From: wonge@fraser.sfu.ca (Edmund Wong)
Subject: serial connections and some other minor problems..
Keywords:  serial ports
Organization: Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C., Canada
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1992 10:14:37 GMT

  Hi, I'd like some expert help on serial port access.  

  I have JUST recently installed Linux AND X11(what a frustration) on my
486/33 with some help from some comp.os.linux readers, and I THANK them
all for all the help they offered.  

  However, like a novice, I have experienced some problems, which I have
no idea, how to solve, as well as a few questions on serial connections.

  First of all, the questions:-

   1) I have a problem with some commands in Linux.  All, or close to
      all of them, work for the root user, but some don't work for
      the non-root user.  For example, the commands 'uptime' and 'w'.
      I've asked someone and he suggested the following thing:-
      (my 'w' and 'uptime' command -et others- are in my /var/bin
       directory.)

      chown root.mem /var/bin/w 
      chmod 2755 /var/bin/w

       It didn't work at all, and so I was wondering what mistake I
      made, and how I am to correct such a frustrating problem?
      Or generally speaking, how do I correct a problem of that nature?

    2) Related to (1), the w command produces empty 'JCPU','PCPU'
       and 'what' columns, and that someone told me to recompile
       the server(I think that's what he meant, but I could have
       mistaken) or get gettyps204 from tsx-11.mit.edu(which I
       did).  Now the question is, how am I to recompile the
       package?   Firstly, do I just simply download the whole
       gettyps204.tar.Z file directly to my floppy(i doubt), or
       do I uncompress and untar the file into a temp. directory
       and then download it to my floppy?  I hope these aren't
       stupid questions, coz I've been scanning the FAQ for some
       time and it's taking a toll on my eyes(talk about major
       eyestrain.. :( ).

     3) When the root user does a 'elm' command, everything works
        properly, but when a non-root user does the 'elm' command
        the system keeps on displaying a "You have no password entry!"
        and then it throws the user back to the prompt.  What is
        going on wrong?  Have I forgotten to do something during
        the process of installing the Linux system?

      
    That's 'bout all for the questions, so I hope someone can help
me with the aforementioned problems.  Much appreciated.

    Now, to the serial connection stuff.

    I'd like to be able to allow people to login remotely to my 
terminal server, or at least allow myself to login from remote(via
modem) to my terminal server.  Now the point here is that, I've read
the FAQ, and quite frankly, it didn't help me much since it didn't
go into detail with serial connections.  Right now, my modem is
on COM1(which is /dev/ttys1, I think *) and I did try out what was
suggested in the FAQ; that is, add the following line to my /etc/inittab
file:-
    ttys2:vt100:/etc/getty -m  1200 ttys2

  but I changed it to:-
    ttys1:vt100:/etc/getty -m 9600,2400,1200,300 ttys1

   Now that somehow, got the modem's attention, in a sense that, when
there IS a RING(someone is dialing in), something does happen.  I would
get these wierd messages being displayed to ALL of the consoles.  The
problem is, that the modem wouldn't actually CONNECT.  It would just
sit there, and start looping back with wierd messages like:-

  Dec 21 02:07:27 login[33]: invalid password for `RING' on `ttys1'

  and some other kinds of junked up responses.  From what I figured
is that  the system keeps on asking for the login pass as well as
the password for linenoise and `RING' and other stuff...

   So, it all BOILS down to, HOW do I get a proper connection?  I've
tried the Kermit approach, but I could never get out of Kermit.  So
could someone help me with this?  Much appreciated.  I know I kinda
droned on, but heck, I figured background information might help
experts pinpoint the exact problem.  


   Thank you for your attention, and any help is appreciated.
 


 at lea

-- 
InterNet: wonge@fraser.sfu.ca  |  "Fail not; Learn Not.
                               |  It is with failing, that one learns,
                               |  So by Learning, one must fail." - Edmund Wong