agetty weirdness

On Thu, 10 Aug 2006, Stefan Georg wrote:

> Hey guys,
>
> I just logged in to one of the boxes I admin on (just
web, mysql) and
> saw some processes being started as root:
> /sbin/agetty -L ttyS1 57600 vt100
> for instance. I'm not starting these, and I don't
believe that they
> belong to ssh either as they disappear after a few
seconds. Also they
> aren't always running but sometimes when I run
"ps aux" I see it there,
> othertimes not. Always though having been started
recently (within last
> minute or so).
>
> Then I check /var/log/secure and see tons of entries
like these
> Aug  9 18:55:43 stefangeorg agetty[9604]: ttyS1: ioctl:
Input/output
> error

It looks like agetty is trying to start, but /dev/ttyS1 is
broken or 
unconfigured. On sysv init systems like linux, getty and
friends are 
usually started from /etc/inittab. On other systems it is
often /etc/ttys 
(man 5 ttys). Your inittab probably has a line like:

S1:2345:respawn:/sbin/agetty -L ttyS1 57600 vt100

Comment it out and run 'telinit q' to turn this off. You
may also want to 
look for kernel messages about ttyS1, and test it with
statserial and 
minicom. If you get it working, you can turn agetty back on
(provided you 
want people to be able to log in on that serial port).

 			Alexey
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On Thu, 2006-08-10 at 01:52 +0200, Stefan Georg wrote:
> Hey guys,
> 
> I just logged in to one of the boxes I admin on (just
web, mysql) and
> saw some processes being started as root:
> /sbin/agetty -L ttyS1 57600 vt100

[ SNIP ]

> Aug  9 19:02:44 stefangeorg agetty[9719]: ttyS1: ioctl:
Input/output
> error
> 
> Can someone let me know what could be happening here? I
believe agetty
> is used to open up a terminal from a serial console or
other types of
> devices. Not sure whats going on here and need the wise
advice of my
> elders.
> 
> Stefan 

Look in /etc/inittab and you will most likely see one or
more entries
like the following:
 1:2345:respawn:/sbin/agetty -L ttyS1 57600 vt100

Comment them out if you don't need a getty on a serial line
(for a
terminal).

Interesting most distributions use plan "getty"
for this propose.


--  
-- 
 Don E. Groves, Jr. 

$ /usr/games/fortune : Your business will assume vast
proportions.
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