Why is my 2nd ksh (only) owned by sys?

[Gil Kloepfer Jr.]

In article <1990Jul22.193512.14903 at dept.csci.unt.edu> afc at shibaya.lonestar.org (Augustine Cano) writes:
>command.  After logging out and logging back in, the first "Full screen Unix"
>ksh is owned, as always, by w?.  The second is always owned by sys and all
>the succeeding ones by w?, as it should be.  This happens every time, I now
>always have a sys owned ksh.  If I close the sys ksh window, the next one I
>open will be owned by sys.
>
>What is causing this?  Can those who have seen this before provide some
>assistance?  BTW, this is happening on a 3b1 2/75 3.51m.

The problem is with the links between /dev/syscon, systty, and window.
They should be, as follows:

   0 crw-rw-rw-  3 root    sys       7,  0 Jan  1  1970 syscon
   0 crw-rw-rw-  3 root    sys       7,  0 Jan  1  1970 systty
   0 crw-rw-rw-  3 root    sys       7,  0 Jan  1  1970 window

Your major number may vary, but the important thing is that it's the same
one as the window driver.  You can find this out with masterupd -l

The best way to accomplish this is to modify /etc/rc to delete syscon and
systty, and create links for both of them to /dev/window upon bootup.

The reason they get unlinked in the first place is because of a "feature"
of this unix, which tries to make the controlling terminal at the time
the system is brought to run-level "s" the "single user terminal."  Note
that "S" doesn't stand for "shutdown" -- it stands for single-user.
I may be wrong (and someone will definitely correct me if I am ;-),
but this is one of the few unices (if not the ONLY one) that use
single-user mode this way.  Sigh...

For more information, see /etc/profile and look at the junk to implement
shutdown in run-level "s".

Gil.
-- 
Gil Kloepfer, Jr.  ...!ames!limbic!gil  |  gil%limbic at ames.arc.nasa.gov
ICUS Western Development Center     Houston, Texas