You can add the entry for the vb capability in your own termcap file. Dennis Henriksen (duke@diku.dk) suggested to insert the following line in the termcap entry for console:

:vb=\E7\E[?5h\E[?5l\E[?5h\E[?5l\E[?5h\E[?5l\E[?5h\E[?5l\E8:\

The trailing backslash is used to escape the newline in the database. Dennis’ code does the following (his own words):

• Save the cursor position (Just a safety precaution)
• Change the background color several times between normal and reverse
• Restore the cursor position.

Some warnings about modifying termcap:

• Check what your TERM variable looks like: it used to be « console », but it depends on your distribution and kernel version. Actually, it is due to change to « linux ».
• Check if the vb field is already there, distributors are reading docs and upgrading their software all the time.
• Some applications don’t use termcap but the terminfo database. They won’t sense your vb entry. Terminfo is more powerful than termcap, as well as more difficult.