Error : Unable to get pty 1

[SkyHigh]

Hi

I am running Solaris 8 on Intel, I lately restarted my system and now when try to login thru KDE (xwindows) it just takes me back to the login screen, I tried to login using failsafe and I am getting the error "Unable to get pty", it seems to work fine on command line, I get the same error when I try to telnet or ssh into this box from another, I had installed a few packages lately i don't remember exactly which ones and since then this problem started, I was then unable to open any new terminal windows.

I tried adding the following in /etc/system, but did not work :

set pt_cent=50
set npty=50

Does anyone know of a workaround to that, I really need help here pls !

Thanks
Brenda

 

[Annihilannic]

That should be pt_cnt, by the way. Unless you've got that many people logging in the number of tty's shouldn't be a problem though...?

Are the contents of /dev/pts and /dev/pty* intact? If not, perhaps a 'reconfigure reboot' would help? Not sure about Intel, but on SPARC it's achieved by touching /reconfigure and rebooting. Or a boot -r... but Intel doesn't have a PROM. Annihilannic.

 

[SkyHigh]

The contents of /dev/pts and /dev/pty* appeared to be intact, its my home network so no one else is connecting to it.

In this situation, what would be the best workaround.

Your help is very much appreciated.
Rgds
Brenda

 

[Annihilannic]

I recommend you try the reconfigure reboot anyway.

What version of Solaris are running, and what kernel jumbo patch? (If you paste the output of uname -a that would be enough).

Also check that the permissions on /usr/lib/pt_chmod are 4111 (--s--x--x) (from Info doc 11371). Annihilannic.

 

[SkyHigh]

Hi Annihilannic

I still have to figure out how can I do a reconfigure reboot in Intel version.

Here is the info from uname -a :
SunOS SunSol 5.8 Generic_108529-14 i86pc i386 i186pc

The permissions on /usr/lib/pt_chmod are correct but the owner and group are of one of the users that I created, do you think that may be causing the problem:

ls -l /usr/lib/pt_chmod:

---s--x--x 1 postgres postgres

Please let me know.

Thanks and appreciate your help and guidance in this issue.
Regards
Brenda

 

[Annihilannic]

That file ownership looks like the cause of your problem... well spotted.

Either something has changed the ownership of the file, or the postgres user has the same UID as root (i.e. 0). How was the user added?

chown root:bin /usr/bin/pt_chmod and chmod 4111 /usr/bin/pt_chmod will probably fix your problem. Annihilannic.

 

[SkyHigh]

Hi Annihilannic

That did the trick and thank you so much for your such a professional guiance in reaching to this resolution.

As you mentioned in one your above msgs, may I ask what is Info doc 11371.

Thanks once again
Rgds
Brenda

 

[Annihilannic]

No problem.

Info doc 11371 is one of the documents you can find on

http://sunsolve.sun.com.

Annihilannic.