aland@infmx.informix.com (Colonel Panic) (01/25/91)
Maybe this is in the FAQ, but I haven't seen one in so long. (Conor,
you out there?)
This is probably something simple and stupid in setting up or using
utmp, but I can't find it offhand. If I try to run "login" from
an existing login shell (sh or csh), I get the passwd prompt, then
the message:
No utmp entry. You must exec "login" from the lowest level "sh".
What does it take to fix this?
On an unrelated topic, I found a cause of why my permissions for /etc
kept getting clobbered (thereby hosing ps): the Consensys PowerPorts
software install changes owner and permissions. If anybody has a
PowerPorts (or gets one in the future), keep this in mind.
--
Alan Denney # aland@informix.com # {pyramid|uunet}!infmx!aland
Overheard somewhere in a bunker in Baghdad:
- "Saddam, Sir, another bombing raid has hit the city!"
- "Hmph. Now we *really* know what that infidel Bush meant when
he talked about the 'Thousand Points of Light'!!!"cpcahil@virtech.uucp (Conor P. Cahill) (01/26/91)
In article <1991Jan24.205726.11944@informix.com> aland@infmx.informix.com (Colonel Panic) writes: >Maybe this is in the FAQ, but I haven't seen one in so long. (Conor, >you out there?) Yes I am here. No this isn't in the FAQ. Yes I will be putting out a new FAQ next week. Things have been real hectic at the office and at home for the past couple of months, but hopefully things will be settling down now & I can get back to the real important stuff like reading news. >This is probably something simple and stupid in setting up or using >utmp, but I can't find it offhand. If I try to run "login" from >an existing login shell (sh or csh), I get the passwd prompt, then >the message: >No utmp entry. You must exec "login" from the lowest level "sh". > >What does it take to fix this? The problem is that login requires an entry in /etc/utmp when it runs. This is normally provided by getty when it executes the login. When you are already logged in as a shell and you run login, the login process id is not the process id of the entry in the utmp file and therefore won't let you do it. However, if you instead run "exec login" this will work because the login process will take the place of your shell process and therefore have the process id that corresponds to the id in the utmp file. If you don't want to exec login, but just want to be another user while being able to fall back to where you were, use su with a first argument of a dash. This will act like you logged in as that user. For example: su - cpcahil would "log" you in as cpcahil, with the exception that the utmp entry would not be updated. Note that you can do this even if you aren't root -- you will just need the password for the account you are attempting to su to. -- Conor P. Cahill (703)430-9247 Virtual Technologies, Inc. uunet!virtech!cpcahil 46030 Manekin Plaza, Suite 160 Sterling, VA 22170