question about Linux console and emacs

[Jing Su]

Hello Everybody,

I recently dug out my old pentium 120mhz laptop, and thought to myself... "Why buy a new notebook when an old one just might do the trick?"  So, I dropped Slack into it.  So far, the computer does great.  I got my programmin' on and make'n on.  But, because X is such a hog, on the 16mbs of ram, I'm running the whole thing in console mode only.  No X.

I'm using the virtual consoles to switch between my various tasks, which is working great, but with a few annoyances which I am unable to figure out.  I've lived most of my life in X so hopefully someone can tell me where to look for answers.  I've tried googlin', but I'm turning up blank... maybe I'm trying the wrong keywords....

First, is there a way to increase the scroll-back buffer size for the Linux Console?  And to have it preserved when I switch between the virtual terminals?

And Second, I've read several newsgroup messages which claim Emacs21 supports console syntax highlighting.  I've got Emacs21.2 built on the system, but font-locking still does nothing but dull gray.  Anyone know what I'm missing?  Google gives me nothing and the Emacs Wiki didn't help either.  I know that Emacs will do syntax highlighting when you run it in an xterm window in console mode... But I'd like it to syntax highlight when I'm running straight on virtual terminal... no X.

C'mon... all you emacs people out there....  I'm so desperate for some color in my code I've started looking into VIM.... help me out here. ;)


Thanks all, very much,
-Jing