[sf-lug] A problem of spacing with terminal

[Michael Paoli]

/dev/tty5 (Ctrl+Alt+F5), and
/dev/tty7 (Ctrl+Alt+F7)
are most common for X11 among what I've seen for various
Linux distributions and versions thereof.

The Linux kernel can go up to 63 virtual
consoles, but almost nobody configures to use beyond 12, and
something around 4, 6, or 10 or 12 (or a bit less) is pretty common/typical.

references/excerpts:
console(4)

> From: "Daniel Gimpelevich" <daniel at gimpelevich.san-francisco.ca.us>
> Subject: Re: [sf-lug] A problem of spacing with terminal
> Date: Mon, 14 Aug 2017 12:48:09 -0700

> On Mon, 2017-08-14 at 08:04 -0700, Daniel Gimpelevich wrote:
>> On Mon, 2017-08-14 at 07:51 -0700, Bobbie Sellers wrote:
>> > Well the whole display becomes a terminal and the spacing problem is
>> > absent but
>> > so is the possibility(for me) of getting back to the DE and continuing
>> > to work on
>> > the computer until I force a reboot.
>>
>> Alt/Left Arrow
>
> I only now realize that the thread down from this message was off-list,
> sorry. Alex's instruction of Alt/F7 is also correct, but not
> identically: At the virtual console, Alt/F1 through Alt/F12(I think) go
> directly to console numbers 1 through 12 if they exist, respectively,
> while Alt/Right Arrow and Alt/Left Arrow wrap around up and down through
> them all. The DE is usually, but not always, on console number 7, which
> is usually, but not always, the last console, so if both are the case,
> then Alt/Left Arrow and Alt/F7 would be equivalent after having pressed
> Ctrl/Alt/F1. The Alt/Right Arrow and Alt/Left Arrow will not work in the
> DE, and Alt/F1 through Alt/F12(or whatever) only work with Ctrl also
> pressed, e.g. the Ctrl/Alt/F1 previously instructed.