Path: utzoo!mnetor!tmsoft!dptcdc!berner!lethe!geac!jtsv16!uunet!husc6!bbn!ulowell!masscomp!karenb
From: karenb@masscomp.UUCP (Karen )
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Help wanted with xterm
Message-ID: <794@masscomp.UUCP>
Date: 1 May 89 13:34:12 GMT
Reply-To: karenb@masscomp.UUCP (Karen Bircsak)
Organization: Concurrent Computer Corporation  - Westford, Ma
Lines: 19
Approved: news

Paul Anderson writes:

> works fine apart from the "su" command.  If I type "su", the password prompt
> is displayed, followed immediately by "Sorry" and an exit status of 2 from su

I've seen this happen when xterm doesn't have a controlling tty.  To see if
it does, type "echo hello > /dev/tty".  If you get an error like "No such 
device or address", that's your problem.  su requires a controlling tty.

In our case, the problem is a result of a bug in the OS.  A forked process 
doesn't always inherit its parent's tty.

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