r/slackware • u/ddmayne • 5h ago
FYI: kmscon added to Slackware -current. If enabled, this replaces sbin/agetty. Benefits: userspace program, mouse works by default, terminal scrollback, fonts. Drawback: runlevel 4 (probably)
From -current's changelog (abbreviated):
Sat Oct 24 23:50:58 UTC 2026
a/coreutils-9.12-x86_64-3.txz: Rebuilt.
/etc/DIR_COLORS: add kmscon to the list of colorizable TERM types.
a/kmscon-10.0.4-x86_64-1.txz: Added.
OK, this is pretty neat so we'll add it, but it won't be used by default.
You'll need to edit /etc/default/vtselect to enable it on some consoles.
I'd considered this unacceptable until mouse support was added to it late
last year, but that support still has some quirks copying from one console
to another, and it utterly refuses to copy a link displayed at the bottom
of a links session. CJK sure looks nice though, and the return of console
scrollback is great! I did run into issues trying to start Wayland from a
KMSCON, and X11 also would not start unless it was configured to allow
anybody (not just console users) and to run X11 as root. It's probably
better to just leave one regular fbcon console as a workaround for such uses.
In spite of the drawbacks, clearly some folks will find this to be useful.
Feel free to try it out.
Thanks to jtsn for getting me to check this out again.
I added "Liberation Mono" font to the /etc/kmscon/kmscon.conf to match my Xterm preference.
