LinuxQuestions.org - Strange happenings at the terminal

- Debian (https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/debian-26/)

- - Strange happenings at the terminal (https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/debian-26/strange-happenings-at-the-terminal-235372/)

Strange happenings at the terminal

Hi folks,

Using Sarge with 2.6, just installed and trying to get things configured.

I find that I occasionally cannot work at the terminal because it periodically writes a certain message at the prompt. This essentially takes over the terminal so that I can't enter commands reliably. If I am fast I can use Ctl+c and exit, but that's about it. I was able to open a root shell from Gnome, and after I exited it I couldn't open a second shell, plus the terminal behavior at tty1 was as above.

The message is something like this:

DROPPED IN= OUT= SRC= MAC= DST= MEN= PREC= TTL= ID= PROTO= SPT= DPT=

and so on. Each of these is not always in there, and of course numbers follow the most of the '=' signs, such as IN=eth0. eth0 happens to be my ISP, so I am assuming that this has something to do with my Inernet -- logical, eh? I have Guarddog installed.

Any thoughts, places I could read?

this is hapenning at the CONSOLE, not the terminal, right?

These are ip addresses trying to report to their headquarters, e.g., microsoft or any other software company, but your firewall does not allow it, therefore the message, one of those numbers is the port #, which in turn when checked at grc.com, will give you the name of company.

it happens to me too, that's why i don't user 'startx', to avoid this i use xdm, one of these days i'm gonna get to the bottom of this.

I'm afraid I still don't know the difference between a console and a terminal. If a terminal is a simulation of the console, and the console is the black-and-white text interface, then yes it's happening at the console. The terminal, if that's the simulation that runs under X, won't start up under these conditions.

I still haven't determined just what triggers it. Last time it seemed to have started sometime after I closed the first root shell (terminal?). It's a problem I can live with for now at any rate. (Windows users are used to rebooting. :o)

A quick Google shows that xdm is a graphical log-in, and gdm is Gnome's version of it, so they are "display managers," i.e., utilities, whereas startx is a shell script. All seem to be designed to get the X ball rolling, but beyond that I don't know the difference. I don't care much what my log-in screen looks like, but I would like to keep using Gnome; if it makes no difference to Gnome it is probably a decent solution for me, if I really need one. (The only reason I want to use Gnome is because I've used KDE in SUSE, and, though I surely condemn myself, I like pretty interfaces -- but am also trying to slowly get my wife used to the idea of using Linux.)

I installed Window Maker as suggested in the Verbose Debian Installation Guide, and I used startx to launch that. The login screen looks the same now that Gnome is running, so I suppose that the login screen I now have is also generated by startx.

Glad you're around, I might need a hand with sndconfig, but I'll do that in a separate thread. Remind me next time I'm in Panama to buy you a drink. (Unfortunately neither has a precedent.)

Cheers,
Mike

Do yourself a favor and read:

"Debian Configuration Post-Install"

is the first thread on this list.

When you are at the console (black screen) accesible with

ctrl+alt+F (1-6)

and you start getting those pop-up attempts by these companies/ports, ignore and keep writing, hit Enter.

To go back to x/g/k/ dm, pres ctrl+alt+ F7, and you're back at the display manager of your choice, login, and you're in X, and now you can click on the xterm (terminal) icon or ctrl+alt+t (in icewm) and you are ready.

If you cannot get into X, the console will act as the terminal, you can invoke your favorite editor as root, and fix whatever is wrong, e.g. your ~/.xsession, and start by default your DE or wm by default. capisci?

As a quick'n'dirty fix for these strange messages you can try adding a line that sets the console messages level to one (=minimal)

Code:

dmesg -n1

into your "local" init script (/etc/init.d/local, explained here: http://www.desktop-linux.net/debian-rclocal.htm ) and see if that helps. But, to get rid of this annoyance altogether you need to tweak your firewall settings.

BTW, both the system console and xterm are "virtual terminals" but sometimes it makes sense to separate the two. When it doesn't matter which one you use (console or xterm), you can just talk about CLI (command line interface). ;)

By the way, Guarddog really seems to work nicely. I got all 1055 packets in the green at grc.com.

Quote:

Originally posted by macondo
Do yourself a favor and read:

Debian Configuration Post-Install

is the first thread on the list.

