Re: mgetty problem

[Carl <carl@anexia.co.uk>]

Beginner wrote:
> Hi Admins,
>
> FC4 on HP Proliant
>
> I had a problem today where users couldn't login to the telnet 
> application they use. In the end a reboot solved it. I noticed that 
> there were a lot of errors in the messages file:
>
> Jul 29 04:00:07 mgetty[7424]: init chat failed, exiting...: 
> Interrupted system call
> Jul 29 04:00:07 mgetty[7424]: failed in mg_init_data, dev=ttyS0, 
> pid=7424
> Jul 29 04:00:52 mgetty[7472]: init chat failed, exiting...: 
> Interrupted system call
> Jul 29 04:00:52 mgetty[7472]: failed in mg_init_data, dev=ttyS0, 
> pid=7472
> Jul 29 04:01:38  mgetty[7533]: init chat failed, exiting...: 
> Interrupted system call
> Jul 29 04:01:38 mgetty[7533]: failed in mg_init_data, dev=ttyS0, 
> pid=7533
>
> and in mgetty.log.ttyS0:
>
> 07/31 11:14:29 yS0  timeout in chat script, waiting for `OK'
> 07/31 11:14:29 yS0  init chat timed out, trying force-init-chat
> 07/31 11:14:53 yS0  timeout in chat script, waiting for `OK'
> 07/31 11:14:53 yS0  init chat failed, exiting...: Interrupted system 
> call
>
> In the past ttyS0 was used (with a modem) as a dial-in terminal but 
> it hasn't been used in over a year. From my searches I suspect I need 
> to disable this now.
>
> Will commenting out the lines in/etc/mgetty+sendfax/mgetty.config do 
> it. Or am I barking up the wrong tree?
>
> port ttyS0
> debug 4
> data-only y
>
> Any thought appreciated? Thanx,
> Dp.
>
>   
First up a warning. I'm going to suggest you edit /etc/inittab manually 
which if done
incorrectly can cause serious system failure. You may even have a gui tool
in kde/gnome etc that would be safer to use but i dont known the 
available tools.

Most likely you need to turn off the respawn of the mgetty process in 
/etc/inittab.

Check /etc/inittab for a line that looks something like:

     ttyS0:2345:respawn:/sbin/mgetty dev=ttyS0 baud=19200

Yours will be different as i haven't run mgetty for years but it will 
reference mgetty (not mingetty, getty, agetty or uugetty).
You need to change the "respawn" field in the line to be "off" and then 
tell init to re-read inittab with "telinit q" as root.

Feel free to post your /etc/inittab for further guidance before editting it.