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Re: /dev/console



On Thu, Nov 18, 1999 at 02:59:58AM -0500, Nagilum wrote:
> I'm wondering how to get /dev/console to work properly in Debian.
> 
> I'm running Debian 2.1 slink, and a 2.2.12 kernel.  I've seen that the
> Debian distribution sets /dev/console up as a symlink to /dev/tty0, while
> slackware and Redhat create an actual device with Major # 5 and Minor # 1.
> 
> Is there a practical reason for this disparity?  I'm just trying to figure
> out why this was done in Debian... also, I can't seem to get console
> messages to log to the console on my Debian box, whereas the same setup
> works fine in slackware.

As Ian suggested, using /dev/tty0, or device 4,0 for /dev/console
was the recommended way of doing things before kernel 2.1.71.  Now
there is a "real" console device at 5,1.  Since Slink was a 2.0.xx
system, it makes sense for it to use the old convention.

> Example: I have:
> auth,authpriv.*                 /dev/console
> 
> in my syslog.conf.  These messages should then be logged to the console
> (among other places).  The slackware 7 box handles it fine, but I don't
> get any console output at all on the Debian machine. 

Perhaps Debian just doesn't generate as many auth or authpriv logs?
They should only occur during logins and the like.  See what happens
if you do this:

echo Blah |logger -t Testlog -p authpriv.info

That works as expected on my 2.2.13 system when I set things up like
you have.  Did you remember to restart syslogd after changing its
conf. file?

-Kevin


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