<HTML ><HEAD ><TITLE >Virtual Consoles</TITLE ><META NAME="GENERATOR" CONTENT="Modular DocBook HTML Stylesheet Version 1.57"><LINK REL="HOME" HREF="index.html"><LINK REL="PREVIOUS" TITLE="Linux Kernel" HREF="linuxkernel.html"><LINK REL="NEXT" TITLE="Daemons" HREF="daemons.html"></HEAD ><BODY CLASS="SECT1" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#000000" LINK="#0000FF" VLINK="#840084" ALINK="#0000FF" ><DIV CLASS="NAVHEADER" ><TABLE WIDTH="100%" BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" ><TR ><TH COLSPAN="3" ALIGN="center" ></TH ></TR ><TR ><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="bottom" ><A HREF="linuxkernel.html" >Prev</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="80%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="bottom" ></TD ><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="bottom" ><A HREF="daemons.html" >Next</A ></TD ></TR ></TABLE ><HR ALIGN="LEFT" WIDTH="100%"></DIV ><DIV CLASS="SECT1" ><H1 CLASS="SECT1" ><A NAME="VCONSOLES" >3. Virtual Consoles</A ></H1 ><P >VCs are a great way to free up memory. Most Linux distributions run about 6 of them out of the box. On average running 6 VCs requires about 4MB of memory. Removing a couple of them can free up a couple MBs of memory. Most users can get away with running only 3 or 4 VCs. How many you choose to remove is a matter personal preference. Just remember that the fewer you run, the more memory your applications will have to run. </P ><P >The file which outlines how many VCs get loaded is <TT CLASS="FILENAME" >/etc/inittab</TT >. In order to remove VCs: </P ><P ></P ><OL TYPE="1" ><LI ><P >Load <TT CLASS="FILENAME" >/etc/inittab</TT > in a text editor.</P ></LI ><LI ><P >Look for a line which looks like the following line (the key feature being a line which starts with c1): </P ><TABLE BORDER="0" BGCOLOR="#E0E0E0" WIDTH="90%" ><TR ><TD ><PRE CLASS="PROGRAMLISTING" >c1:12345:respawn:/sbin/getty tty1 38400 linux</PRE ></TD ></TR ></TABLE ><P >Start at the highest number (i.e. c6) and comment it out by inserting a '#' in the first row. Repeat this step as many times as needed. Remember every line you comment out is one less VC running. </P ></LI ><LI ><P >Re-boot the system for your changes to take effect. </P ></LI ></OL ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="NAVFOOTER" ><HR ALIGN="LEFT" WIDTH="100%"><TABLE WIDTH="100%" BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" ><TR ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="linuxkernel.html" >Prev</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="34%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="index.html" >Home</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="daemons.html" >Next</A ></TD ></TR ><TR ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" >Linux Kernel</TD ><TD WIDTH="34%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" > </TD ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" >Daemons</TD ></TR ></TABLE ></DIV ></BODY ></HTML >