Bug 3208

Summary:	RedHat 6.0 provides bogus /etc/inittab for headless systems
Product:	[Retired] Red Hat Linux	Reporter:	H. Peter Anvin <hpa+rhbugs>
Component:	initscripts	Assignee:	Bill Nottingham <notting>
Status:	CLOSED CURRENTRELEASE	QA Contact:
Severity:	high	Docs Contact:
Priority:	high
Version:	6.0	CC:	edoutreleau, lars, marcm, rvokal
Target Milestone:	---
Target Release:	---
Hardware:	sparc
OS:	Linux
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version:		Doc Type:	Bug Fix
Doc Text:		Story Points:	---
Clone Of:		Environment:
Last Closed:	1999-12-17 21:36:55 UTC	Type:	---
Regression:	---	Mount Type:	---
Documentation:	---	CRM:
Verified Versions:		Category:	---
oVirt Team:	---	RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team:	---	Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:

Description H. Peter Anvin 1999-06-02 07:13:03 UTC

While upgrading RedHat 5.2->6.0 on a headless SS20 dual
HyperSPARC, /etc/inittab is replaced with a version that
expects to use virtual consoles, and *only* virtual
consoles.  As a result, the system becomes inaccessible once
it enters multiuser mode, if the network in unavailable (as
it became for me due to a ypbind startup bug -- separate bug
report has been filed.)

RedHat 5.2 handled this flawlessly out of the box.

Comment 1 lars 1999-06-02 20:36:59 UTC

This bug still exists on the recently released images (6/2/99).

Workaround: Log in single user mode.  Edit /etc/inittab.  Add a line
that looks like this:

  t1:2345:respawn:/sbin/getty ttyS0 19200 vt100

Permanent solution: test your software *before* releasing it.  There's
not way to miss a bug like this.

Comment 2 David Lawrence 1999-06-11 19:55:59 UTC

I have verified this to be true on a sparc in our test lab.

Comment 3 Bill Nottingham 1999-06-14 17:53:59 UTC

The old inittab should be saved as inittab.rpmsave (if not, that
is definitely a bug...); the problem is, that that's a change
made to a configuration file, and we can't sanely munge config
files with RPM. AFAIK, serial consoles were never set up in
inittab by the installer...

------- Email Received From  "H. Peter Anvin" <hpa> 06/14/99 15:47 -------

Comment 4 marcm 1999-06-22 15:36:59 UTC

Shouldn't that change to the inittab file be:

sc:12345:respawn:/sbin/getty cua0 9600 vt100

(almost verbatim from a 5.2 installation)

You forgot run level 1 and the "default" serial port speed is 9600.
Yeah higher is nice but the chances are that if you are installing
from a default machine the serial ports are at 9600.

Also, the virtual terminals are commented out in my 5.2 install -
should that be done too when "fixing" a 6.0 install?

Comment 5 lars 1999-06-22 15:51:59 UTC

> sc:12345:respawn:/sbin/getty cua0 9600 vt100

This is incorrect; the /dev/cua* devices have been deprecated for some
time in favor of /dev/ttyS*.

Additionally, you do *not* want to start a getty in runlevel 1 (single
user mode); Linux dumps you to a shell automatically in this runlevel,
and an attempt to start getty would just cause problems.

You are correct that the baud rate should probably be set to 9600.

Comment 6 Bill Nottingham 1999-12-17 21:36:59 UTC

This should be fixed in the 6.1 installer.