/dev/vt0x, gettys to virtual terminals on AT&T 6386 WGS

Mike Spindler mikes at opel.UUCP
Thu Sep 7 00:06:52 AEST 1989


We're running an AT&T 6386, Sys V 3.2, with the virtual console devices.

The consoles seem to be accessable from an interactive session on the
console, but we have been successful with running a process from
inittab.  The process starting in inittab does a system() call to 
vtlmgr and starts another process, redirecting input and output
to/from /dev/vt01.

We then have the following scenario:

	a. /dev/vt01 has a real-time process running in the foreground
	b. /dev/console has a getty running

The user can switch to the /dev/console getty by issuing a <alt><sysreq><h>
and log in for an interactive session.

Upon logging out, I'd like the console to revert back to the /dev/vt01
display.  But... currently the vt driver sees the /dev/vt01 running
and asks the user if they want to kill the virtual terminal /dev/vt01,
they must answer yes to get out (even though this does not kill the
/dev/vt01 process.)

Question #1: Is there any way possible to bypass this interactive step?
		The logged-in user doesn't own the process anyway!

Question #2: Has anyone already worked out how to program function
		keys to work in place of the <alt>-<sysreq>
		combinations (eg. <alt>-<sysreq>-<f1> also maps to
		simply <f12>)?

Question #3: Has anyone figured out how to start up processes
		directly from inittab to a virtual terminal?  What would
		really be ideal is to start processes or gettys like
		we used to under Microport.  That is, it seems that the
		virtual consoles used under 3.2 do not have the capability
 		to be accessed directly by programs started from inittab.

		Running vtlmgr from inittab is equally dreadful.

Please email any suggestions to !uunet!opel!mikes


Thanks in advance,

Mike Spindler



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