Before configuring mscreen, you will need to carefully consider the following questions:

1. What emulation will you be using?
2. How many sessions will you need?

Setup Procedures

Step 1

TERM for UNIX

Run TERM. Press <ALT>e, or <ALT><F1> | Configure | Emulation. The Emulation setup screen should now be displayed. Change the screen pages setting to the number of sessions you will need (Question #2 above). Type <ALT>q, or <ALT><F1> | Quit. You will be asked if you wish to save the changes you have just made. Answer yes to this question. You will now be asked if you wish to exit TERM. Answer yes to this question also.

TERM for DOS

Run ttsetup and select Emulation. Change the screen pages setting to the number of sessions you will need (Question #2 above). Save these settings and exit ttsetup.

Step 2

Connect to your Unix, Linux or XENIX host in the usual manner with TERM.

Step 3

By default mscreen will look in the file /etc/mscreencap for the terminal capabilities. If you are using a different file, you will need to set the MSCREENCAP environment variable to the file you will be using.

Step 4

Start mscreen on the Unix (or XENIX) host:

mscreen -n 6

The number of sessions, 6, could be less, but not higher. TERM will support up to 6 screens. On some systems the -t option will also be required by the above command line.

Step 5

At this point, you should see a screen similar to the following:

mscreen rev VII
who is S-F7
help is S-F8
stop is S-F9
quit is S-F10
ttyp0 is S-F1
ttyp1 is S-F2
ttyp2 is S-F3
ttyp3 is S-F4
ttyp4 is S-F5
ttyp5 is S-F6

The actual keys may be different, but key assignment should be shown in this manner.

Notes

If you are using ANSI terminal emulation, it is possible that an ANSI entry does not exist in the mscreencap file. If this is the case, you can append the following entries to that file, or simply set the MSCREENCAP environment variable to point to this file:

ansi|term63:\
:who,CSF7,\E[\\:\
:help,CSF8,\E[],:\
:stop,CSF9,\E[\^,:\
:quit,CSF10,\E[_:\
:,CSF1,\E[w,\E[1z:\
:,CSF2,\E[x,\E[2z:\
:,CSF3,\E[y,\E[3z:\
:,CSF4,\E[z,\E[4z:\
:,CSF5,\E[@,\E[5z:\
:,CSF6,\E[[,\E[6z:

By default these entries will work if you are using the <CTRL><SHIFT> key combinations. No other changes should be necessary.

If you wish to use the <ALT> key combination for switching between sessions, for exact console emulation you will need to append the following entries to the mscreencap file, or simply set the MSCREENCAP environment variable to point to this file:

ansi|term63:\
:who,A-F7,\E[7z,:\
:help,A-F8,\E[8z,:\
:stop,A-F9,\E[9z,:\
:quit,A-F10,\E[0z,:\
:,A-F1,\E[1z,\E[1z:\
:,A-F2,\E[2z,\E[2z:\
:,A-F3,\E[3z,\E[3z:\
:,A-F4,\E[4z,\E[4z:\
:,A-F5,\E[5z,\E[5z:\
:,A-F6,\E[6z,\E[6z:

You will also need to add the following lines to your TERM.RC or TT.RC file:

setkey af1 "\e[1z"
setkey af2 "\e[2z"
setkey af3 "\e[3z"
setkey af4 "\e[4z"
setkey af5 "\e[5z"
setkey af6 "\e[6z"
setkey af7 "\e[7z"
setkey af8 "\e[8z"
setkey af9 "\e[9z"
setkey af10 "\e[0z"

Most host systems have a detailed help section on mscreen in the online man pages. It is a good idea to take a look at this for additional options that may be important in your operating environment.

Troubleshooting

If you experience problems with the ANSI entries working, try the following:

• Move the ANSI sequences to the beginning of the mscreencap file. The reason for this move is that there is a limitation on the size of the mscreencap file. Entries past this limit are simply ignored.
• Set the MSCREENCAP environment variable to point to a file that has only the above ANSI entry. An example would be:

  MSCREENCAP=/etc/mscreen.ans; export MSCREENCAP