vt(4) scrollback size

[Kevin Oberman]

With sc(4), we could set the size of the scrollback buffer at kernel build
time and I tend to make it much larger. But even the default was
reasonable. If I wanted more, vidcontrol(1) let me set it. Now there seems
to be no way to increase the size of the buffer.

Now, with vt(4), it seems that the scrolback buffer at boot time (large
font) is only about 50 lines and after starting X (smaller font) I get
about 140 lines. The number of lines I see seems to be linked to the number
of characters.

While the number of lines in all cases seems a bit restrictive, the ability
to scroll back immediately after boot is a particularly annoying one. In an
earlier thread on vt(4) I tangentially asked about this and was told the
default was 500, but I guess I assumed that this was 500 lines and it
appears that it might be something else or it might not be lines.

In any case, the ability set a larger history would be really nice!
--
R. Kevin Oberman, Network Engineer, Retired
E-mail: rkoberman at gmail.com