I've been the system administrator for our company system for the past 20+
years. Since SCO Unix is so stable, I have not spent the time (nor taken the
time) to learn more about this operating system. i.e. I know just enough to
be dangerous.

This weekend I came in to work and thought I'd make some backups and then
shutdown the system and clean the box. Blew out all the dust, put the cover
back on and powered up. Everything semed just fine.

This morning, one of the operators called to tell me they had "greek" all
over their screen. First thing that comes to my mind is baud rate. I check
another terminal, which someone had already logged in to to see what it was
set at. The moment I logged out on that terminal, also, nothing but "greek".
These particular terminals (I'm running Esprit and Wyse 150 terminals) are
set to run at 19,200.

Every (dumb) terminal in the company that was running, when I logged the
user out, turned to "greek".

I checked my /etc/inittab file for the settings. Every terminal listed was
changed back from "n" to "m" (running at 9600). I also noticed that every
termainal was listed twice.

I changed the baud rate back to what it should be in the innittab file,
disabled and enabled each terminal and they are now running fine.

Does anyone have any idea what may have caused the change in the inittab
file?

Frank

"Frank" <fshank@sbcglobal.net> wrote in message
news:RsTrb.261$z_5.12613834@newssvr21.news.prodigy .com...
> I've been the system administrator for our company system for the past 20+
> years. Since SCO Unix is so stable, I have not spent the time (nor taken
the
> time) to learn more about this operating system. i.e. I know just enough
to
> be dangerous.
>
> This weekend I came in to work and thought I'd make some backups and then
> shutdown the system and clean the box. Blew out all the dust, put the
cover
> back on and powered up. Everything semed just fine.
>
> This morning, one of the operators called to tell me they had "greek" all
> over their screen. First thing that comes to my mind is baud rate. I check
> another terminal, which someone had already logged in to to see what it
was
> set at. The moment I logged out on that terminal, also, nothing but
"greek".
> These particular terminals (I'm running Esprit and Wyse 150 terminals) are
> set to run at 19,200.
>
> Every (dumb) terminal in the company that was running, when I logged the
> user out, turned to "greek".
>
> I checked my /etc/inittab file for the settings. Every terminal listed was
> changed back from "n" to "m" (running at 9600). I also noticed that every
> termainal was listed twice.
>
> I changed the baud rate back to what it should be in the innittab file,
> disabled and enabled each terminal and they are now running fine.
>
> Does anyone have any idea what may have caused the change in the inittab
> file?
>
> Frank
>
Did you add, change or modify anything since your last reboot -- and
rebuild the environment?

Ron

In article <RsTrb.261$z_5.12613834@newssvr21.news.prodigy.com > "Frank" <fshank@sbcglobal.net> writes:
$Does anyone have any idea what may have caused the change in the inittab
$file?

You didn't, by any chance, relink the kernel, did you? By
installing a patch, for instance?

When you relink the kernel, /etc/inittab is rebuilt using the
contents of a number of other files; the ones that would control the
lines that changed speed are in /etc/conf/init.d (and the specific
file in question is mentioned when you enable or disable a terminal).
If someone had manually edited /etc/inittab at some time in the past, but
forgotten to update the files in /etc/conf/init.d, then everything
would be fine until the next kernel relink, at which time /etc/inittab
is recreated using the files that never got edited.
--
Stephen M. Dunn <stephen@stevedunn.ca>
>>>----------------> http://www.stevedunn.ca/ <----------------<<<
------------------------------------------------------------------
Say hi to my cat -- http://www.stevedunn.ca/photos/toby/

Yes! Thank You! I did relink the kernel when I changed some other network
stuff. If I want my inittab file to keep the proper entries after I edit
them, I should then also make the changes in the /etc/conf/init.d/rckt? Will
that solve my problem should I ever relink the kernel?

Thanks for your help.

Frank

"Stephen M. Dunn" <stephen@stevedunn.ca> wrote in message
news:Ho5rLr.CFv@stevedunn.ca...
> In article <RsTrb.261$z_5.12613834@newssvr21.news.prodigy.com > "Frank"
<fshank@sbcglobal.net> writes:
> $Does anyone have any idea what may have caused the change in the inittab
> $file?
>
> You didn't, by any chance, relink the kernel, did you? By
> installing a patch, for instance?
>
> When you relink the kernel, /etc/inittab is rebuilt using the
> contents of a number of other files; the ones that would control the
> lines that changed speed are in /etc/conf/init.d (and the specific
> file in question is mentioned when you enable or disable a terminal).
> If someone had manually edited /etc/inittab at some time in the past, but
> forgotten to update the files in /etc/conf/init.d, then everything
> would be fine until the next kernel relink, at which time /etc/inittab
> is recreated using the files that never got edited.
> --
> Stephen M. Dunn <stephen@stevedunn.ca>
> >>>----------------> http://www.stevedunn.ca/ <----------------<<<
> ------------------------------------------------------------------
> Say hi to my cat -- http://www.stevedunn.ca/photos/toby/

Frank typed (on Mon, Nov 10, 2003 at 11:19:12PM +0000):
| Yes! Thank You! I did relink the kernel when I changed some other network
| stuff. If I want my inittab file to keep the proper entries after I edit
| them, I should then also make the changes in the /etc/conf/init.d/rckt? Will
| that solve my problem should I ever relink the kernel?

Yup.

Disable, then enable one of the serial lines. You'll be told that ~two~
files were changed: inittab and that rckt file.


--
JP

Thank you very much for your help.

Frank


"Jean-Pierre Radley" <jpr@jpr.com> wrote in message
news:20031110233647.GD11696@jpradley.jpr.com...
> Frank typed (on Mon, Nov 10, 2003 at 11:19:12PM +0000):
> | Yes! Thank You! I did relink the kernel when I changed some other
network
> | stuff. If I want my inittab file to keep the proper entries after I edit
> | them, I should then also make the changes in the /etc/conf/init.d/rckt?
Will
> | that solve my problem should I ever relink the kernel?
>
> Yup.
>
> Disable, then enable one of the serial lines. You'll be told that ~two~
> files were changed: inittab and that rckt file.
>
>
> --
> JP