Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cornell!batcomputer!itsgw!steinmetz!ge-dab!peora!cmpfen!bob
From: bob@cmpfen.UUCP (Bob Breum)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: MT C-Shell
Summary: Take your Hayes modem out of verbose mode.
Keywords: ttys fix for multi-user
Message-ID: <196@cmpfen.UUCP>
Date: 23 Apr 89 22:39:59 GMT
References: <1694@blake.acs.washington.edu>
Reply-To: bob@cmpfen.UUCP (Bob Breum)
Distribution: usa
Organization: Computer Fenestrations, Lake Monroe, Florida, USA
Lines: 48

In article <1694@blake.acs.washington.edu> bissiri@blake.acs.washington.edu (Moja Fritzah) writes:
>The only problem with the shell is that it doesn't allow your
>friends and co-worker to log on.  What happens when you go into
>multi-user mode: the program thinks that you, the local user, is
>trying to call in on the rs232.... your modem squeaks and your drive
>light flashes relentlessly.  Ok... there must be a solution.  

I've used MT C-Shell since it was first introduced.  Beckemeyer does a fine
job of supporting his products.  If he has a fault, it's probably assuming
too much knowledge/experience on the part of his customers.  When I first 
started using MT C-Shell, I had never been exposed to either UNIX or the
C-Shell, so I had quite a learning curve to conquer.  

     I believe what is actually happening in
the situation you describe is that your Hayes-compatible modem is sending
status messages to your getty, which in turn is replying with login prompts,
ad nauseum, generating all sorts of disk activity and burning up some CPU
time.  The fix on my system when I encountered this was to mute the modem;
i.e., as part of your inittab, send the appropriate strings to the modem
to tell it to _shut up_, sending absolutely no status/error messages back
to you, either verbose or numeric.  This will calm your getty so that it
will wait patiently in the bg until your friend hits return on a remote 
terminal.

>for the update to show up.  In the meantime... we can send a command
>to the modem (as David suggests) and turn echo off.  Ah!  No more
>squeaks and my drive takes a rest ( only disadvantage is that you no longer
>see what you type .. ).  A friend calls remote and gets
>"no carrier".  Subsequent calls to BDT return busy, modem noise,

No carrier?  Is your modem set to auto-answer?  You can put that into the
inittab command string, also.

>Also... any fixes for writing an alias on the command line that doesn't
>crash the system would be helpful too. Aliases work fine from 
>login.sh, but are unruly and capricious when created from command line.

I have never had a problem entering aliases from the command line.  Perhaps
an example of your problem?

P.S. When you're testing this kind of fix, you'll want to just type the
strings directly to your modem until you're satisfied you have the right
combination, then add the required line to your inittab.
-- 
Computer Fenestrations						      Bob Breum
Post Office Box 151		{uiucuxc|hoptoad|petsd|ucf-cs}!peora!cmpfen!bob
Lake Monroe, FL 32747 USA
+1 407 322-3222						   "C is the new BASIC"