Yes, it is, and you recommended to me to read that list in a previous thread, which I did/am still doing, which in turn is why I am working on sound in the first place -- thanks for that. :)

Your recommendations:

Quote:

SOUND

apt-get install sndconfig

run the command sndconfig

#sndconfig

find your sound card, and add yourself to the 'audio' group

#adduser <user name> group

#adduser macondo audio

logout/login for this to take effect, as long as you are there, add yourself to the following groups, one by one:

dip
users
cdrom
sudo

you need a sound mixer:

#apt-get install aumix

calibrate volume and pcm settings

Yesterday I did apt-get install sndconfig and when I ran it got the following (obviously never previously unheard of) message:

Quote:

You don't seem to be running a kernel with modular sound
enabled. (soundcore.o was not found in the module search path).
To use sndconfig, you must be running a kernel with modular
sound, such as the kernel images shipped with Debian Linux or
a 2.2 or greater kernel.

Intrepid soul that I am (now why am I sure that doesn't impress you;) ) I didn't come here and post first thing, Before posting anything today, I started looking for resources to read. For example this recent thread, which indicates that I might need to recompile the kernel to get sound running as a module. Since the guy concludes with "I got it. Just had to run alsamixer" and I still haven't read the kernel compilation guide, I decided to look whether there isn't an "easier" or more correct solution. Best of all, you linked a Debian Audio/Video wiki.

Thanks to your post-install guide, I also ran
#apt-get update
#apt-get dist-upgrade

as a first step after booting Windows Maker. This updated my kernel, and uname -r gives me 2.6.8-1-686-smp back. I rebooted right away, as the kernel installation recommended. So that at least tells me/us what kernel is running, since this is possibly a kernel-related issue.

I don't know much of anything about kernels or how they work with modules, but I do know enough to type lsmod to show the modules. (Learned this trying to configure a USB mouse back in SUSE. :)) Here are the modules it lists:

Code:

Module                  Size  Used by

lp                    11496  0

usblp                  13760  0

ipv6                  281636  6

snd_mixer_oss          20384  0

af_packet              23976  2

ipt_state              2304  19

ipt_REJECT              7232  4

ipt_limit              2848  6

ipt_LOG                6848  6

ip_conntrack_ftp      72560  0

ip_conntrack          37004  2 ipt_state,ip_conntrack_ftp

iptable_filter          3104  1

ip_tables              19360  5 ipt_state,ipt_REJECT,ipt_limit,ipt_LOG,iptable_filter

emu10k1                89796  0

sound                  87880  1 emu10k1

ac97_codec            19212  1 emu10k1

ehci_hcd              33156  0

shpchp                102956  0

pciehp                99820  0

pci_hotplug            35708  2 shpchp,pciehp

sis_agp                8420  1

agpgart                35436  1 sis_agp

floppy                62608  0

parport_pc            36288  1

parport                43272  2 lp,parport_pc

pcspkr                  3884  0

b44                    23460  0

mii                    5344  1 b44

emu10k1_gp              3808  0

usbtest                18412  0

gameport                5120  1 emu10k1_gp

tsdev                  7616  0

mousedev              10736  1

joydev                10240  0

evdev                  9824  0

usbhid                32736  0

ohci_hcd              22596  0

usbcore              122148  7 usblp,ehci_hcd,usbtest,usbhid,ohci_hcd

snd_emu10k1          102056  0

snd_rawmidi            26084  1 snd_emu10k1

snd_pcm              102948  1 snd_emu10k1

snd_timer              27428  1 snd_pcm

snd_seq_device          8456  2 snd_emu10k1,snd_rawmidi

snd_ac97_codec        70884  1 snd_emu10k1

snd_page_alloc        12008  2 snd_emu10k1,snd_pcm

snd_util_mem            4832  1 snd_emu10k1

snd_hwdep              9764  1 snd_emu10k1

snd                    59652  9 snd_mixer_oss,snd_emu10k1,snd_rawmidi,snd_pcm,snd_timer,snd_seq_device,snd_ac97_codec,snd_util_mem,snd_hwdep

soundcore              10880  3 emu10k1,sound,snd

capability              4744  0

commoncap              7552  1 capability

ide_cd                43232  0

cdrom                  41148  1 ide_cd

rtc                    14184  0

ext3                  129640  6

jbd                    70520  1 ext3

mbcache                10340  1 ext3

ide_generic            1632  0

sis5513                17224  1

ide_disk              19648  8

ide_core              142556  4 ide_cd,ide_generic,sis5513,ide_disk

unix                  31092  398

font                    8544  0

vesafb                  6880  0

cfbcopyarea            4064  1 vesafb

cfbimgblt              3264  1 vesafb

cfbfillrect            4000  1 vesafb

I recognize at least emu10k1, ac97_codec, emu10k1_gp, and pretty much all of the snd_* modules as being related to sound, the first ones being specifically hardware related. So although I don't know much about it, it seems to me to be an indication that the kernel is "running a kernel with modular sound enabled." In fact, I don't know whether sound actually is working or not, since I don't know how to test it. But that's a different issue, I figured I could get to that after running sndconfig. Cart before the horse?

