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 People buy MicroShaft for compatibility, but get incompatibility and instability instead. This is award winning "innovation". Find out how MS holds your data hostage with "The *Lens*"; see "CyberSnare" at http://www.netaction.org/msoft/cybersnare.html