Newbie's questions about Slack

-Pb- · 12-17-2007, 02:01 PM

Question 1. Why don't I see these sayings that appear after logging in to Slack? I see only the "You have mail message" and nothing more. No that I can't live without them, but that's strange.

Question 2. If I change the default runlevel to 4, log in and try to switch to a virtual console (Ctrl+Alt+2,3,4,5). I see only a black screen and a blinking cursor. No prompt or anything. If I press Ctrl+Alt+1 I can see the system messages, and Ctrl+Alt+6 brings me to tty6. Why can't I see the 2nd, 3rd, etc. console?

Question 3: If the default runlevel is 3, how do I shutdown the computer without logging? I mean before I enter my login and password.

H_TeXMeX_H · 12-17-2007, 02:46 PM

1) You should install fortune part of the bsd-games, so far it's the only thing found in the 'y' directory on the install disk 'slackware/y'.

For #2 and #3, open up '/etc/inittab'. Here are the relevant parts of mine:
2)

Code:

# Runlevel 4 used to be for an X window only system, until we discovered
# that it throws init into a loop that keeps your load avg at least 1 all 
# the time. Thus, there is now one getty opened on tty6. Hopefully no one
# will notice. ;^)
# It might not be bad to have one text console anyway, in case something 
# happens to X.
x1:4:respawn:/etc/rc.d/rc.4

That's the tty6 you see, the only one made available here for init level 4.

3)
Mine says:

Code:

# What to do at the "Three Finger Salute".
ca::ctrlaltdel:/sbin/shutdown -h now

which halts the machine on pressing 'Ctrl-Alt-Del'.

Yours probably says (the default):

Code:

# What to do at the "Three Finger Salute".
ca::ctrlaltdel:/sbin/shutdown -t5 -r now

which restarts the machine on pressing 'Ctrl-Alt-Del' after 5 sec pause.

That's the way I shutdown my machine from init level 3. Don't know about other people's solution.

theoffset · 12-17-2007, 02:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by -Pb-

Question 1. Why don't I see these sayings that appear after logging in to Slack? I see only the "You have mail message" and nothing more. No that I can't live without them, but that's strange.

(Asuming you are actually login through console, or are starting a login shell somehow) Make sure you installed the bsd-games package, and that /etc/profiles.d/bsd-games-login-fortune.sh is executable.

Quote:

Question 2. If I change the default runlevel to 4, log in and try to switch to a virtual console (Ctrl+Alt+2,3,4,5). I see only a black screen and a blinking cursor. No prompt or anything. If I press Ctrl+Alt+1 I can see the system messages, and Ctrl+Alt+6 brings me to tty6. Why can't I see the 2nd, 3rd, etc. console?

By default, slackware runlevel 4 only gives you a login on tty6. You can change this in the /etc/inittab file:

(starting at line ~50)

Code:

# These are the standard console login getties in multiuser mode:
c1:12345:respawn:/sbin/agetty 38400 tty1 linux
c2:12345:respawn:/sbin/agetty 38400 tty2 linux
c3:12345:respawn:/sbin/agetty 38400 tty3 linux
c4:12345:respawn:/sbin/agetty 38400 tty4 linux
c5:12345:respawn:/sbin/agetty 38400 tty5 linux
c6:12345:respawn:/sbin/agetty 38400 tty6 linux

The parts in bold are what you need to add to enable logins in tty1-5 at runlevel 4.

Quote:

Question 3: If the default runlevel is 3, how do I shutdown the computer without logging? I mean before I enter my login and password.

If you have ACPI/APM enabled and properly working just press the power button.

the3dfxdude · 12-18-2007, 03:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by H_TeXMeX_H

3)
Mine says:

Code:

# What to do at the "Three Finger Salute".
ca::ctrlaltdel:/sbin/shutdown -h now

which halts the machine on pressing 'Ctrl-Alt-Del'.

Yours probably says (the default):

Code:

# What to do at the "Three Finger Salute".
ca::ctrlaltdel:/sbin/shutdown -t5 -r now

which restarts the machine on pressing 'Ctrl-Alt-Del' after 5 sec pause.

That's the way I shutdown my machine from init level 3. Don't know about other people's solution.

If you have ACPI and a power button, just hit the power button.

-Pb- · 12-20-2007, 03:19 AM

Thanks, guys. One more question. Can I log in to another Linux box on my home network when I start computer? And what should I do for it?

Alien_Hominid · 12-20-2007, 11:16 AM

You need to have sshd running on your linux box and ssh client on your another computer.

Lufbery · 12-20-2007, 12:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alien_Hominid

You need to have sshd running on your linux box and ssh client on your another computer.

Here's some more information on how to do that:

SSH, be vewy,vewy, quiet

and

Simple home networking with SSH

Regards,

-Drew

-Pb- · 12-22-2007, 05:29 AM

Thank you, Alien_Hominid and Lufbery. One more question. What should I do to get a program start during Linux booting. As far as I understand, I should add some lines to a startup scenario. Where is this scenario? Is /etc/rc.d/rc.S what I need?

H_TeXMeX_H · 12-22-2007, 07:44 AM

The file to put startup commands to be run is '/etc/rc.d/rc.local' for shutdown it is '/etc/rc.d/rc.local_shutdown'.

There are some exceptions in which you may need to put them elsewhere, but these are the recommended places for most things you would need to startup on booting.