How can I scroll back the output in FreeBSD's console without Scroll Lock?

Question

I've installed FreeBSD inside a VM on a laptop. As it turns out, the laptop keyboard has no Scroll Lock key, which is used for scrolling the screen back in FreeBSD's console. How can I scroll back the output without Scroll Lock?

score 13 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 23 '12 at 08:31

As root, dump the keyboard map to a file

kbdcontrol -d > mykeys

Change the file so "Ctrl+NumLock" will set "Scroll Lock". Find line with scancode "base" 069, or where "nlock" fills the entire line. Edit column 3 from "nlock" to "slock". The line now looks like:

"069   nlock  nlock  slock  nlock  nlock  nlock  nlock  nlock   O"

As root, issue the command:

kbdcontrol -l mykeys

The solution was found here.

score 5 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 08 '12 at 15:48

Laptop keyboards usually have a Fn key so that keys on a normal PC keyboard can be replicated. You should find that some combination of Fn and another key (hint: look for the blue text on your keys) will perform Scroll Lock. For instance, on my cheap netbook, Fn-F12 performs Scroll Lock.

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 23 '12 at 07:53

2

I use tmux for that, you can install it from ports under /usr/ports/sysutils/tmux. Ctrl-b PgUp and Ctrl-b PgDn allow to scroll the console output in tmux. BTW, tmux has other great features, basically it is an advanced screen replacement.

answered Aug 23 '12 at 07:53

Alex

8,089

How can I scroll back the output in FreeBSD's console without Scroll Lock?

3 Answers3