n138ct@tamuts.tamu.edu (Brent Burton) (03/28/91)
**THIS MESSAGE IS ABOUT MGR RELATED STUFF -- FAIRLY LENGTHY***
Well, I've finally downloaded the mgr stuff and also the vidpal emulator.
I've moved the current /etc/inittab and /etc/rc to inittab.old and rc.old.
The inittab and rc files that came with the mgr distribution were moved
into /etc.
I edited the net /etc/inittab so that it is:
is:2:initdefault:
rc::bootwait:/etc/rc >/dev/null 2>&1
con:2:respawn:/etc/getty console 9600
:vid...
:ph0...
:ph1...
:000...
The difference is that I've eliminated the getty processes from tty000
and from ph0.
In the /etc/rc file I've added a bunch of
echo xx: just before yyyyyy >/dev/console
where xx is the line number and yyyyyy is a 'topical' part of /etc/rc so
I can trace execution of /etc/rc to find problems.
So when I reboot the machine, the typical OS Version, memory, and MB revision
appear, but then the interesting problem starts.
Nothing appears on the screen, but when you type something, rectangular boxes
made up of asterisks move up the screen with text in hot pursuit -- the text
belongs inside these rectangles like windows, I think. By pressing the
special keys (help, msg, exit...) on the right side of the keyboard, more
text appears. This looks like, from my very distorted images of it, like
a text-based UA running. When I press the Exit key, it goes away and
the next "echo" trace statement in my /etc/rc file is printed.
What is this program??
(I've looked, and when you exit this program I
get a trace print just before the keyboard setup part of /etc/rc. It appears
that those files in /etc that are started with a for... loop start this
program up; specifically, .phinit which runs /etc/ph. Is this ph the
mystery program??)
Next, after /etc/rc finishes, the normal welcome and login messages appear.
However, the next trick is logging in. At login: I enter 'root' but no
matter which login I use, it immediately returns with "login incorrect."
Is it not reading the passwd file or what?
Standard Questions:
1) Has anybody else had this happen?
2) what'd you do?
-----
I'd like to get this vidpal emulater cranking so I could try out mgr.
However, I'd like first to be able to boot my machine and not have the
window driver load up.
_ANY_ hints are appreciated!
+----------------------+--------------------------+
| Brent P. Burton | n138ct@tamuts.tamu.edu |
| Texas A&M University | Computer Science/Physics |
+----------------------+--------------------------+dt@yenta.alb.nm.us (David B. Thomas) (03/29/91)
Brent Burton seems to have run into the broken /dev/console problems I posted a couple of times before. n138ct@tamuts.tamu.edu (Brent Burton) writes: > con:2:respawn:/etc/getty console 9600 This looks absolutely correct, assuming you wish to stop using the window driver. I tried to do this, and had the same problem you had. More on this later. >The difference is that I've eliminated the getty processes from tty000 >and from ph0. Right -- and from /dev/window, I assume. >Nothing appears on the screen, but when you type something, rectangular boxes >made up of asterisks move up the screen with text in hot pursuit -- the text >[...] >a text-based UA running. When I press the Exit key, it goes away and >the next "echo" trace statement in my /etc/rc file is printed. The programs wmgr, smgr, ph, and even "message", which is used extensively in the stock /etc/rc, are all window applications and expect to use the window driver. "message" can with with any ua-able terminal, but probably not on /dev/console. The others certainly can't work right unless the window driver has been loaded. Are you still loading the window driver? The beginning of /etc/rc normally loads it, then execs itself with all i/o connected to /dev/window. What I wanted to do is take that completely out, and just log on to /dev/console and start mgr. I think if you change the "message" commands to "echo" instead, and take out smgr, wmgr, and ph (you can instead use cron & update .. see the sample /etc/rc script provided with mgr), you should be able to get a normal bootup and a login prompt, and then not be able to log in!! >Next, after /etc/rc finishes, the normal welcome and login messages appear. >However, the next trick is logging in. At login: I enter 'root' but no >matter which login I use, it immediately returns with "login incorrect." >Is it not reading the passwd file or what? Aha! This is EXACTLY the problem I have had. And I was positively unable to get past this point. By the way, there was probably no text cursor on the console either, right? My theory is that access to /dev/tty is broken for /dev/console. In other words, if you are on /dev/console, and you try to open "/dev/tty", it doesn't work. The login program calls getpass(3) to get your password. Notice that it isn't even prompting for a password! I know that getpass() opens /dev/tty first thing. I think that open is failing, and getpass is returning a NULL, but login can't do anything about it anyway, so it just says "login incorrect" and tries again. [Hmm! It would be interesting to see what happens if you try an account that has no password at all.] My "solution" was to go back to loading the window driver. I still don't use smgr, or wmgr, or ph, and I patched the window driver using the patcher supplied with mgr to get the "working" icon to quit flashing. It's not so bad, but that's valuable memory that the window driver is using, and valuable time wasted during bootup, considering that I never use the window driver at all, except to be allowed to log onto the console at all. Isn't that *special*? >I'd like to get this vidpal emulater cranking so I could try out mgr. >However, I'd like first to be able to boot my machine and not have the >window driver load up. You might not be able to do that! But if you do get anywhere with it, please! let me know! interestingly, in the sample /etc/rc script provided (signed by Lenny T.) it doesn't load the window driver (humorously, it echoes "not loading the window driver" during bootup!). I wonder if something in 3.51m is broken so the console quit working, or what. More information: if I log onto another terminal (with the window driver not loaded), I can cat to /dev/console fine, and I can cat from /dev/console just fine. If I boot floppy unix (which uses /dev/console) and type "cat /dev/tty", the whole system hangs. Acually, I think the system is fine, but the keyboard gets stuck and it's impossible to get out. The eof and intr characters do not work, and furthermore, cat does not echo what I type, as it is supposed to. So, I am using MGR and loving it, but I'm forced to load the window driver against my will! little david -- Bottom of stack = 0x40000 Stack pointer = 0x3fffe Don't push it!