Precedence: bulk
The scrollback buffer used is actually the video RAM. The scrollback works
by changing the start position of the video screen. When you switch to
another console, the video start position is set to the start of video RAM.
This means you loose your old buffer. The only way around this would be to
buffer the scrollback outside of video RAM. This would also allow
scrollback capabilities on cards which don't support it in hardware.
Unfortunately, this would consume more memory for a feature which IMHO is
not all that useful - scrollback on current console is good enough. For a
while I was thinking about writing a kernel patch to support scrollback on
monochrome cards, and if I do this it would be easy enough to support
scrollback buffering for all VC's with a CONFIG_SCROLLBACK option. If
you're interested in this capability, let me know. If I get enough
responses, I'll assume the patch is worth writing.
Cheers, :)
Zachary R. Amsden
amsden@andrew.cmu.edu