Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!trwacs!epstein
From: epstein@trwacs.UUCP (Jeremy Epstein)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Re: Problem with 'xterm -C'
Summary: On some systems root *can't* redirect /dev/console
Message-ID: <293@trwacs.UUCP>
Date: 16 May 91 13:24:40 GMT
References: <9105151823.AA29377@cip.e-technik.uni-erlangen.de>
Organization: TRW Systems Division, Fairfax VA
Lines: 22

In article <9105151823.AA29377@cip.e-technik.uni-erlangen.de>, foer@cip.e-technik.uni-erlangen.de (Hans Foertsch) writes:
> 
> On our System ( HP-UX l 7.05 B 9000/330) the Option '-C' by calling the xterm,
> it answer 'xterm: display :0.0 is not authorizied to take control of
> /dev/console' .

I don't know about HP-UX, but on at least one system I'm acquainted
with (Mach) you can only redirect /dev/console if you are the owner
of it, and being root doesn't override that restriction.  Unfortunately
this interferes with xterm wanting to run as root to update /etc/utmp.
What I did was have xterm fork a child process which resets its user ID
to the real UID, redirects the console, and quits.  The parent process
(which is running as root) gets the redirection.

As a first approximation, you can make xterm *not* setuid-root, and
see if "xterm -C" then works (of course without updating /etc/utmp).
If it does, then make the change outlined above.
-- 
Jeremy Epstein			UUCP: uunet!trwacs!epstein
Trusted X Research Group	Internet: epstein@trwacs.fp.trw.com
TRW Systems Division		Voice: +1 703/876-8776
Fairfax Virginia