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 theterminfo
database. They won’t sense yourvb
entry. Terminfo is more powerful than termcap, as well as more difficult.