talk <username> always goes to the answering machine. Why?

srampally · 06-04-2007, 04:42 PM

I get the following message whenever I use the talk command:

$ talk shashi
[Connection established]
Hello. You're connected to a talk answering machine.
The person you have paged isn't there at the moment.
Please leave a message and quit normally when finished.

I even tried to include the ttyname but it still went to the talk answering machine!
$talk shashi /dev/pts/7

Can anyone please explain why this could be happening? What do I need to look for?

Thanks,
Shashi

PS: Environment: Redhat Enterprise Linux ES 4.0; talk-0.17-26

bigrigdriver · 06-04-2007, 08:27 PM

Talk relies on a daemon (talkd) to announce the invitation to talk to the person receiving the invitation. If that person isn't logged in, or doesn't respond after the second invitation, talkd automatically starts the answering machine.

So, I see three possibilities:
a) the person you want to talk to isn't logged in.
b) the person you want to talk to doesn't want to talk to you.
c) the person you want to talk to doesn't know how to respond.

srampally · 06-05-2007, 10:45 AM

Well, I don't think a, b, or c apply here. Sorry, I did not elaborate in my first post but....

a) I myself logged in with two different usernames on two different terminals. So this isn't an issue.
b) mesg is set to y on both the terminals.
c) I did not receive any invitation to chat on the second terminal. Infact, in just about two seconds of executing talk command I am given the talk answering machine message!

Any other ideas?

Thanks,
Shashi

Quote:

Originally Posted by bigrigdriver

Talk relies on a daemon (talkd) to announce the invitation to talk to the person receiving the invitation. If that person isn't logged in, or doesn't respond after the second invitation, talkd automatically starts the answering machine.

So, I see three possibilities:
a) the person you want to talk to isn't logged in.
b) the person you want to talk to doesn't want to talk to you.
c) the person you want to talk to doesn't know how to respond.

bigrigdriver · 06-05-2007, 11:24 AM

Take a look at the ktalkd handbook, section 5.1. The author states that the user must be logged into utmp in order for the messages to display properly. There are 3 files to create/edit to effect logging in to utmp, with examples of edits given.

If it still doesn't work, the author advises sending him a bug report.

srampally · 06-05-2007, 12:05 PM

Thanks for the quick reply!

I followed the following instructions given in the KTalkD handbook and restarted xinetd. However, talk command takes me directly to answering machine still.

Please note that I am logging into the RedHat machine (located in the LAN) from my desktop computer remotely using TinyTerm Terminal Emulator (i.e. I am not using KDE.)

Code:

(a) Edit the file Xstartup, or create it, (in the xdm config folder) so that it reads:
#!/ bin/sh
/etc/X11/xdm/ GiveConsole
sessreg -a -l $DISPLAY -x /etc/X11/xdm/Xservers  - $USER
(b) and the file Xreset so that it reads:
#!/ bin/sh
/etc/X11/xdm/ TakeConsole
sessreg -d -l $DISPLAY $USER
(c) Make sure that xdm-config make reference to those two files:
DisplayManager ._0.startup: /etc/X11/xdm/Xstartup
DisplayManager ._0.reset: /etc/X11/xdm/Xreset

Quote:

Originally Posted by bigrigdriver

Take a look at the ktalkd handbook, section 5.1. The author states that the user must be logged into utmp in order for the messages to display properly. There are 3 files to create/edit to effect logging in to utmp, with examples of edits given.

If it still doesn't work, the author advises sending him a bug report.