If you’re a sysadmin on Ubuntu Server, you may be wondering how to open a second console session. This is useful if you need to work on two different systems at the same time. There are a few ways to do this:

  1. Type “sudo apt-get install linux-server” and follow the prompts. This will install the linux-server package on your Ubuntu Server.
  2. Type “aptitude install linux-server” and follow the prompts. This will install the linux-server package on your Ubuntu Server, but it won’t open a new console session automatically. You’ll need to type “sudo opensuse login” and follow the prompts to open a new console session.
  3. Type “cd /usr/share/services/” and follow the prompts to change your working directory to this location. Then type “ln -s /usr/share/services/linux-server /usr/share/services/” and follow the prompts to add the linux-server package to your Ubuntu Server’s repositories.

Use the Alt+F1, Alt+F2, etc commands to open multiple consoles. There are 6 available tty consoles, using F1-F6.

For example, if I hit the key combination:

I will see a new login window:

I find this very useful when you are compiling a package and wish to keep working on something else.