I am fairly new to Linux and this has myself and a couple of UNIX admins stumped.
System: Compaq EVO 2.2 Ghz running Redhat 9 (fresh install not upgrade)

for a couple of months I ran this system and a windows 2000 system off of a KVM switch with no problems. aka I could log into both systems with root or user name and password. When I removed the switch box I loaded Cygwin to keep 1 monitor on my desk. This worked fine untill I reloaded my Windows 2000 system. Since Cygwin was no longer installed I hooked up a monitor (keyboard and mouse were never disconnected) and I am unable to login. The Login screen comes up, (the same one seen thru Cygwin, not RH9's), the mouse is active but the keyboard is not functioning. It does work at the boot menu.

the following message comes from /var/log/messages if its any help


Mar 1 07:52:33 airporthd /sbin/mingetty[24302]: tty2: invalid character in login name
Mar 1 07:52:33 airporthd init: Id "2" respawning too fast: disabled for 5 minutes
Mar 1 08:01:50 airporthd su(pam_unix)[24331]: session opened for user nobody by (uid=0)
Mar 1 08:01:50 airporthd su(pam_unix)[24331]: session closed for user nobody

I can telnet and use Cygwin/Exceed to login but would like to be able to login at the console. Thanks for any help

Just a guess, but it looks like tty2 is getting DoSed, that's why it disables login for five minutes. This probably continues repeatedly so the terminal is locked out. Check to see if the keyboard is sending some signal over and over (my first guess would be a stuck key). Again, this is only a guess but maybe useful.

There are no stuck keys that I can tell of, no beeps, nothing on boot to tell about a stuck key etc. If there is another way to tell lpease let me know

I checked the messages log from yesterday and these entries were at the bottom

Mar 1 10:17:08 airporthd su(pam_unix)[4395]: session opened for user nobody by
(uid=0)
Mar 1 10:17:08 airporthd su(pam_unix)[4395]: session closed for user nobody
Mar 1 11:14:09 airporthd /sbin/mingetty[3829]: tty2: too long login name
Mar 1 11:14:10 airporthd /sbin/mingetty[4473]: tty2: too long login name
Mar 1 11:14:12 airporthd /sbin/mingetty[4474]: tty2: too long login name
Mar 1 11:14:13 airporthd /sbin/mingetty[4475]: tty2: too long login name
Mar 1 11:14:15 airporthd /sbin/mingetty[4476]: tty2: too long login name
Mar 1 11:14:16 airporthd /sbin/mingetty[4477]: tty2: too long login name
Mar 1 11:14:18 airporthd /sbin/mingetty[4478]: tty2: too long login name
Mar 1 11:38:20 airporthd /sbin/mingetty[4479]: tty2: too long login name
Mar 1 11:38:27 airporthd /sbin/mingetty[4508]: tty2: invalid character in login name

This has a few of us baffled, any ideas will be greatly appreciated and tried.
Ultimately if I have time and no patience I will just reload RH 8 and be done with it.
Thanks in advance

Wish I could, but honestly this has me stumped as well. Sorry.