Setting ASCII screen colors in Linux?

[Sorry for the redundant cross-post, but either my news reader is burping
 or one of the NGs in my cross-post list is moderated and causing the others
 not to go through.  --- WHH]

        Is there a way to remap the default screen colors (just the Linux
terminal screen colors --- not X colors) in Linux?  I'm running RHL 6.1
on a Linux box in my office, and have TERM set to "linux".  I connect
to it via dialup from my Windows 2000 system at home, using PenguiNet
for Windows 95/NT/2000.  PenguiNet has ssh but (AFAIK) none of the
screen color customizability features that Windows Telnet or Teraterm
has, and I'd like to be able to get my good old-fashioned lime-on-black
green screen.

        Any help would be greatly appreciated.

-Bill

=======================================================
 William H. Hsu, Ph.D.
 Assistant Professor of CIS, Kansas State University
 Research Scientist, Automated Learning Group, NCSA
 bhs...@cis.ksu.edu, bhs...@ncsa.uiuc.edu
 http://www.cis.ksu.edu/~bhsu           ICQ: 28651394
=======================================================

w-h...@uiuc.edu (william henry hsu) writes:

>         Is there a way to remap the default screen colors (just the Linux
> terminal screen colors --- not X colors) in Linux?

Posting to comp.os.linux.<something> will most likely have a lot
higher chance of finding an answer, but anyway...


Linux, like any Unix (and also DOS), has no such thing as a concept of
colour. It simply knows about character streams (which are supposed to
be ASCII, which is also colour-less).

Any rendering of these to pixel patterns and their colouring is the
job of the terminal you are using. For the built-in console terminal
(PC keyboard and VGA card) Linux emulates the normal VT100 escape
sequences. See:

/usr/doc/Linux-HOWTOs/Bash-Prompt-HOWTO
/usr/doc/Linux-HOWTOs/Keyboard-and-Console-HOWTO
/usr/doc/Linux-HOWTOs/Text-Terminal-HOWTO

Above paths are as in Slackware 7.0 Linux, they may be some slight
variation on RedHat.


> to it via dialup from my Windows 2000 system at home, using PenguiNet
> for Windows 95/NT/2000.  PenguiNet has ssh but (AFAIK) none of the
> screen color customizability features that Windows Telnet or Teraterm

That sounds to me that you will have to find out what sort of
sequences the PenguiNet emulates (most likely VT100) and then send it
such sequences. Note that you will so only get the 8 primary colours,
no cool shades of colours.


> has, and I'd like to be able to get my good old-fashioned lime-on-black
> green screen.

The One True Computer Display Coloring. Green on Black.

Black on White "paper emulation" is for wimps who can not stand a
computer on its own terms :-).


--
Neil Franklin, nei...@franklin.ch.remove http://neil.franklin.ch/
Nerd, Geek, Hacker, Unix Guru, Sysadmin, Roleplayer, Mystic
Computer: a toy, speeds work so that you have more time to play