Question re ncurses and the various ttys

[perryh at pluto.rain.com]

> I want to know if it is possible to _programatically_ switch to
> an unused virtual tty, and then use this as the display page.
> ( By unused I mean marked 'off' in /etc/ttys )
>
> So if I set ttyv7 to off, can I launch a program (possibly from 
> a cold boot) that selects tty7 ( ie the now getty-less terminal ),
> possibly sets the rows and cols like th ecommand line vidcontrol
> can, and then continues executing a curses app ? 
...
> Can I programtically do the same as Alt-F8 to preselect my screen?

It must be possible, because it's what xdm (the X-windows login
screen) does.  Check out the ttyv8 line in /etc/ttys.  (xdm puts
the vt into a graphic mode rather than leaving it in text mode,
but the allocation and control issues are presumably similar.)