While logged in, I’m trying to switch to a different virtual terminal. Normally I would do something like Ctrl+Alt+F2. But nothing seems to happen when I do that.
I’m on F41, XFCE. Any thoughts?
Did you try F5 or F6?
The function keys on Apple keyboards are mapped by default to the media keys so maybe try Fn+ Ctrl+Alt+F4.
Sorry about the late reply.
I tried all function keys!
I don’t recall from where at the moment, probably from startup options, I set the function keys as default. I can see the backlight highlighting they are functions keys. I can also use other desktop keybindings like Alt+F2 to run commands.
In case it matters, I recently upgraded from F40 to F41 using dnf system-upgrade.
Hi Fatka,
Try Ctrl+Alt+F4 …
Sorry if this wasn’t clear. I have tried all Ctrl+Alt+Fn combinations, nothing happens.
Sounds like an XFCE and/or Xorg issue. Did it work on F40?
Please remember that we do not support native Xorg sessions, so you might have to figure it out on your own.
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AFAIR, it did work on F40.
You reminded me of the unsupported nature of Xorg in my other question 
, I have been looking at Hyprland because of that.
Hi Folks,
Virtual Consoles are not a function of Xorg or Wayland …
Try this:
- in /etc/vconsole.conf
- reduce to 1 line containing KEYMAP=“us”
- Then do dracut -f
- reboot
I followed your suggestion, didn’t help.
I wasn’t expecting anything to change since my /etc/vconsole.conf looked like this to begin with.
KEYMAP="us"
FONT="eurlatgr"
Virtual Consoles are not a function of Xorg or Wayland …
Yes, they are. Xorg and Wayland compositors initiate the VT switch when the keys are pressed. There are explicit XKB keysyms for this, like XF86_Switch_VT_3, which have to be mapped to actual key combinations in the XKB keymap to work.
This is why it’s Ctrl+Alt+Fn in X/Wayland but only Alt+Fn in the tty. Only when you are already in a textmode VT is the kernel in charge of the VT switching keys, and it doesn’t even use the same combination.
If your VT switching from a graphical session isn’t working, the problem is the graphical session, not anything in vconsole.conf.
I Guess I am going to have to prove my point …
Here is how:
- sudo systemctl set-default multi-user
- reboot
- login at the first login prompt
- Ctrl+Alt+F4 or on an apple keyboard Ctrl+Option+F4
- login at the second prompt
- who ----
Do you see those 2 sessions?
Did you notice neither Wayland or Xorg is running?
Supporting documentation for your reading pleasure
https://www.makeuseof.com/what-are-linux-virtual-consoles/
At this point, you could start the windowing desktop environment or you can just sudo systemctl set-default graphical and reboot …
You missed my point entirely. You can use VTs without Xorg or Wayland, but you cannot switch from Xorg or Wayland to a VT without Xorg or Wayland cooperating, because they are responsible for doing that. When you are in a graphical session, the keyboard is in raw mode, the kernel is not processing the keypresses at all other than SysRq chords, and any other operation has to be processed through the graphical display server, including VT switching. VT switching is, in fact, a function of graphical display servers.
The fact that you are using Ctrl+Alt+F4 to switch between text VTs tells me you’ve never realized that’s not actually the correct key combination in text mode, it’s Alt+F4 (the Ctrl is superfluous). The Ctrl thing is only for graphical sessions, because again, as I said, they interpret the VT switch keybinds and the kernel VT switch keybinds, which are in fact just Alt+Fn, do not work at all in graphical sessions.
So yes, I reiterate: If you cannot switch away from a graphical session to a text VT, the problem is with the graphical session, not anything in the VT.
(Source: besides being (ahem) the project lead here, I’ve been using desktop Linux for going on two decades now, including the bad old days when Xorg used to hang and that broke VT switching until you used SysRQ SAK and UnRaw, so yes, I’m intimately familiar with how all this works.)
I suggest you read the actual documentation
Dude, seriously. Your idea of documentation is makeuseof.com, and meanwhile I’m writing kernel drivers here. 
Go try this: Make sure Ctrl-Alt-Fn works in your graphical display session, switch back to the graphical display, then run sudo killall -STOP <your_compositor> (e.g. sudo killall -STOP kwin_wayland on KDE, or use the X server process name for Xorg). Your session will hang. Now try Ctrl-Alt-Fn. It won’t work, because your compositor is hung, and it’s the one that has to process the keyboard shortcut, not the VT console.
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Hector,
I did that and I can still use the keyboard shortcuts to switch between VTs …
(I also have experience writing kernel drivers, clear back to sunOS 4.0 as a matter of fact )
Then you didn’t do it right, or you weren’t in the graphical session to begin with when you did it, because what I described is how it works (and I just tested it personally).
Feel also free to grep -ri Switch_VT /usr/share/X11/xkb/. If Xorg/Wayland didn’t have anything to do with VT switching, then why would VT switching shortcuts be mapped in Xorg/Wayland keyboard layouts? Feel also free to yank those out from /usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/srvr_ctrl, recompile/reload your keyboard layout, and watch VT switching away from graphical sessions break (didn’t test that one, it’s possible some Wayland compositors hardcode it so YMMV, but it’ll definitely work for Xorg).
On mine, when I kill the compositor (Wayland by the way ) it just drops me back to a console … same happens when I switch to Xorg … as I would expect. Just pulling the mapping from xkb has no effect on mine, can still use the shortcut (Ctrl+Alt+Fn) … Guess my system must be Martian …
You did not read the instruction. Your compositor will not drop back to the console after sudo killall -STOP .... It will be stopped, can not process keyboard events and thus not switch to another VT.
See following code in kwin handling XKB_KEY_XF86Switch_VT_* key events and
the VT switch using systemd’s logind.
Mea culpa! I didn’t know until now