[newbie] can't switch consoles, why?

[Ty]

Hi all,

I'm new to mandrake distrib but not to FreeBSD and Redhat.  One thing I 
haven't been able to figure out in Mandrake 7.2 is why can't I switch 
consoles using the norml ctrl alt f1-f7?  I'm not in xwindows when 
attemtping to do this...

When I try nothing happens...I don't know where this is setup, so I 
don't know how to troubleshoot it...

I've done multiple installs (for various reasons) and it's always the same..

can anyone help?

thanks in advance :)
Ty