The 6 tty text consoles are only local on the machine. You can get to them when local running X by using Ctrl+Alt+F1 through F6. From the consoles you can use Alt+F1 through F6 to get to any of the other consoles, or Alt+F7 to get back to X.
I don't know any way access the local tty consoles to use them remotely. However, it is possible to read them per
http://wpkg.org/Viewing_Linux_console_screens but you would need to do that as root or using sudo.
It is also possible to
write messages to text consoles, xterms, or ssh terminals, see
man write.
When you ssh to a computer or open an xterm (like lxterminal in lxde) you are in a pseudo tty called a pts, which acts just like a tty. In this case pi is just in a tty1, efflandt launched startx from tty2 and opened lxterminal pts/1 and also has remote ssh sessions connected to pts/0 and pts/2.
Code: Select all
efflandt@rpi8 ~ $ who
efflandt tty2 2013-01-11 23:48
pi tty1 2013-01-11 23:48
efflandt pts/0 2013-01-11 23:49 (xps8100-1204.local)
efflandt pts/1 2013-01-12 00:01 (:0.0)
efflandt pts/2 2013-01-12 00:10 (xps8100-1204.local)