Re: bhyve on serial switch virtual terminal

On Nov 4, 2024, at 6:25 PM, Bjoern A. Zeeb <bzeeb-lists@lists.zabbadoz.net> wrote:
> 
> this is probably a FAQ ... if you run bhyve in an xterm with nmdm
> console and boot a freebsd, how can you then switch terminals of the
> guest?

You cannot. Running bhyve in this way provides you with a SERIAL console which (even on real hardware) has no terminal-switching ability; it’s just a single tty.

> The installer used to use a different screen for logging information or
> providing a shell;  now I have no idea if bsdinstall hsa similar ways
> but the general point is we don't have a 'send key sequence' to the
> guest, do we?

I don’t think bhyve has special support for that, no. If you are running, for example, cu to access your nmdm device then you can look at cu(1) to see what commands it supports.

> Ctrl+Alt+F2 will never reacch the guest but get one out of X... and
> likewaise a lot of other things.  Is there an escape sequence or
> anything for this or is the answer "use vnc"?

If you want a full-featured console (even text-only) then yes, you probably should use the VNC graphics emulation in bhyve.

JN