[COLUG] Virtual TTY's, FrameBuffers on ARM

[Josh]

Howdy,

How do virtual TTY's work under an ARM-based LCD framebuffer?

On a normal PC install, the /dev/tty0-6 devices are connected to virtual 
tty's accessed via ALT-F1 to ALT-f6.  I'm not sure if a framebuffer 
applies here, or how it does.

How can I assign a tty to a framebuffer on an embedded device?  For 
example, on my CentOS box, and on my Sharp Zaurus, /dev/tty2 has a major 4 
minor 2 node.  So, I figured I might be able to create a /dev/tty2 on my 
Chumby by doing a mknod /dev/tty2 c 4 2.  There is now a /dev/tty2 but it 
doesn't do anything.

There are /dev/fb0 - /dev/fb3.  If I kill the primary application (via 
ssh) and cat something to /dev/fb0, the LCD does show some sort of garbage 
at the top.

My goal is this: connect a USB keyboard to the Chumby and do an Alt-F2 so 
I can eventually install mingetty and have a login shell.  The kernel does 
have HID drivers for the keyboard, but I'm not sure if the Alt+F2 keys 
work with USB keyboards.  I'm also not sure how to turn a framebuffer into 
a console.

There is a con2fb program that redirects console to another framebuffer. 
I'm going to try that and report my results.

Cheers,
-J