[comp.sys.sgi] INIT spawns gettys repeatedly - why?

HCART@vax.oxford.ac.uk (06/29/90)

    Following a recent crash, the performance of our 3130 has
fallen significantly.  Output from  ps aux  shows that INIT
is spawning a getty on serial line 2, on which we have an ascii
terminal.  After a few seconds, a  login  process appears for this
line, even though no one is using the terminal.  A short while
later, a new getty appears and the cycle repeats endlessly.

    I have tried editing /etc/inittab to remove the entry for
serial line 2, and everything returns to normal, as one would expect.

    The unwanted processes are spawned at such a rate (about one
every 10 seconds) that the reduction in performance is noticeable.
Anyone have any suggestions as to the probable cause of this
difficulty and how we can resolve it while still using the
serial line?

    Any help much appreciated.

    Hugh Cartwright,  Physical Chemistry,  Oxford.

blbates@AERO4.LARC.NASA.GOV ("Brent L. Bates AAD/TAB MS361 x42854") (06/29/90)

   I think I have seen something similar when I was trying to you
the same port to 'cu' out of the Iris and login into it.
   With out any more information, I would suggest looking in the
IRIS Owner's Guide, Section 7.2 Installing an ASCII Terminal and
double check to make sure everything listed there matches with
what you have.
--

	Brent L. Bates
	NASA-Langley Research Center
	M.S. 361
	Hampton, Virginia  23665-5225
	(804) 864-2854
	E-mail: blbates@aero4.larc.nasa.gov or blbates@aero2.larc.nasa.gov

jesse@camelot.sgi.com (Jesse Rendleman) (06/30/90)

Another thing that can cause this is if the peripheral (I usually
see this with modems) is configured to echo characters back to the
system.  This causes the "login" to get echoed back, the getty thinks
someone is logging in, and things get confused.