Very Computer

Hi all, I've just got a quick question regarding a console ttymon(?)
problem that I've had on a few machines.  The symptom is that whatever
key typed in on the keyboard, it shows up as garbage on the console
screen.  Other outputs, such as syslog marks, log entries, etc., show
up just fine.  From reading the ttymon man page, it seems like the
keyboard baud rate just got messed up.  If I hit the BREAK key, it gives
an error:

set_termio: set_ttymode failed, errno = 4
Warning -- speed of <console> may be not supported by the system

though /etc/ttydefs seems to be fine (i.e., console is defined).

The problem seems to start at random; for example, one Sparc 5 here's
been running great for three weeks, another 20's been running for months.
It also seem that both v2.4 and v2.5 have this problem.

I've so far tried sending HUP to init and console's ttymon processes to
no avail.  Truss-ing the ttymon process doesn't give me any clues.  The
only cure I know is to reboot, which is not really an option for some
machines here (i.e., routers, gateways, servers).

I'm sure there've been other people who's had this problem before and
managed to solve it.  I haven't got the time right now to wrestle with
it and will appreciate any help/suggestions/pointers on how to solve it.


(Perhaps for the FAQ?)

Thank you very much.

: Hi all, I've just got a quick question regarding a console ttymon(?)
: problem that I've had on a few machines.  The symptom is that whatever
: key typed in on the keyboard, it shows up as garbage on the console
: screen.  Other outputs, such as syslog marks, log entries, etc., show
: up just fine.  From reading the ttymon man page, it seems like the
: keyboard baud rate just got messed up.  If I hit the BREAK key, it gives
: an error:
:
: set_termio: set_ttymode failed, errno = 4
: Warning -- speed of <console> may be not supported by the system
:
: though /etc/ttydefs seems to be fine (i.e., console is defined).
:
: The problem seems to start at random; for example, one Sparc 5 here's
: been running great for three weeks, another 20's been running for months.
: It also seem that both v2.4 and v2.5 have this problem.
:
: I've so far tried sending HUP to init and console's ttymon processes to
: no avail.  Truss-ing the ttymon process doesn't give me any clues.  The
: only cure I know is to reboot, which is not really an option for some
: machines here (i.e., routers, gateways, servers).
:
: I'm sure there've been other people who's had this problem before and
: managed to solve it.  I haven't got the time right now to wrestle with
: it and will appreciate any help/suggestions/pointers on how to solve it.


: (Perhaps for the FAQ?)
:
: Thank you very much.

        Try:

        $ kbd_mode -a

        Sounds like this is happenning when users don't cleanly
exit from X-windows on the console (maybe they are kill'ing the
server somewhow).

   ____________________________________________________________________

  | Systems Programmer              University of California, Davis    |
  | Graduate School of Management & Sierra Nevada Ecosystem Project    |

We've had this problem on our various Sparcs too. And I
agree with Brian in that "kbd_mode -a" should reset your
keyboard to the proper mode.

I've mostly seen this happen on our machines when
an unsuspecting user issues that wonderous command,
"kill -9 -1". :)

The "kill" command seems to cause various applications
and whatnot to exit in some order that ttymon doesn't
like.

Hope this all helps,

Jeff Norrell
Department of Mechanical Engineering
University of Texas at Austin