Bug 78243

Summary: konsole fails to open terminal when tty number greater thatn 256
Product: [Applications] konsole Reporter: Kiko Piris <kde>
Component: generalAssignee: Konsole Developer <konsole-devel>
Status: RESOLVED NOT A BUG    
Severity: normal CC: marcus
Priority: NOR    
Version: 1.3.1   
Target Milestone: ---   
Platform: Debian testing   
OS: Linux   
Latest Commit: Version Fixed In:

Description Kiko Piris 2004-03-22 19:03:54 UTC 
Version:           1.3.1 (using KDE KDE 3.2.1)
Installed from:    Debian testing/unstable Packages
OS:          Linux

output of tty command is in the form

/dev/pts/N

When N is greater than 256 you can no longer use konsole (you open it but get no command prompt).

The only way to continue using konsole is to reboot the system.

Every time you open a konsole (or a xterm or the like) a new number is created.

I know 256 is a not too low value; but for a laptop where you usually do not reboot the system (you put it to sleep) that limit is reached in a couple of days of "normal operation".
Comment 1 Stephan Kulow 2004-03-22 20:42:40 UTC 
hmm, the pts numbers are released when you close xterm/konsole/whatever. That would be a bug in your kernel/glibc
Comment 2 Kiko Piris 2004-03-22 20:47:16 UTC 
ok, I suspected something like that.

OTOH, would it be possible to increase that "limit" to a larger value.

when my system reached that number, I could still use xterm w/o problems.

Thanks for your attention.

-- 
Kiko
Comment 3 Kiko Piris 2004-03-22 21:04:01 UTC 
I've just remembered having read something about pts's on lkml some time ago.

I'm running kernel 2.6.4 and it results that since 2.6.4 pts numbers are reused like pid numbers.

So, I guess konsole should allow that number to be greater than 8 bits.

Thanks again.
Comment 4 Stephan Kulow 2004-03-22 21:09:26 UTC 
I just stressed my system a bit and found that /dev/pts indeed only allows 255 entries. more than 230 xterms are forbidden by X it seems - at least new xterms I can't open because of "too many X clients" :)

I then opened another 40 screen sessions and those open /dev/ttyp.. when /dev/pts runs out of numbers. I'm not sure this should be supported by konsole though as running out of /dev/pts should be a pretty rare situation caused by a different bug. You should check which application holds your /dev/pts inodes open
Comment 5 Marcus Meissner 2004-03-22 21:18:55 UTC 
what architecture do you use? (*Intel? PowerPC?)

Ciao, Marcus
Comment 6 Kiko Piris 2004-03-22 21:48:02 UTC 
On 22/03/2004 at 20:18, Marcus Meissner wrote:

> what architecture do you use? (*Intel? PowerPC?)

PowerPC.

I use i386 at home and at work. Right now I'm out and can only test it
with my laptop (iBook, ppc). I will try to reproduce it on i386 tomorrow.

Both with ppc and with i386 I'm running vanilla 2.6.4 kernel.

Thanks
Comment 7 Marcus Meissner 2004-03-22 21:56:20 UTC 
this is a powerpc glibc problem (I have also seen it on my PPC machine).
This has been fixed in the GLIBC CVS.

Workaround is to compile the affected application with large file support.
Comment 8 Kiko Piris 2004-03-22 22:00:32 UTC 
On 22/03/2004 at 20:56, Marcus Meissner wrote:

> this is a powerpc glibc problem (I have also seen it on my PPC machine).
> This has been fixed in the GLIBC CVS.
> 
> Workaround is to compile the affected application with large file support.

Ah!, then sorry for bothering you all.

Many thanks to everyone for responding and for this information.
Comment 9 Waldo Bastian 2004-03-22 22:12:59 UTC 
not a KDE bug then :)