. Hit return and you should get back to the shell prompt. At this point, if all goes well, screen is running and you can create new virtual console sessions by typing ctrl-A c. That is hit the control-A key and then hit C. The control-A key is your meta key. To switch between screens hit control-A 0 through control-A 9 To toggle back and forth between two screens use conrtol-A conrtol-A. The last two screens accessed will be the alternates. Look at the help screens using control-A ?. Screen uses the vt100 terminal type or a variant of it so your temrinal emulator must be a VT100. I find it useful to define PS1 with a $WINDOW component since this value is set by screen and tells me at the shell prompt, which screen I am in.