2.2.9 and 2.2.10 Unable to Open an Initial Console

Trevor Astrope (astrope@e-corp.net)
Sat, 19 Jun 1999 08:19:53 -0400 (EDT)

Hi, I am unable to get a console in both 2.2.9 and 2.2.10. Kernels up to
2.2.8 have no problems. I'm using redhat 5.2 with all the kernel-2.2
updates. The kernel is not compiled with unix98 tty support.

Here is what dmesg shows:

VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem) readonly.
Freeing unused kernel memory: 40k freed
Warning: unable to open an initial console.

I get these messages in the logs:

Jun 19 07:51:00 gord /sbin/mingetty[10378]: /dev/tty1: cannot open tty: Operation not supported by device
Jun 19 07:51:00 gord modprobe: can't locate module char-major-4
Jun 19 07:51:00 gord modprobe: can't locate module char-major-4
Jun 19 07:51:00 gord /sbin/mingetty[10381]: /dev/tty2: cannot open tty: Operation not supported by device
Jun 19 07:51:00 gord /sbin/mingetty[10380]: /dev/tty1: cannot open tty: Operation not supported by device
Jun 19 07:51:00 gord modprobe: can't locate module char-major-4
Jun 19 07:51:00 gord /sbin/mingetty[10382]: /dev/tty3: cannot open tty: Operation not supported by device
Jun 19 07:51:00 gord modprobe: can't locate module char-major-4
Jun 19 07:51:00 gord /sbin/mingetty[10386]: /dev/tty4: cannot open tty: Operation not supported by device
Jun 19 07:51:00 gord modprobe: can't locate module char-major-4
Jun 19 07:51:00 gord /sbin/mingetty[10387]: /dev/tty5: cannot open tty: Operation not supported by device
Jun 19 07:51:00 gord modprobe: can't locate module char-major-4
Jun 19 07:51:00 gord /sbin/mingetty[10388]: /dev/tty6: cannot open tty: Operation not supported by device

After this goes on for a while, the logs show init respawning too fast,
disabled for 5 minutes and then it repeats 5 minutes later.

Here are the related kernel config options I used:

#
# Character devices
#
CONFIG_VT=y
CONFIG_VT_CONSOLE=y
CONFIG_SERIAL=y
# CONFIG_SERIAL_CONSOLE is not set
# CONFIG_SERIAL_EXTENDED is not set
# CONFIG_SERIAL_NONSTANDARD is not set
# CONFIG_UNIX98_PTYS is not set
CONFIG_PRINTER=m
# CONFIG_PRINTER_READBACK is not set
CONFIG_MOUSE=y

#
# Console drivers
#
CONFIG_VGA_CONSOLE=y
# CONFIG_VIDEO_SELECT is not set
# CONFIG_MDA_CONSOLE is not set
# CONFIG_FB is not set

I'm stumped. I've had no problems like this with previous 2.2.x kernels.
Any help is appreciated.

Regards,

Trevor Astrope
astrope@e-corp.net

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