SUMMARY: xconsole

From: Martyn Johnson <Martyn.Johnson_at_cl.cam.ac.uk>
Date: Mon, 24 Jul 1995 18:29:51 +0100

I asked:

> I recently upgraded from 2.1 to 3.2 and found that /dev/xcons has gone away.
> It appears to be replaced by the "xconsole" (or "dxconsole") program.
> Unfortunately this program will only work if I run it as "root". This is
> despite the fact that it is a setuid-root program!

Various people responded with clues, but the only one to hit the nail right on
the head was anthony.baxter_at_aaii.oz.au, who pointed out that xconsole will
only work for the user who owns /dev/console. There are a couple of scripts
(GiveConsole and TakeConsole) which have the job of "chown"ing the console at
the appropriate times during XDM login. My problem was that our local xdm
setup was not calling these scripts.

I now have xconsole working.

I discovered a further subtlety. It's a feature that "xconsole" can grab the
console away from an "xconsole" that is already running. It is also the case
that "xterm -C" can grab the console away from a running "xconsole" (which
then terminates). However "xconsole" will NOT grab the console away from a
running "xterm -C" - the "xconsole" just complains that it cannot open the
console.

I'm not sure whether this last is a bug or a feature. It isn't a major problem
to me, but it is another possible cause of the error message I was observing.

Martyn Johnson maj_at_cl.cam.ac.uk
University of Cambridge Computer Lab
Cambridge UK
Received on Mon Jul 24 1995 - 19:56:20 NZST

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