Top on Virtual Console

gbowden · 01-27-2006, 01:46 PM

Is it possible to run the command top, on a virtual console?

I've tried top -s >/dev/tty12 & but nothing happens.

Thanks for your help.

Jelle · 01-27-2006, 01:52 PM

yes, edit your inittab. instead of getty you can run your own program on any tty.
putting top there makes some sense. next to it you could pipe your syslog messages.

gbowden · 01-27-2006, 02:02 PM

Would something like 12:2345:respawn:/usr/bin/top -s work?
I've already got firewall and syslog messages on terminals 9 and 10.

Thanks for your help.

Brian1 · 01-27-2006, 02:18 PM

Hi gbowden, can't really help but would like to know how you send messages and your firewall logs to other virtual consoles. If I am thinking correctly you would hit Alt-Ctrl-F9 to get to the virtual console.

Thank you for your time.
Brian1

gbowden · 01-27-2006, 02:31 PM

I'm using Arno's iptables so it might be different for you.
Here is the parts from my /etc/rc.d/rc.local file:

Code:

# Set tty10 to full screen.
stty -F /dev/tty10 rows 48 columns 128
# Start logging of firewall on tty10.
echo "Firewall logging show on tty10."
tail --follow /var/log/firewall | arno-fwfilter >/dev/tty10 &
# Set tty9 to full screen.
stty -F /dev/tty9 rows 48 columns 128
# Start logging of /var/log/messages on tty9.
echo "/var/log/messages shown on tty9."
tail --follow /var/log/messages >/dev/tty9 &
# Set tty11 to full screen.
stty -F /dev/tty11 rows 48 columns 128
# Start tcpdump on tty11
echo "tcpdump shown on tty11."
tcpdump -vv >/dev/tty11 &

I had to use the stty command to set the virtual terminals to the correct rows and columns.

Hope that helps.

Jelle · 01-27-2006, 02:37 PM

uhm, wouldn't tty11 be in use by this script?
That would explain why you could not write to it?

gbowden · 01-27-2006, 02:42 PM

Sorry about that I meant tty12, I have edited my posts to reflect this.

Brian1 · 01-27-2006, 06:15 PM

Thanks for the info. Just playing around I can send top to tty2 using the command ' top -s > /dev/tty ' like you tried in the first post except you used tty12. As long as the tty is already defined I think it should work. Working from a centos system my tty's are defined in /etc/inittab. Not sure where Slackware is doing it. I have the default 6 defined 1-6 and the gui for the 6 at 7-12. How the 7-12 are defined I am not sure. To me once you have all tty defined. Just a thought there might be something other that just a plain tty there on 12. A thught it might be attached to a second gui tty.

If you are not using tty2 or something try sending it to one of the lower ones and see if it works. You could kill one of the tty9 or 10 ones and send to one of them.

Again thanks for a learning treat.
Brian1

Brian1 · 01-27-2006, 06:51 PM

Another thought does /dev/tty12 exist?

Brian1

Alien_Hominid · 01-28-2006, 05:05 AM

Maybe you just can't send firewall output for tty12, because it is left to use with X.

gbowden · 01-29-2006, 12:54 PM

/dev/tty12 exists, and I can send top to it, but I can't get my /etc/inittab file correct to display it on boot.

I tried 12:2345:respawn:/usr/bin/top -s but it dispalys top on tty1.

Brian1 · 01-30-2006, 06:41 PM

Have you tried this. Send what ever is going to tty10 to tty12 and what you want on tty12 to tty10. If it does the same either way not using tty12 for either I am at a lost then.

Haven't seen anything different in your rc.local file. Does creating a basic tty12 and then using rc.local to start top and redirect it to tty12 work.

Brian1