[comp.sys.att] What's this "sys" window nonsense?

erict@flatline.UUCP (J. Eric Townsend) (04/16/89)

(Running 3.0 on a 3b1.)

What's this "sys" window device name, and why is it so screwy?
I'm using windy and the new/improved wmgr, if that makes any difference.
Basically, I spawn a new window/shell, but a ps reveals:

   PID TTY  TIME COMMAND
  1111 sys  0:01 ps
  1109 sys  0:00 sh

If I run something like readnews, Pnews, rn, Pcomm, or anything else
from this window the input goes all to hell.  Only about half
the characters make it through to the application, the rest
appear on the command line when I exit out from the application.
If I run a program that creates another window, the characters
still get misplaced back to the command line of the sys window.

Is this something that happens because of windy?  Is there a way
I can munge the code so that it *doesn'*t happen?


-- 
 "Enter, oh seeker of knowledge... That's *YOU*, fathead!"
J. Eric Townsend
Inet: cosc5fa@george.uh.edu  511 Parker #2 Houston,Tx,77007
EastEnders Mailing List: eastender@flatline.UUCP

lenny@icus.islp.ny.us (Lenny Tropiano) (04/18/89)

In article <526@flatline.UUCP> erict@flatline.UUCP (J. Eric Townsend) writes:
|>
|>(Running 3.0 on a 3b1.)
|>
|>What's this "sys" window device name, and why is it so screwy?
|>I'm using windy and the new/improved wmgr, if that makes any difference.
|>Basically, I spawn a new window/shell, but a ps reveals:
|>
|>   PID TTY  TIME COMMAND
|>  1111 sys  0:01 ps
|>  1109 sys  0:00 sh
|>
...
Yes, another one of those infamous bugs with the UNIX pc.  It seems 
that the window driver improperly shuts down (sometimes).  When this happens
/dev/syscon get's unlinked from /dev/window...  How, who knows?  But the
thing (kludge) you can use to fix this is stick this in your /etc/rc:

ln /dev/syscon /dev/window
ln /dev/systty /dev/window

Make sure the devices look like this (particularly the major minor numbers)...

   0 crw-rw-rw-  3 root    sys       7,  0 Jan  1  1970 /dev/syscon
   0 crw-rw-rw-  3 root    sys       7,  0 Jan  1  1970 /dev/systty
   0 crw-rw-rw-  3 root    sys       7,  0 Jan  1  1970 /dev/window

-Lenny
-- 
Lenny Tropiano             ICUS Software Systems         [w] +1 (516) 582-5525
lenny@icus.islp.ny.us      Telex; 154232428 ICUS         [h] +1 (516) 968-8576
{talcott,decuac,boulder,hombre,pacbell,sbcs}!icus!lenny  attmail!icus!lenny
        ICUS Software Systems -- PO Box 1; Islip Terrace, NY  11752

gil@limbic.UUCP (Gil Kloepfer Jr.) (04/21/89)

In article <676@icus.islp.ny.us> lenny@icus.islp.ny.us (Lenny Tropiano) writes:
>Make sure the devices look like this (particularly the major minor numbers)...
>
>   0 crw-rw-rw-  3 root    sys       7,  0 Jan  1  1970 /dev/syscon
>   0 crw-rw-rw-  3 root    sys       7,  0 Jan  1  1970 /dev/systty
>   0 crw-rw-rw-  3 root    sys       7,  0 Jan  1  1970 /dev/window
>Lenny Tropiano             ICUS Software Systems         [w] +1 (516) 582-5525

Before setting the major number of your window devices to "7", make sure
that it really is major number 7.  Some of you who have been playing with
device drivers or some such stuff might have different major numbers.  The
key thing is to be consistent.

The major number of /dev/window will more than likely be alright with the
bug Lenny describes.  The problem is that /dev/syscon and /dev/systty
sometimes get unlinked or linked in some funny way.  The remedy is to
assure that they're linked as shown and that the minor number is zero upon
system boot.

-----
| Gil Kloepfer, Jr.
| ICUS Software Systems/Bowne Management Systems (depending on where I am)
| {decuac,boulder,talcott,sbcs}!icus!limbic!gil   or    gil@icus.islp.ny.us