Keyboard without Scroll Lock

[Bill Campbell]

On Wed, Sep 26, 2007, Harry Matthiesen Jensen wrote:
>On Wed, Sep 26, 2007 at 11:22:39AM -0700, Bill Campbell wrote:
>> >
>> >just for info, if you happens to buy a keyboard without the Scroll Lock
>> >key, as I did (Logitech EX110), and are missing this function in consoles,
>> >I found a solution with re-configuring the keymap (I'm probably not the
>> 
>> A far simpler way is to use xoff/xon, ctrl-s stops things, and
>> ctrl-q restarts.
>
>Is there a set-up I need to perform before it works, because simply
>pressing "Ctrl+Q"/"Ctrl+S" does not give me anything.

You will only see the effect of these if the system is sending
data to the screen.  Try typing ``cat /etc/termcap'', the
pressing ctrl-s to stop the flow, and ctrl-q to restart it.

This is basic serial software flow control, used by terminals to
slow down traffic from the system to allow the terminal to catch
up with the traffic.  This protocal dates back to the days of
slow teletypes which ran at speeds around 110baud (10 characters
per second).

I think that the Scroll Lock key simply toggles this, sending
alternate ctrl-s, ctrl-q to stop and start traffic.  Scrolling
back through the stream is a function of the underlying system,
and has nothing to do with the flow of data.

Bill
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