[comp.unix.wizards] Strange login problem

ge@hobbit.UUCP (01/19/88)

At our University the Dutch PTT has installed a modern PABX voice/data
switching system. People can access different computer systems by dialing
up at 9600 bd. In combination with Berkeley Unix 4.2 and 4.3 the following
problem occurs:

If the user starts a process in the background (csh), and then disconnects
by pushing the appropiate button on the telephone (a $1000 phone with a
RS232C connector on its back) the line is dropped, and the shell is killed
by a SIGHUP. The background process never receives this signal because the
csh has assigned it a different process group. /etc/init then forks a new
process which tries to open the terminal device (/dev/tty??) but this open
NEVER succeeds. The line is effectively dead. On BSD 4.3 the open call is
performed by /etc/getty, but the same problem arises.
Does anyone have a clue about what is happening here?
P.S. the problem does not arise with portselectors like the MICOM 600.

Ge' Weijers,

KU Nijmegen, The Netherlands