Here's what lspci outputs:

Code:

0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS 645xx (rev 02)

0000:00:01.0 PCI bridge: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] Virtual PCI-to-PCI bridge (AGP)

0000:00:02.0 ISA bridge: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS963 [MuTIOL Media IO] (rev 04)0000:00:02.1 SMBus: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS]: Unknown device 0016

0000:00:02.5 IDE interface: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 5513 [IDE]

0000:00:03.0 USB Controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] USB 1.0 Controller (rev 0f)

0000:00:03.1 USB Controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] USB 1.0 Controller (rev 0f)

0000:00:03.2 USB Controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] USB 1.0 Controller (rev 0f)

0000:00:03.3 USB Controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] USB 2.0 Controller

0000:00:0a.0 Multimedia audio controller: Creative Labs SB Audigy (rev 03)

0000:00:0a.1 Input device controller: Creative Labs SB Audigy MIDI/Game port (rev 03)

0000:00:0f.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4401 100Base-T (rev 01)

0000:01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon R350 [Radeon 9800 Pro]

0000:01:00.1 Display controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon R350 [Radeon 9800 Pro] (Secondary)

Now I knew from running AIDA under Windows that the audio adapter of my Creative Audigy is a "Creative EMU10K2 Audigy Audio Processor", so the emu10k1_gp module is related to the hardware's detection of the Audigy. That said, my SiS-chipset motherboard also has a Realtek ALC650 chip with AC '97 sound. So I definitely need to learn how to not support that, as it probably will lead to conflicts.

So all of that just to say, "I'm working on it." That seems to be a running theme with Debian -- kind of a hidden feature, you get to learn something!

Thanks for adding to the post.

Quote:

Originally posted by macondo
When you are at the console (black screen) accesible with

ctrl+alt+F (1-6)

That I knew, and that X runs by default on 7.

Quote:

and you start getting those pop-up attempts by these companies/ports, ignore and keep writing, hit Enter.

That I was not so sure of.

Quote:

To go back to x/g/k/ dm, pres ctrl+alt+ F7, and you're back at the display manager of your choice, login, and you're in X, and now you can click on the xterm (terminal) icon or ctrl+alt+t (in icewm) and you are ready.

If you cannot get into X, the console will act as the terminal, you can invoke your favorite editor as root, and fix whatever is wrong, e.g. your ~/.xsession, and start by default your DE or wm by default. capisci? [/B]

The problem doesn't seem to be X related. When I was having the problem, I had assumed it might be, and killed X with Ctl-Alt-Bksp, until I had only consoles. But this didn't prevent the messages from perpetually scrolling. Even logging out of all accounts didn't seem to help, so I rebooted. The problem hasn't reoccured, but then I haven't dared to close any terminal sessions...

Dead Parrot, thanks for the tips. What other effects might setting the console messages level to one have though? I am prone to forget I set that, even if I write it down, so I wouldn't want to use it if it has a negative effect on other generated messages that I might want to see.

Thanks,
Mike

Quote:

What other effects might setting the console messages level to one have though? I am prone to forget I set that, even if I write it down, so I wouldn't want to use it if it has a negative effect on other generated messages that I might want to see.

By "quick'n'dirty fix" I didn't mean that it would have some ill effects. "dmesg -n1" only prevents showing the kernel messages in console, but they are still reported in log files (/var/log/). I just meant that if you want to eliminate these messages altogether, you need to find a better fix.

The "dmesg -n1" trick is nevertheless useful, because it allows you to work in console without any annoying interruptions. :)

I'll keep that in mind then next time it "goes haywire." Thanks.

Quote:

Originally posted by michapma
Yesterday I did apt-get install sndconfig and when I ran it got the following (obviously never previously unheard of) message:

sndconfig uses oss, and 2.6 kernels have alsa as default.

try alsaconf (/usr/sbin/alsaconf, comes with alsa-utils, eg. apt-get install alsa-utils)