Re: "talk" doesn't

[Kent West <westk@acu.edu>]

kmself@ix.netcom.com wrote:

> on Sat, Jan 20, 2001 at 10:23:15PM -0600, Kent West (westk@acu.edu) wrote:
>
> > I can't get the "talk" program to work. Just as a test, I'm trying to 
> > talk to myself within X. I open two terminals, find which terminal is 
> > which with the "tty" command, and then from one terminal (say 
> > /dev/pts/0) I type "talk westk pts/1". The screen divides into two 
> > sections (upper and lower), the top reports "No connection yet" for a 
> > few seconds, and then reports "Checking for invitation on caller's 
> > machine" and just sits there forever. The other term never give any 
> > indication of being called.
> >
> > I've tried this on two different Debian boxes, and have tried it from 
> > outside X; same results. Both "talk" and "ntalk" are enabled in 
> > "/etc/inetd.conf".
> >
> > Any help?
>
>     $ mesg?

"mesg" was set to "y".

Moritz suggested checking /var/log/syslog, which gave me the clue I 
needed. Although ntalk was enabled in /etc/inetd.conf, the talkd daemon 
was not installed. Installing talkd solved the problem.

Thanks everyone!

Kent