[NBLUG/talk] What controls the "prompt"?

[Mitch Patenaude]

That's a very interesting theory, though I'm not sure why it would work 
for root and not for the normal uwer (root's environment uses fewer 
colors I suppose).

Here's another theory.  Non-superuser applications are failing to 
properly allocate ptys, probably becuase of a permission issue in /dev.

As root.. do the following and see if your output is equivilent:
[root at calisto root]# ls -ld /dev /dev/ptmx
drwx--x--x   15 root     root        90112 Jul  8 06:50 /dev/
crw-rw-rw-    1 root     root       5,   2 Aug  4 10:03 /dev/ptmx
    { If /dev/ptmx isn't globally readable/writable, then non-root
      applications can't applocate new pseudoterminals, which would
      cause just this sort of problem.  If /dev/ isn't executable,
      then that too would prevent access to /dev/ptmx, but that
      would be causing a LOT of weirdness, so I doubt that is the
      problem. }

[root at calisto root]# ls -l /dev/pts
total 0
crw--w----    1 mrp      users    136,   0 Jul 17 23:52 0
crw--w----    1 mrp      users    136,   1 Aug  1 15:48 1
crw--w----    1 mrp      users    136,  10 Aug  2 23:24 10
crw--w----    1 mrp      tty      136,  11 Aug  4 10:04 11
crw-------    1 mrp      users    136,   2 Jul 29 23:53 2
crw--w----    1 mrp      users    136,   3 Aug  3 00:17 3
crw--w----    1 mrp      users    136,   4 Aug  3 23:24 4
crw--w----    1 mrp      users    136,   5 Jul 22 18:27 5
crw--w----    1 mrp      users    136,   6 Aug  3 00:07 6
crw--w----    1 mrp      users    136,   7 Jul 29 22:44 7
crw--w----    1 mrp      users    136,   8 Aug  3 19:59 8
crw--w----    1 mrp      tty      136,   9 Aug  3 19:44 9
   { there should be one entry in this directory for every pseudoterminal
     you have open and comparing the output before and after you launch 
the
     prompt-less terminal. }

    -- Mitch

On Monday, Aug 4, 2003, at 09:15 US/Pacific, ME wrote:

> Try this:
> Start the terminal that does not display anything.
> Paste in this text:
>
> touch /tmp/test123.txt
>
> Then go to a terminal that does display text.
> See if the file /tmp/test123.xt exists.
>
> If it does, then I would inspect the number of BPP you have selected 
> for
> your card (8bpp?) and see if the window manager/env manager has just 
> used
> up all of you colors. Parhaps KDE does not use as many colors as Gnome.
>
> If you have an XFree86.log (check /var/log) please send that.
>
> -ME
>
>
> Todd Cary said:
>> Eric -
>>
>> <<<
>> Do you mean that when you're not root and run the terminal, it comes 
>> up
>> without any prompt
>>>>>
>> Correct!  No prompt...just a white screen/window.
>>
>> This is RH 9.0.
>>
>> I did not notice this in the beginning since I set the default to KDE
>> where everything runs fine...in fact, coming from Windows, I am very
>> impressed.  Then one day I decided to "take a look at Gnome".  When I
>> tried to bring up the Terminal window, there was no prompt (I thought 
>> it
>> was a keyboard problem).  By going back to KDE and using the
>> "gnome-terminal" command from it's terminal window I was able to gleen
>> the information I have presented.
>>
>> Todd
>>
>> Eric Eisenhart wrote:
>>
>>> On Mon, Aug 04, 2003 at 05:54:08AM -0700, Todd Cary wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>> If I bring up the Gnome Terminal ("gnome-terminal") and I am root, 
>>>> all
>>>> is well: I get the root prompt.  However, if I am not root, the 
>>>> terminal
>>>> window comes up without the prompt.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>> Do you mean that when you're not root and run the terminal, it comes 
>>> up
>>> without any prompt, or that it comes up with something different 
>>> than the
>>> root prompt?  Does a terminal window appear at all?
>>>
>>> What Linux distribution are you using?
>>>
>>>
>>
>> --
>>
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>>
>>
>
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