How to change back to the console when stucked by the desktop environment

[Anthony Jenkins]

On 07/17/2016 04:36 AM, Yubin Ruan wrote:
> On 2016年07月16日 21:58, Julian H. Stacey wrote:
>> Hi, Reference:
>>> From:        Yubin Ruan <ablacktshirt at gmail.com>
>>> Date:        Sat, 16 Jul 2016 20:56:01 +0800
>>
>> Yubin Ruan wrote:
>>> Hi,
>>> I just tried FreeBSD-10.3 stable and get stuck when trying to use the
>>> Mate desktop environment. I use Slim as the login manager. But when I
>>> try to login, with correct username and passwd, Slim tell me that
>>>       "Failed to execute login command"
>>> (Any idea why would that happen?)
>>> So I try to switch back to the console use "Alt-F1...Alt-F8", which is
>>> suggested by the doc. But that doesn't work. Why ?
>>>
>>> How can I switch back to the console to tune the system?
>>
>> (Ive never heard of Slim, but) general procedure:
>>  From another net connected host:
>>     rlogin / telnet / ssh yourhost
>>     cd /var/log  ; ls -ltr
>>     ls -l xdm.log messages Xorg.0.log    
>>         + whatever logfile might be appropriate for your Slim
>>     ps -laxww
>>         kill some processes, watch if they restart
>>     vi /etc/ttys
>>         change eg
>>             ttyv1                   "/usr/local/bin/xdm -nodaemon" 
>> xterm   on  secure
>>         to
>>             ttyv1                   "/usr/local/bin/xdm -nodaemon" 
>> xterm   off  secure
>>     maybe you are using ttyv0 for xdm
>>     (I use ttyv1 to leave 0 for errors)
>>     kill -HUP 1
>>         sometimes screen still wont come back,
>>     if desperate then reboot
>>
>> PS I dropped cc:  freebsd-amd64 at freebsd.org
>> as this has nothing to do with that CPU, & freebsd.org list rules
>> say dont cross post more than 2 lists.
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Julian
>>
>
> Thanks, I just manage to install a proper desktop environment(Xfce) to
> use and it seems to work fine.
> However, still, I cannot manage to do tty-switching using
> <Ctrl-Alt><F_> (<Alt-F_> didn't work either). Strangely, whenever I
> press <Ctrl-Alt><F_>, the whole desktop block. I don't know why, it
> just block everytime I press <Ctrl-Alt><F_> ( the _ stand for number
> 1...8)
>
> My /etc/ttys file looks like this:
>
>     console     none                   unknown    off   secure
>     ttyv0    "/usr/libexec/getty Pc"   xterm      on    secure
>     .
>     .          (the same )
>     .
>     ttyv7    "/usr/libexec/getty Pc"   xterm      on    secure
>     ttyv8    "/usr/local/bin/xdm-nodaemon"  xterm  off  secure
>
>     #serial terminal
>     ttyu0    "/usr/libexec/getty 3wire"   vt100   onifconsole secure
>     .
>     .
>     ttyu3    "/usr/libexec/getty 3wire"   vt100   onifconsole secure
>
>     #Dumb console
>     dcons    "/usr/libexec/getty std.9600"  vt100 off  secure
>
> Any idea?
>
> Thanks,
> Ruan


If this is a laptop, remember some laptops require you to press an <Fn>
key to send the <F1> - <F12> keycodes (this is often configurable in the
BIOS). So to issue the <Ctrl>+<Alt>+<F1> key sequence, you actually have
to press <Ctrl>+<Alt>+<Fn>+<F1>.

-- 
Anthony Jenkins