Messages in this thread |  | | Date | Sat, 16 Nov 1996 13:55:19 -0500 (EST) | From | Tyson D Sawyer <> | Subject | Re: gpm/serial bug? |
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> Date: Sat, 16 Nov 1996 00:40:35 -0500 (EST) > From: Tyson D Sawyer <tyson@rwii.com> > > > I just spent too many hours figuring out that gpm was running and > shouldn't have been. I had a serial device attached to /dev/cua0 > on a headless, sort of embedded, Linux PC. A short time after > starting the program that controls the device on the serial port > the the kernel would start thinking that bogus data was being typed > on the console. > > This isn't a kernel problem; this isn't even a gpm bug. GPM is a > program which listens to mouse events (coming from /dev/cua0, in your > case, because that's how it was started in your /etc/rc scripts) and > provides cut and paste functionality to the console. Apparently your > devices was emitting characters which were getting interpreted as mouse > motions and mouse clicks, which was causing gpm to perform "cut and > paste" functions. > > That's how come you were getting bogus data that was appearing to be > typed on the console --- that's what cut and paste is all about. > > This was a strictly a user configuration error, no more and no less. > You shouldn't be running gpm on a serial port unless you have a serial > mouse hooked up to that serial port. > > - Ted
OK. I mostly agree with you. I did realize that clearing up the configuration error eliminates the problem. What I question is the if reasonable sanity checking on the part of gpm should result in this:
Nov 15 12:52:54 guest1 /sbin/mingetty[215]: tty1: invalid character for login name [...] Nov 15 12:53:45 guest1 init: Id "1" respawning too fast: disabled for 5 minutes
...and more importantly why it should result in a machine that you can't remotely login to anymore. Also, X clients being remotly run on the machine would stop, or at least their communications would stop. This is why I was asking if there might be a kernel problem that is not normally encountered on a correctly configured machine.
I can't claim that the computer was completely crashing but I was not able to do anything with the machine other than switch consoles and toggle keyboard LEDs. <Ctl><Alt><del> didn't work under these conditions and that doesn't seem right. Does <Ctl><Alt><del> work on a console with a getty that is disabled by init? Do the other kernel trapped keys work under these conditions? I was not able to remember those key combinations at the time so I don't know but expect they would have worked.
Thanks for pointing out that gpm was pasting. That had not occured to me.
Ty
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