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On a TTY ( ctrl+alt+f1 to f6 ), I use Shift+page up to scroll up and Shift+page down to scroll down. But the problem is, the scrolling is limited to certain number of lines.

How can I get unlimited scrolling on a TTY ?

Severus Tux
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  • See also https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/346018/how-to-increase-the-scrollback-buffer-size-for-tty – pevik Feb 20 '19 at 08:52

1 Answers1

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First, you buy unlimited memory. Take a look at the kernel paramter fbcon=scrollback:Nk where N is the desired buffer size is kilobytes. The default is 32k, so increase it from there.

To increase framebuffer console memory :

gksu gedit /etc/default/grub

Now edit and change GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="" to GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="fbcon=scrollback:<value>k" .

Now, update grub: 

sudo update-grub

And restart your computer

Severus Tux
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ubfan1
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    This seems to be a working answer :P , but I don't know where to find kernel parameters and how to edit them. Could you please add some more explanation ? Thanks :) – Severus Tux Jun 24 '16 at 01:46
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    You might be able to improve this answer with providing the steps needed in more detail to make it a rock solid answer. – Videonauth Jun 24 '16 at 02:12
  • Digging deeper, I got this : https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/fb/fbcon.txt , And Yes you are right! :D . Its given "fbcon=scrollback:<value>[k] 
        The scrollback buffer is memory that is used to preserve display
    contents that has already scrolled past your view.  This is accessed
    by using the Shift-PageUp key combination.  The value 'value' is any
    integer. It defaults to 32KB.  The 'k' suffix is optional, and will
    multiply the 'value' by 1024."

    *But I still don't know how to edit them :P* .

     – Severus Tux Jun 24 '16 at 02:15
  • Is there a way of doing this without restarting? (say you're using a live image?) – thebunnyrules May 11 '18 at 00:51
  • I don't see fbcon in the sysctl -a output, so probably not. – ubfan1 May 11 '18 at 02:32