Adding serial terminals

Installing scancode-compatible terminals

Your scancode-compatible terminal can be set to either character mode or scancode mode. If you choose to leave your terminal in character mode, then each time you start an application that uses scancodes (for example, Microsoft Word), the application switches the terminal to PC-scancode mode. When you quit the application, it returns the terminal to character mode. The screen flashes each time the terminal mode changes, and the switch adds a few seconds delay to starting and quitting your scancode application. For these and other reasons, we recommend that you run a terminal in scancode mode at all times, instead of letting the scancode application switch terminal modes.

NOTE: You might encounter problems using PC-scancode mode with a smart serial card. For example, scancode mode might interfere with XON/XOFF flow control. If this happens, consult your card's documentation for the manufacturer's recommendations on resetting the flow control start and stop characters. If your card does not support changing the start and stop characters, or if you experience a problem unrelated to flow control, consult your card's documentation to determine whether you can reset the card so that it no longer takes on line-discipline processing for your scancode lines.

The following two subsections describe how to configure your system when you run a terminal in scancode mode at all times. If you choose to leave your terminals in character mode, you do not need to configure your system specially to use a scancode-compatible terminal.

Setting up scancode mode for one session

If you are unsure whether you want to run a terminal in scancode mode when you are not using a scancode application, you can experiment by using scancode mode for a single session. Use the scanon command to set your terminal and your line discipline to scancode mode. The scanon(M) manual page describes the scanon and scanoff commands.

Setting up scancode mode for all sessions

If you want a terminal to reside in scancode mode, you need to modify certain files. To determine which files you need to modify, enter the following command as root, where ttyline is the device to which your scancode terminal is connected:

disable /dev/ttyline

You see messages naming two initialization files associated with that tty. Write down the filenames. One file is /etc/inittab and the other is either /etc/conf/cf.d/init.base or a file from the /etc/conf/init.d directory. Edit the files that the screen displays, and, on the line that corresponds to the correct tty, change the last field from ``m'' to ``sc_m''.

For example, if you want to run tty001 in scancode mode, change the line:

   001:2:off:etc/getty tty001 m

to read:

   001:2:off:etc/getty tty001 sc_m

For more information on modifying these initialization files, see ``Adding serial terminals''.

NOTE: For each Wyse 60 or Wyse 150 terminal that you want to run in scancode mode, change the user's environment by specifying the ``wy60-pc'' TERM environment variable in the user's .login or .profile file or in /etc/ttytype. (The Wyse 150 behaves the same in scancode mode as the Wyse 60.) For instructions on defining the TERM variable, see the section on setting terminal type earlier in this chapter.

Only Wyse terminals have the ``-pc'' names; others (for example, H-P700) are the same in scancode and ASCII mode.

After you edit the two initialization files, set the terminal itself to scancode mode (some manufacturers refer to ``PC-personality''). Consult your terminal documentation for instructions on setting this mode.

Finally, enter the following command to re-enable the terminal line:

enable /dev/ttyline