john@dicomed.UUCP (sys_guy) (05/14/85)
We are having some intermittent problems with /dev/tty going away, apparently
for no good reason. We had a power failure a couple of weeks back, and ever
since then, our VAX 750 running 4.2 has been a bit sick. We had our DEC FE in
here twice running complete diagnostics on the hardware, and the machine appears
to be physically fit.
The first disappearance of /dev/tty was discovered by arff not knowing that
our floppy drives existed. A program that does a direct write to the floppies
worked fine, so that ruled our drive/driver problems. By chance, we noticed
that /dev/tty was gone - vanished! Seemed pretty strange at the time, but
after recovering it, everything was fine.
The second and latest disappearance was last friday (10-may-85). The machine
would not allow anyone with a password to login. The login word was accepted
fine, but the password prompt would not wait for the password to be typed,
instead just feeding itself a carraige return. Talk about confusing.....
We compared the binary running (ra81) with a binary that booted up from
another (hp) device, and found no diff's. More confusion.....
After scratching heads and a bit of under-the-breath swearing, the absence
of /dev/tty was again discovered.
Anyone have even the slightest idea of what might be happening? This issue
is most confusing. Any and all responses greatly appreciated.
Please respond to:
--
john salmi {ihnp4 | mgnetp | uwvax}!dicomed!john
dicomed corporation
12000 portland ave s
po box 246
minneapolis, mn 55440-0246
612/885-3092
"...and if it doesn't work, there must be something wrong with it."