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Heku

Member

Registered: 2023-07-05

Posts: 11

[resolved] Is it possible to let Sway WM open in Ctrl+Alt+F7

Hi,
I'm a new linux user, I'm using Sway WM as my graphical WM, by following the wiki, I can let Sway WM autocally open in TTY1 session, but I just curious if it's possible to let Sway WM open in the graphical session (Ctrl+Alt+F7) without a display manager.

Last edited by Heku (2023-07-06 10:59:30)

Trilby

Inspector Parrot

Registered: 2011-11-29

Posts: 30,466

Website

Re: [resolved] Is it possible to let Sway WM open in Ctrl+Alt+F7

Your title makes it sound like you are asking about running sway nested under another graphical session, and the answer to that is "yes", just run it.

However, your post is asking something completely different.  You can run sway on whichever tty you'd like.  But if you are not running a display manager or other graphical session, then tty7 is just a tty (the same as tty1) - it is not a "graphical session" until you run some display server there.

If you want to have sway start automatically on tty7 instead of tty1, then just revise the steps in the wiki replacing tty1 with tty7, that's it.

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"UNIX is simple and coherent" - Dennis Ritchie; "GNU's Not Unix" - Richard Stallman

Heku

Member

Registered: 2023-07-05

Posts: 11

Re: [resolved] Is it possible to let Sway WM open in Ctrl+Alt+F7

Thank you Trilby for your answer.

I may misunderstand some linux things,  as tty1~6 show login prompts, but tty7 show nothing,  so I thought tty7 is special one for graphical session. I'll have a try, thank you.

Heku

Member

Registered: 2023-07-05

Posts: 11

Re: [resolved] Is it possible to let Sway WM open in Ctrl+Alt+F7

I tried but failed, Ctrl+Alt+F7 display nothing as usual, only a blinking cursor.

Trilby

Inspector Parrot

Registered: 2011-11-29

Posts: 30,466

Website

Re: [resolved] Is it possible to let Sway WM open in Ctrl+Alt+F7

By default systemd only starts gettys on vts 1-6, but this is customizable / configurable, but it's up to you to configure it.

I tried but failed, Ctrl+Alt+F7 display nothing as usual, only a blinking cursor.

How have you "tried"?  What, exactly, did you do?  I suspect configuring getty@tty7 as you had done for getty@tty1 should be sufficient.  However it's possible that you may need to also set NAutoVTs=7 in /etc/systemd/logind.conf.

But why do you really want this on tty7?  Are you using the first 6 for something else?

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"UNIX is simple and coherent" - Dennis Ritchie; "GNU's Not Unix" - Richard Stallman

ewaller

Administrator

From: Pasadena, CA

Registered: 2009-07-13

Posts: 20,648

Re: [resolved] Is it possible to let Sway WM open in Ctrl+Alt+F7

This is controlled by /etc/systemd/logind.conf. 
See man logind.conf

Edit:  Snaked by Trilby

Last edited by ewaller (2023-07-05 15:29:39)

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Heku

Member

Registered: 2023-07-05

Posts: 11

Re: [resolved] Is it possible to let Sway WM open in Ctrl+Alt+F7

I tried changing the tty1 in bash_profile to tty7.
From you comments, I understand now, by default only tty1~6 are enabled, that's why only blinking cursor on F7~F12，I really misunderstood these before.
To answer.you why I want sway in tty7(F7), it is also because I thought F1~6 (tty1~6) are for terminal, while F7~12 are for graphics, since Sway is graphical session, I want it starts in F7. That's all my misunderstanding.
Thanks for teaching. Lesson learned.

Trilby

Inspector Parrot

Registered: 2011-11-29

Posts: 30,466

Website

Re: [resolved] Is it possible to let Sway WM open in Ctrl+Alt+F7

So you never actually configured autologin on tty1, you only configure sway to start *after* a normal login.  If you want that same thing on tty7 you'd need to adjust logind.conf, however I assumed you had set up automatic login on tty1 which could be done the same way on tty7.

But in any case, you can use any vt for whatever you want: the idea that 1-6 were for tty sessions and 7 was for graphical sessions was an ancient tradition of some init systems with absolutely no technical reason behind it.

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"UNIX is simple and coherent" - Dennis Ritchie; "GNU's Not Unix" - Richard Stallman

Heku

Member

Registered: 2023-07-05

Posts: 11

Re: [resolved] Is it possible to let Sway WM open in Ctrl+Alt+F7

Thanks for your knowledge sharing, this is my first post in Arch Forums, I'm very appreciate your guys' answers, I've updated the title to [resolved].