Bug#2360: xdm cannot find a free VT

[krs@caos.aamu.edu (Karl R. Sackett)]

Apparently none of my non-list email can reach Stephen so I'm posting here.

Stephen Early writes:
>
> On Mon, 19 Feb 1996, Karl R. Sackett wrote:
>
> > xdm dies on start up and sends the below message to /var/log/xdm-errors.
> > Here's what happens with startx:
> >
> > [...]
> > Fatal server error:
> > xf86OpenConsole: Cannot find a free VT
>
> Please would you check your /dev/tty* device files. On how many VTs are
> you running getty? Are there enough tty devices (tty8, tty9, tty10,
> ...) to allow one to be free when you try to start the X server?

mycroft$ ls /dev/tty[0-9]*
/dev/tty0  /dev/tty2  /dev/tty4	 /dev/tty6  /dev/tty8
/dev/tty1  /dev/tty3  /dev/tty5	 /dev/tty7

tty1 through tty6 have invocation lines in /etc/inittab.

I found that I could get around the problem by calling for a VT explicitly
in /etc/X11/xdm/Xservers:

:0 local /usr/X11R6/bin/X vt07

This works.  My hunch is the problem is somewhere in the kernel.  The
available tty devices are there but the kernel can't find them or pass
the information on to the X server.
--
Karl R. Sackett                                        krs@caos.aamu.edu
Run silent, run deep