Bug 2283016

Summary:	Wall command not broadcasting
Product:	[Fedora] Fedora	Reporter:	old486whizz <old486whizz>
Component:	util-linux	Assignee:	Karel Zak <kzak>
Status:	CLOSED NOTABUG	QA Contact:	Fedora Extras Quality Assurance <extras-qa>
Severity:	medium	Docs Contact:
Priority:	unspecified
Version:	40	CC:	kzak, moschlegbz
Target Milestone:	---
Target Release:	---
Hardware:	x86_64
OS:	Linux
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Fixed In Version:		Doc Type:	If docs needed, set a value
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Last Closed:	2024-05-28 07:47:57 UTC	Type:	Bug
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oVirt Team:	---	RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
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Description old486whizz 2024-05-23 15:44:39 UTC

Description of problem:
When using a terminal GUI program or SSH connection, running the "wall" command doesn't broadcast a message, and/or a broadcast message is not seen.
This voids the whole purpose of the program - broadcasting messages to users on a system.

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
util-linux-2.40.1-1.fc40.x86_64

How reproducible:
100%

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Open 2 GUI terminals (Konsole) or log in via SSH
2. Run "wall test-message"

Actual results:
No broadcast message seems to be sent

Expected results:
A broadcast message should be seen on all terminals

Additional info:
I found this: https://discussion.fedoraproject.org/t/wall-command-doesnt-work-in-fedora-40/116859/4

Which indicates it works on a virtual terminal on the physical host - but again this only "works" for the physical terminal, not a terminal program or ssh session - which invalidates the whole point of the program.

Comment 1 old486whizz 2024-05-23 18:00:31 UTC

Possibly linked to this issue - kwrited within KDE doesn't present anything from wall / write to the screen.
Previously any mesage wall'd would pop up in the kde desktop notification area - I suspect wall and write are not sending these messages to the destination correctly.

Comment 2 Karel Zak 2024-05-28 07:37:10 UTC

*** Bug 2283049 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 3 Karel Zak 2024-05-28 07:47:57 UTC

Please see bug #2283049. The problem is that many terminal emulators do not write entries to utmp, so wall(1) has no clue about the sessions.

Comment 4 old486whizz 2024-05-28 08:10:23 UTC

I'll wait to see what happens with the duplicate bug, but Karel Zak is incorrect in their statement about graphical terminals (didn't seem to read that I mentioned SSH which is not related to graphical terminals at all).

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old486whizz