Subject: Debian quirks?

From: Vebjoern Forsmo <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 20 Aug 1996 15:23:32 +0200 (METDST)

Here's a few things that has been bothering me for a while.  Have I done
something wrong, or should the following be considered bugs:

/etc/inittab:
1:2345:respawn:/bin/login root </dev/tty1 >/dev/tty1 2>&1
The problem is that login waits 60 seconds before giving up.  The init
start to respawn this line until it is disabled for 5 minutes.  This
behaviour continues forever or until the line is replaced with a "normal"
inittab-entry.

/etc/inittab:
~~:S:wait:/sbin/sulogin
This program doesn't seem to know what console it wants it input on and
therefore doesn't get any input at all.  Had to add /dev/console to get it
to work.

/tmp
Several programs seems to prefer /tmp over /var/tmp.  I have a 30MB /
partition, and only about 10MB space free on /tmp.   This didn't work very
well while trying to restore a 50MB file from taper.  (I've now mounted
100MB on /tmp to avoid the problem.)

dselect
Is there some switch that will make this fiend of a program stop adding
everything that is listed as recommended automatically?  I find that
whenever I enter the select menu it (dselect) will happily add a lot of
stuff that I don't want just because is is "Recommended".  When I then
proceed to remove the aforementioned programs, the program that originally
did the "recommend" is marked for purge or something similar.. (This might
be because I just don't understand the internal logics of deselect or just
because I do something wrong, but it still causes me to spend 15 minutes
just checking for what has disappeared and what has been unintentionally
added every time I've ventured into the select menu of dselect.)

(I usually use dpkg, as there I know what is happening.)

And btw:  Thanks for a brilliant distribution!

Vebby  <[email-masked]> <[email-masked]> <[email-masked]>

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From: Joey Hess <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 20 Aug 1996 19:16:40 -0400 (EDT)

> therefore doesn't get any input at all.  Had to add /dev/console to get it

This isn't really a problem with debian, the real problem is that the
programs don't know what console to use, or the console isn't set up
correctly or something like that.

I have a dumb terminal set up using a hacked version of agetty so it
doesn't prompt for a login name or a password, just runs a program
immediately. It seems to work well. I'll send you a patch to agetty via
private email.

-- 
               "true - do nothing, successfully" - - true (1)

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From: Sherwood Botsford <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 21 Aug 1996 12:31:24 -0600

> 100MB on /tmp to avoid the problem.)

I've got several machines that install with an absurdly small root or
/tmp partition.  What I usually to is blow away /tmp, and replace it
with a link to /usr/tmp or /var/tmp depending on the machine.

Sherwood Botsford |Unsolicited email that advertises commercial 
Physics Dept      |activities will consitute a request for 
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---

From: "Brian C. White" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 23 Aug 1996 13:38:17 -0400

> with a link to /usr/tmp or /var/tmp depending on the machine.

Be careful with this...  /tmp is cleaned during system bootup while /var/tmp
is not.  Setting this link could cause /var/tmp to be cleaned at bootup,
possibly erasing files that should not have been.

                                        Brian
                               ( [email-masked] )

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