The kernel's virtual terminal (VT) and console subsystem, which provides the text consoles you see on tty1 through tty6, handles keyboard input switching, scrollback, character set mapping, and the underlying plumbing that lets login prompts and kernel messages appear on a screen before any graphical environment starts.
This is not actually a hardware driver; it is core infrastructure inside the TTY layer that implements Linux's text-mode virtual terminals. It underpins every Linux system that shows a console, so it is not a candidate for removal and should be evaluated as part of the TTY/console subsystem rather than as a device driver.
repository signals
18files
11,270source lines
260commits, 5y
+11,178 / −5,695lines added / removed, 5y
54authors, 5y
monthly commits · 2021-04-21 → 2026-04-21 · 260 total · active in 46/61 months
sources
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codex reasoning notes (technical)
Not a driver directory: contains the Linux virtual terminal (VT) core / console layer, a generic kernel TTY subsystem component rather than hardware-bound device driver code.