Shift+PgUp/PgDown works for me. screen
is also a nice option. By default you scroll with Ctrl+a and Esc, then move with the arrow keys up and down.
There are some nice screen options to allow the normal scroll. But it becomes not very useful if you have multiple windows inside screen and switch between them. These are some good options for .screenrc
startup_message off
wrap off
# define a bigger scrollback, default is 100 lines
defscrollback 5120
# To get screen to add lines to xterm's scrollback buffer, uncomment the
# following termcapinfo line which tells xterm to use the normal screen buffer
# (which has scrollback), not the alternate screen buffer.
#
termcapinfo xterm|xterms|xs|rxvt ti@:te@
btw you'll find it easier to launch a terminal program in your desktop graphical environment instead of switching to a text console. You'll be able to copy/paste with mouse, etc. Try copying text by simply selecting iwht mouse and then paste with middle click. Very useful.
Shift+Pg Up should work, however you cannot go past the login prompt. Do you want to do that? or you can't navigate through normal terminal window? (contents after login prompt).