Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!mcsun!ukc!stc!pauld
From: pauld@tcom.stc.co.uk (Paul Davies)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.i386
Subject: Re: Esix console getty doesn't run.
Message-ID: <222@rhum.tcom.stc.co.uk>
Date: 1 Aug 90 17:06:08 GMT
References: <1241@ixos.UUCP> <1090@ke4zv.UUCP>
Sender: news@tcom.stc.co.uk
Reply-To: pauld@tcom.stc.co.uk (Paul Davies)
Organization: STC Telecoms, London N11 1HB
Lines: 72

In article <1090@ke4zv.UUCP> gary@ke4zv.UUCP (Gary Coffman) writes:
>In article <1241@ixos.UUCP> mars@ixos.UUCP (mars) writes:
>>Hello,
>>
>>I am running Esix Ref C. Everything ran fine, till i sold my VGA monitor
>>and hooked up a Sony CPD1402E multisync. Esix started up, ran. The next
>>day booting Esix didn't work any more. Init complained with
>>co: command respawning too rapidly: getty  (or similar)
>
>Sounds like you didn't reinstall a serial cable properly. This is
>causing getty to respawn. Disconnect any serial devices, edit
>etc/inittab changing "respawn" to "off" for your gettys and run
>"init q". This should stop the messages. Then check each serial
>connection one at a time until you find the problem.
>
>Gary

I had exactly the same problem on my 386 box running ESIX RevC.

I'm afraid I still can't be sure what the problem was  because
for me there were two possible sources and I solved it with a bit of
overkill. It may help you anyway.

I booted up my system and got the same message.

The day before I had done two things.

1. Extended the Multisync video lead, which involved playing around
with the cable.

2. Accidentally powered off without doing a 'shutdown' or
'sync'.


At first (like Gary) I suspected the cable as its the sort of thing you could
expect. I took it off, resoldered etc but still
the same problem. Because I also have a DOS partition I tried booting
into that. This worked fine, absolutely no problems in DOS so 
I was confident there was nothing wrong with the cable.

I then suspected the file system had been somehow corrupted by the
power down. I booted off the installation floppy disk which again
booted fine (confirming there was nothing wrong with the cable). Under
single user having booted off the installation disk I was able to
mount the hard disk and everything looked fine. 

Because it was a fairly new system with very little I needed to
save  I just copied what I wanted onto the boot floppy (I don't have 
any other backup device) reformatted and reinstalled from scratch.

The newly installed system works fine.

I now think something in /etc was corrupted (but can't be sure) and
think the cable was a total red herring.  If it happened again I 
would first try reinstalling /etc. 

If your problem is the same as mine then you should be able to save
any data on the disk by remounting under single user and backing off
onto whatever other devices you have.

Let us know if you pin it down.

			Regards
				Paul.



--
   ___  ___     
  /  / /  / /  / /	Paul Davies, STC Telecommunications,
 /__/ /__/ /  / /	Oakleigh Road South,New Southgate, London N11 1HB.
/    /  / /__/ /___	<pauld@tcom.stc.co.uk> Tel: +44 81 945 3605