there is a reproducible TTY/console bug that was reported to linux-kernel
a few weeks ago, and i have seen it several times in a pre2 2.1.48 system,
so i guess it's not fixed yet.
It's a 'console switch freeze', whenever there is heavy activity on the
text console, _and_ fast switching between consoles is done. The system is
up and no harm is done to anything (so it's not random corruption), but
the console cannot be switched away. [switchvt has no effect, nothing
helps, only a reboot]. I have no idea what this is, but i'm pretty sure it
first emerged when those big 2.1.3* console changes were added, (the
no-console support patch and other patches).
i can investigate further if the bug is only reproducible on my system ;)
The only nonstandard thing is that i'm using 10 text consoles, otherwise
it's a pretty plain console setup. [no SVGATextMode, no extra fonts,
nothing]
When you say "fast console switch", you just mean hitting Alt-F1,
Alt-F2, etc. very quickly, right?
I tried setting up in one window "while /bin/true; do; cat /etc/termcap;done",
and in another window, /usr/games/rain, and in a third window I simply
left idle. I then tried switching between these three windows very
quickly, and I couldn't reproduce it.
Can you send in a procedure which reasonably reliably reproduces the
problem?
Many thanks,
- Ted