Login Problem (250' RS-232 Lines)

[John Woods]

>We are having some trouble with long (250') terminal lines.  When the system
>is booted the login message is sent out each line.  If the terminal on one of
>these long lines is turned off, there is an echo on the line that is interp-
>reted as a login name. After 60 seconds login times out and sends a new login
>message causing the sequence to repeat.  Considerable CPU time can be wasted
>if several lines are doing this at one time.
> 		ihnp4!dicomed!ndsuvax!nckary
> 
A "fix" to a similar problem that we have at mitccc is the following:  login
(or rather, getty) has an optional flag which tells it to: wait 3 seconds
after issuing a prompt, flush input, and then do the read for the login name.
Not terribly elegant, at times slightly annoying, but it does solve the
problem.

--
John Woods, Charles River Data Systems, Framingham MA, (617) 626-1101
...!decvax!frog!john, ...!mit-eddie!jfw, jfw%mit-ccc at MIT-XX.ARPA

"Out of my way, I'm a scientist!"
			- War of the Worlds