[Newlug] dumb terminal

[Bernard Starzewski]

Was looking at this again for old times sake.
Have never done this on Linux but on conventional Unix the file that controls this is /etc/inittab
It is a list of listener services mostly for serial ports but others as well depending on the driver.
I think the syntax is - device name, speed, and on optional "respawn" which automatically restarts the getty on the port after a connection is lost.
Other option is "off".
speed can include other device specific options for bit stops & parity but that depends again on the driver which may have several names for different combinations.

Would have to look up the man pages for it though.  Its been a few years.

--- On Sun, 2/6/11, Bernard Starzewski <bernard_starzewski at yahoo.com> wrote:

> From: Bernard Starzewski <bernard_starzewski at yahoo.com>
> Subject: Re: [Newlug] dumb terminal
> To: newlug at newlug.org
> Date: Sunday, February 6, 2011, 5:07 PM
> Man me & Don used to do hundreds
> of those!
> You could have also telnet-ed to the IP.
> You might have had to had telnet service configured but in
> my experience thats pretty much the default.
> 
> --- On Sun, 2/6/11, Tim Bolz <tim.bolz at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> 
> > From: Tim Bolz <tim.bolz at gmail.com>
> > Subject: [Newlug] dumb terminal
> > To: newlug at newlug.org
> > Date: Sunday, February 6, 2011, 1:22 PM
> > I am running Ubuntu 10.04 and have a
> > Dorio 20 Dumb terminal hooked up
> > to my pc through the serial port.  This is old
> > school.  Here's a link
> > for a what it is. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_terminal  I
> > had an email discussion about dumb terminal with a
> windows
> > user and he
> > thought I was talking about a thin client which is
> > completely
> > different.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thin_client   It
> > is like
> > hitting Ctrl+Alt+F1-F6 but on a separate keyboard and
> > monitor.  I
> > found it very usefull when X froze and and you could
> use
> > the keyboard
> > to reset X.  I would go over to the Dorio log in and
> > kill X and X
> > would restart.  The things you will need to hook a
> > dumb terminal up is
> > one serial cable and null modem adapter and of course
> the
> > dumb
> > terminal.
> > 
> > Well I haven't used it in a while so I thought I'd
> start it
> > up.  It
> > didn't work and then I realized I hadn't configured
> it
> > yet.    I
> > forgot how to so I looked at some old notes. The notes
> were
> > from
> > Ubuntu 7.04 and they didn't work. So I  had to do
> some
> > google searches
> > and finally found out how to do it. Here is what I did
> so
> > if anyone
> > else wants to do it they don't have to go through the
> > searches like I
> > did.
> > 
> > In a terminal run these commands.
> > 
> > cd /etc/init
> > sudo cp tty1.conf ttyS0.conf
> > sudo gedit ttyS0.conf
> > 
> > change the tty1 to ttyS0 at the top
> > and add
> > exec /sbin/getty -L ttyS0 9600 vt100
> > either # the below line or delete it
> > #exec /sbin/getty -8 38400 tty1
> > 
> > So it should look something like this.
> > 
> > # ttyS0 - getty
> > #
> > # This service maintains a getty on tty1 from the
> point the
> > system is
> > # started until it is shut down again.
> > 
> > start on stopped rc RUNLEVEL=[2345]
> > stop on runlevel [!2345]
> > 
> > respawn
> > exec /sbin/getty -L ttyS0 9600 vt100
> > #exec /sbin/getty -8 38400 tty1
> > 
> > Save it and then run this command.
> > sudo start ttyS0
> > 
> > The dumb terminal should start.
> > 
> > I can bring the cable , null modem and the Dorio Dumb
> > terminal to the
> > LUG for a demonstration.  I would need a laptop with
> a
> > serial
> > connector though.  I have never tried a usb to rs232
> > though so if
> > someone brought one we could try it.
> > 
> > Tim
> > 
> 
> 
> 
>