# agetty not a character device (SOLVED)

## hanj

Hello All

I just adopted another Gentoo server.. and I'm getting a weird problem with this. Today there was a power failure, and after booting up, I'm seeing that it's complaining about fonts on start up, and now its spamming the logs with agetty messages.

Here is what happens if I issue an `rc`

```
 * Setting user font ...

Couldnt open //dev/tty1

Couldnt open //dev/tty2

Couldnt open //dev/tty3

Couldnt open //dev/tty4

Couldnt open //dev/tty5

Couldnt open //dev/tty6

Couldnt open //dev/tty7

Couldnt open //dev/tty8

Couldnt open //dev/tty9

Couldnt open //dev/tty10

Couldnt open //dev/tty11

 * Failed to set user font        [ !! ]
```

Here are the agetty messages..

```
Aug 29 09:16:59 comp agetty[27478]: /dev/tty3: not a character device

Aug 29 09:16:59 comp agetty[27479]: /dev/tty4: not a character device

Aug 29 09:16:59 comp agetty[27480]: /dev/tty5: not a character device

Aug 29 09:16:59 comp agetty[27481]: /dev/tty6: not a character device

Aug 29 09:17:08 comp init: Id "c2" respawning too fast: disabled for 5 minutes

Aug 29 09:17:09 comp init: Id "c3" respawning too fast: disabled for 5 minutes

Aug 29 09:17:09 comp init: Id "c4" respawning too fast: disabled for 5 minutes

Aug 29 09:17:09 comp init: Id "c5" respawning too fast: disabled for 5 minutes

Aug 29 09:17:09 comp init: Id "c6" respawning too fast: disabled for 5 minutes

Aug 29 09:18:26 comp rc-scripts: Failed to set user font
```

I was surprised to see that X was installed on the box.. and don't want to remove it because it might be using some parts of it. I'm still trying to figure out all the pieces of this box. Again, this was working fine (not writing agetty messages, etc) before the reboot this morning. Now, I did upgrade baselayout yesterday.

Thanks in advance.

hanjiLast edited by hanj on Tue Aug 29, 2006 5:42 pm; edited 1 time in total

----------

## hanj

Trying to mess with consolefont init script (removing pipe to /dev/null).. and here are some clues...

```
comp dev # /etc/init.d/consolefont restart

 * Caching service dependencies ...                                                                                      [ ok ]

 * Setting user font ...

Couldnt get a file descriptor referring to the console

/etc/init.d/consolefont: line 55: --tty=//dev/tty1: No such file or directory

Couldnt get a file descriptor referring to the console

/etc/init.d/consolefont: line 55: --tty=//dev/tty2: No such file or directory

Couldnt get a file descriptor referring to the console

/etc/init.d/consolefont: line 55: --tty=//dev/tty3: No such file or directory

Couldnt get a file descriptor referring to the console

/etc/init.d/consolefont: line 55: --tty=//dev/tty4: No such file or directory

Couldnt get a file descriptor referring to the console

/etc/init.d/consolefont: line 55: --tty=//dev/tty5: No such file or directory

Couldnt get a file descriptor referring to the console

/etc/init.d/consolefont: line 55: --tty=//dev/tty6: No such file or directory

Couldnt get a file descriptor referring to the console

/etc/init.d/consolefont: line 55: --tty=//dev/tty7: No such file or directory

Couldnt get a file descriptor referring to the console

/etc/init.d/consolefont: line 55: --tty=//dev/tty8: No such file or directory

Couldnt get a file descriptor referring to the console

/etc/init.d/consolefont: line 55: --tty=//dev/tty9: No such file or directory

Couldnt get a file descriptor referring to the console

/etc/init.d/consolefont: line 55: --tty=//dev/tty10: No such file or directory

Couldnt get a file descriptor referring to the console

/etc/init.d/consolefont: line 55: --tty=//dev/tty11: No such file or directory

 * Failed to set user font                                                                                               [ !! ]
```

```
comp dev # ls -al //dev/tty1 

crw------- 1 root root 4, 1 Aug 29 08:27 //dev/tty1
```

I'm not sure why it's not finding /dev/tty1? It exists?

Here is what happens if I try to set the font manually...

```
/bin/setfont default8x16  -C /dev/tty1

Couldnt open /dev/tty1
```

hanji

----------

## hanj

Okay.. this is sorta solved. I just edit'd the /etc/inittab with the following.. and executed telinit.

```
c1:12345:respawn:/sbin/agetty 38400 tty1 linux

#c2:2345:respawn:/sbin/agetty 38400 tty2 linux

#c3:2345:respawn:/sbin/agetty 38400 tty3 linux

#c4:2345:respawn:/sbin/agetty 38400 tty4 linux

#c5:2345:respawn:/sbin/agetty 38400 tty5 linux

#c6:2345:respawn:/sbin/agetty 38400 tty6 linux
```

Now logs are quiet.

Thanks!

hanji

----------

## SweepingOar

I was having a similar problem in my log files (and a respawn waiting five minutes message too). I made the change you did, but I'm still getting this:

```
Nov 29 14:26:06 www agetty[3146]: /dev/tty1: No such file or directory

Nov 29 14:26:16 www agetty[3161]: /dev/tty1: No such file or directory

Nov 29 14:26:26 www agetty[3181]: /dev/tty1: No such file or directory

Nov 29 14:26:36 www agetty[3219]: /dev/tty1: No such file or directory

Nov 29 14:26:46 www agetty[3244]: /dev/tty1: No such file or directory

Nov 29 14:26:56 www agetty[3286]: /dev/tty1: No such file or directory

Nov 29 14:27:06 www agetty[3367]: /dev/tty1: No such file or directory

Nov 29 14:27:16 www agetty[3391]: /dev/tty1: No such file or directory

Nov 29 14:27:26 www agetty[3413]: /dev/tty1: No such file or directory

Nov 29 14:27:36 www agetty[3429]: /dev/tty1: No such file or directory
```

and this:

```
Nov 29 14:15:08 www init: Switching to runlevel: 6

Nov 29 14:16:13 www Memory: 903900k/917504k available (1962k kernel code, 13220k reserved, 407k data, 140k init, 0k highmem)

Nov 29 14:16:13 www init IO_APIC IRQs

Nov 29 14:16:13 www Waiting on wait_init_idle (map = 0x0)

Nov 29 14:16:13 www All processors have done init_idle

Nov 29 14:16:13 www Warning: unable to open an initial console.

Nov 29 14:19:23 www saslauthd[1979]: ipc_init        : listening on socket: /var/lib/sasl2/mux

Nov 29 14:21:05 www init: Id "c1" respawning too fast: disabled for 5 minutes

Nov 29 14:21:05 www init: no more processes left in this runlevel

Nov 29 14:27:46 www init: Id "c1" respawning too fast: disabled for 5 minutes
```

----------

