@rice.edu:petero@great-horned.rice.edu (Peter Ostrin) (07/08/89)
We have been having considerable trouble with gettys, consoles and ttya. consider these lines from our /etc/ttytab file. # name getty type status comments # #EXAMPLE 1 console "/usr/etc/getty std.9600" wyse-50 on secure ttya "/usr/etc/getty std.9600" unknown off secure #EXAMPLE 2 console "/usr/etc/getty std.9600" wyse-50 off secure ttya "/usr/etc/getty std.9600" unknown on secure While running Sunos 4.0.1 EXAMPLE 1 caused us no problems. We were able to log onto the console connected to ttya without incident. The problems began when we tried running the getty on ttya, as in EXAMPLE 2 (neccesitated by a console monitoring program). Under 4.0.1 while everything seemed normal and the console and ttya behaved in a predictable way, logging off from the console (ttya) caused a kernel panic - machine crash. (unpleasant to say the least). On reporting this to Sun we were promply sent yapt.5, wherein we were promised the getty-console-ttya bug, was corrected. Our 4.0.3 upgrade tape arrived the same day, and we decided rather to go straight to 4.0.3, (which presumably contained all the bug fixes of yapt.5). Needless to say, 4.0.3 has made things worse. If the setup in EXAMPLE 1 is used, a simple cat > /dev/ttya on the machine will block the getty input line, and only output to the console (eg. cat > /dev/console) will fix it. EXAMPLE 2 causes the same action but reversed. A cat > /dev/console will block all legitimate console input until some output to ttya is received. If anyone out there has any info, documentation, ideas or experience, We would be most grateful to hear from you. Please mail replies to petero@rice.edu