mgetty spawning too fast?

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Hi,

mshack@mcs.com wrote:
> I'm running RedHat 2.0 Linux (1.2.13-ELF) and am having several
> frustrating problems with mgetty.  I have a ZOOM 28.8 internal
> V.FAST (pre v.34) modem.  Before, running non-ELF slakware, I
> had NO problems with mgetty.
> 
> First, when I build and install 0.98 (which all goes fine), and then
> enter it into inittab with a line such as:
> 
> d1:2345:respawn:/usr/sbin/mgetty ttyS1
> 
> and reboot, I start getting an error message stating:
> 
> d1 respawning too quickly, disabling for 5 minutes ...

Sounds like a fatal error. Either the path to mgetty is wrong, or a shared
library (ELF magic...?) is missing, or it's still a.out format, or or or.

Can you start it (as root!) from the command line? You won't be able to
log in, but you'll see whether it works or not.

What does the mgetty log file say?

[..]
> Second, I can successfully install the RedHat RPM of mgetty (0.22), and
> it runs ok at first, meaning that it loads and I don't get the
> respawning too quickly error message.  I am then able to connect,
> log in, and run pppd, and do whatever I want.  But when I disconnect,
> mgetty disappears (actually, it seems to disappear as soon as the connection
> is made, at least it disappears out of ps ax display), and is NEVER respawned.
> Thus, I get one call in and the game is over.  Mgetty is dead and the
> modem will never answer again.

Could be the modem cable, or the modem setup. Is the user shell terminating
itself after logout? If not, init won't start a new (m)getty process.

Make sure that the modem sets the DCD line properly (AT&C1) and that the
CLOCAL flag is not set on the serial line (stty -clocal).

> Third, is there any way, at runtime, to tell mgetty where the 
> mgetty.config file is located?  

No, because this would be a security hole (IMHO).

> Or, failing that, to look at the
> mgetty file itself and determine the (compiled-in) location of the 
> mgetty.config file?  

"strings /usr/sbin/mgetty |grep config" should do. 

> The RedHat RPM doesn't provide a default mgetty.config,
> and since the source code is not provided with the RPM, I don't
> know what the compiled-in defautls were.  So I have no clue as to
> where to put my mgetty.config file.

0.22 doesn't have a config file. 0.23-Dec23 is the first version that
had.

gert

-- 
                                                            //www.muc.de/~gert
Gert Doering - Munich, Germany                             gert@greenie.muc.de
fax: +49-89-3545980 <---new!!!              gert.doering@physik.tu-muenchen.de