[6741] in Athena Bugs
Re: vax 7.2P: Console Login
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU)
Sat Dec 29 19:58:45 1990
Date: Sat, 29 Dec 90 19:58:27 -0500
To: The Hammer <ckclark@MIT.EDU>
Cc: bugs@MIT.EDU
Cc: kcunning@MIT.EDU, project-tracker@MIT.EDU
In-Reply-To: The Hammer's message of Sat, 29 Dec 90 18:45:03 EST,
From: Richard Basch <probe@MIT.EDU>
Date: Sat, 29 Dec 90 18:45:03 EST
From: The Hammer <ckclark@ATHENA.MIT.EDU>
System name: test-3100
Type and version: CVAXSTAR 7.2P
Display type: SM
What were you trying to do?
I tried to do a console login (CTRL-P)
What's wrong:
Half the time, it does not work; it prompts for a username and
password, but it does not echo my username, and it read it incorrectly
too, since I got a "Principal Unknown: Kerberos" or some such.
What should have happened:
It should echo the username (but not the password, of course),
and should read this correctly the first time.
Please describe any relevant documentation references:
N/A
We have investigated the problem thoroughly for about 6 weeks, and
cannot track down why the terminal characteristics are being set
incorrectly upon the shutdown of X. Simply pressing and releasing the
CTRL key after the "login:" prompt appears seems to reset the fact that
the CTRL key is no longer pressed. During the shutdown of X, it appears
that the kernel still believes the control key is depressed. There
doesn't seem to be an easy user-level command that we can issue to reset
the terminal characteristics, so the fix will have to be applied to the
kernel (if we ever figure out what it is).
In fact, we believe this bug has always existed in our system and it is
only now appearing. I am theorizing that it existed with the old
system, but with the old system, since it required CTRL-P to shutdown X
from Xlogin and another CTRL-P at the "Hit any key to start" prompt
(which was already with the X server down), that the CTRL status was
being reset with the second CTRL-P.
Whatever the problem is, we do not believe we will be able to fix it in
time for the 7.2 release, so hopefully, this little annoyance can be
documented. (I am cc'ing the appropriate people documenting the release
for this reason). Perhaps we will find the kernel bug by 7.3.
-Richard Basch
Athena Systems Development
