gettys,ttya and console

[at rice.edu]

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 at rice.edu