bill@ssbn.WLK.COM (Bill Kennedy) (11/27/88)
One of the few things that I have not liked about AT&T 386 UNIX was its lack of virtual consoles like Microport and Xenix. Interestingly, they do have virtual consoles but they come with VP/ix (Simul-Task-386). Many thanks to Bill Bunton for getting me to find them, but they are sure there and they sure work. You can have 7 of them, just fire up a getty on /dev/vt0n where n is the number of what you want. Also use the virtcon gettydef and you're on your way. Alt-SysReq-Fn will get you to that virtual console and Alt-SysReq-F8 will get you back to the "real" console. I'm cross posting this because I have seen a number of questions and remarks about a decent '386 UNIX. I think that AT&T has done a good job of building on the ISC port and it has some real pluses that you don't think about right away. Believe it or not, AT&T is less expensive than the others. Elek-Tek will sell you unlimited run time and development for around $700. That's quite competitive with the others. The VP/ix is unlimited users too and it's far superior to Locus' Merge/386 (aka Microport). I had Microport V/386 and Merge/386 and tossed them out because they just wouldn't function correctly or the way I wanted. If you already have the AT&T UNIX and VP/ix, welcome back virtual consoles! If you're still thinking or looking, don't make any ASSumptions about the AT&T product, it's robust, well documented, and quite cost effective. In all fairness, Bill Bunton has ISC 386 UNIX and he's the one who coached me through finding them and turning them on. I can't say that AT&T's VP/ix documentation is very good, I know SCO's is better and I suspect that ISC is too. I *like* it! No affiliation with AT&T other than singlehandedly funding their Long Lines capital improvements :-( and being a very satisfied user of their '386 products. -- Bill Kennedy usenet {killer,att,rutgers,sun!daver,uunet!bigtex}!ssbn!bill internet bill@ssbn.WLK.COM
dar@belltec.UUCP (Dimitri Rotow) (12/01/88)
In article <262@ssbn.WLK.COM>, bill@ssbn.WLK.COM (Bill Kennedy) writes: > One of the few things that I have not liked about AT&T 386 UNIX was its > lack of virtual consoles like Microport and Xenix. Interestingly, they > do have virtual consoles but they come with VP/ix (Simul-Task-386). ... Note that UNIX System V/386 Release 3.2 (from AT&T, us, and presumably everyone else that has it) now includes virtual consoles in the base product. No need to buy any optional packages to get them.