re: virtual dumbness

["L. C. Robinson" <lcr@onewest.net>]

On Tue, 26 Mar 2002, Brian Tew wrote:

> Nicholas suggested  this line:
> S0:12345:respawn:/sbin/getty ttyS0 9600 vt100

Actually, this line is incomplete, and probably won't work
(unless the compiled in defaults help you).

> Ok, I  put that in  inittab & took out my stuff from rc.local.
> Now how do I get to this ttyS0 console?  I seem to have virtual
> consoles; they change with the f keys.  But none of them is S0
> nor ttyS0.

ttyS0 is the first general purpose serial port (also known, in
MS-DOS, as com1), and is technically not a "console", unless you
make it so (or even a terminal, unless so connected and
configured).  The "console" is actually a device in the /dev
directory "/dev/console" and is where all system (usually kernel)
messages are sent.  It is automatically associated with whatever
virtual terminal you happen to be using at the time, or certain
other things we won't get into now.  Technically, what you are
referring to, I think, are "terminals", and linux supports many
kinds, simultaneously: the text based virtual terminals that use
the PC monitor and keyboard (there can be up to 63 of these) are
only one of these types.  Sometimes we loosely refer to all these
PC video card-and-monitor based virtual terminals as the "the
console", and as noted, they all can get the console messages, so
I can see where there could be some confusion.  You can also hook
up separate hardware serial terminals to as many serial ports as
you can get for your machine -- perhaps some of them connected
through modems.  And some types of terminals are designed to come
from other machines through a network (usually ethernet).  A
linux machine can support hundreds of these at a time, with as
many users, but you should use the facilities and utilities
provided for this purpose, or you will have all kinds of
problems.  

Properly speaking, when you hook up a synth or other adaptive
device to a serial port, it is acting as a specialized hardware
serial terminal, and is configured similarly to glass crt display
type of serial terminal (these are always text only -- you
usually buy them second hand for, say, $35.00, at thrift stores,
computer recyclers, or swap meets these days).  These should
always be configured with a getty running on them, as noted at
the beginning of this message.

Perhaps you missed my earlier message where I gave complete
directions on how to set all this up right (there is more to it
than just a line in /etc/inittab)?  If so, just drop me a
personal note, and I will send you another copy.  Posting it
again would likely be an annoyance to the other people on the
list.

There likely should be a HOWTO to explain the very basics of
serial text terminals and multiuser systems to complete newbies.
Does anyone know of one?  Maybe a link to one could be added to
the blinux FAQ.

LCR

-- 
L. C. Robinson
reply to no_spam+munged_lcr@onewest.net.invalid

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