Read this if you have PTY problems in 2.1.115

H. Peter Anvin (hpa@transmeta.com)
Sat, 8 Aug 1998 01:35:14 -0700 (PDT)


Okay, I have posted this twice already and it doesn't seem to be
getting out... someone please let me know if this actually does show
up on the mailing list...

There seem to be two PTY misconfigurations that are biting people with
2.1.115; please CHECK that you are not suffering from one of these
problems:

1. /dev/ttyp* and /dev/ptyp* on major number 4. This configuration
has been deprecated since 1995 (kernel 1.3.x) and support for it
was finally discontinued in 2.1.115. If you have these devices on
major 4, you need to re-make them on majors 2 and 3 as listed in
linux/Documentation/devices.*.

I would also be curious what distribution you're running, and it's
version, if you installed your system in 1996 or later.

2. /dev/ptmx but no /dev/pts; running glibc 2.0.9x. If you have
/dev/ptmx glibc will try to use Unix98 PTYs. Either remove
/dev/ptmx and use only old-style PTYs, or set up Unix98 PTYs
properly:

- Compile the kernel with CONFIG_UNIX98_PTYS and CONFIG_DEVPTS_FS.

- Add to /etc/fstab:

none /dev/pts devpts gid=5,mode=620 0 0

(gid=5 is appropriate for RedHat systems; it should be the gid of
the "tty" group, which may be distribution dependent.

mode=620 means "mesg y" is the default, mode=600 means "mesg n".)

- rm -f /dev/ptmx
mknod /dev/ptmx c 5 2
chmod 666 /dev/ptmx
mkdir /dev/pts
mount /dev/pts

If you are *still* having problems, please let me know... there still
may be a bug lurking in there, but the statement that BSD PTYs don't
work in 2.1.115 is not correct.

-hpa

-
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@vger.rutgers.edu
Please read the FAQ at http://www.altern.org/andrebalsa/doc/lkml-faq.html