Solution: xterm: no available ptys

["Igmar Palsenberg" <palsenberg tebenet nl>]

>>> Since I upgraded to 6.0 I get the following message when I try to run
>>> "xterm" or "nxterm":
>>>
>>> "xterm: no available ptys"
>>>
>>> "xiterm" seems to work ok.

>>that means you're maxed out on logins.

>What does that mean?  "ls /dev/pty* | wc" gives 256 so is that >where
>the "maxed out" is coming from?  What should I do to get xterm to
>work?

>Danny Rice

RedHat 6.0 switched to /dev/pts/x devices, and you don't have them :-). I
think this is a major bug in 6.x

Solution :

create a device in /dev with major 5 minor 2 called ptmx:

crw-rw-rw-   1 root     root       5,   2 May  6 18:30 ptmx

create a directory pts in /dev

Add the folluwing line to /etc/fstab :

none             /dev/pts               devpts  gid=5,mode=620           0 0

Then make sure you kernel supports /dev/pts (UNIX98 PTY's). The default one
does, or recompile it.

You can check it by doing a cat on /proc/filesystems. I must contain a line
like :

nodev   devpts

After a reboot all should work. Please also not the the old /dev/ptypx
devices will NOT work anymore.


If you have any more question, just let me know.


                Regards,

                        Igmar Palsenberg