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From: alex@pc.cc.cmu.edu (alex wetmore)
Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.questions
Subject: Re: Meta Keys, Syslog, and Virtual Terminals
Date: 12 Dec 1994 14:55:19 GMT
Organization: Phred Networking
Lines: 38
Message-ID: <3cho8n$1jp@dagny.galt.com>
References: <1994Dec12.102256.5447@bay.cc.kcl.ac.uk>
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> 3) At the moment syslog messages seem to go to all virtual terminals
> that I am logged into, or sometimes I get a message repeated three
> times in a row, presumably because I am logged in more than once (as
> root). How can I change this? How can I arrange for all system
> messages to go to an unused VT? What stops me switching to a VT
> unless a getty is running on it?
If you change any lines that refer to /dev/console in /etc/syslog.conf
to refer to /dev/ttyvX where X is an empty virtual console (I use ttyv4)
it will send the messages to there. For instance I have the line:
news.info;local0.*;*.notice;*.info;mail.*;kern.debug /dev/ttyv4
in there.
Now you can then make /etc/ttys run cat on the device instead of getty.
Use something like:
ttyv4 "/usr/bin/cat" noterm on secure
(i think that should work, I've changed console drivers to one that doesn't
restrict access to console drivers that are closed). Otherwise you could
do:
ttyv4 "/usr/libexec/getty syslog" pc3 on secure
And then make a syslog entry in /etc/gettytab that looks like:
syslog:\
:im=:lm=:ht:np:sp#115200:
Which will make getty be completely quiet, but you can still log into the
terminal.
I chose ttyv4 because I used ttyv0 to ttyv3 for login consoles, v4 for
syslog, and everything else is reserved for X sessions. This works out
nicely if you map alt-j, alt-k, alt-l and alt-; to switch between your
consoles, and then you can use alt-' to switch to the syslog console.
Nice keys if you are a typist (much easier to use then alt-f1, alt-f2, etc).
alex