I have aquired a load of old Wyse dumb terminals. I have a Linux system set up that I want to be the host for all of these. Now, I know these don't use cat5 or standard networking. They are all done through serial (com) ports. However, I researched this more and found a converter to switch it to go over cat5 and a special hub. I have set all of this up but I cannot get the Terminals to connect to the host properly. I know they are sending and recieving data, as symbols and such pop up. I have tried messing with the type (IE. vt100, etc), but to no avail. I always thought you could set these up and they would automatically be compatiable with a unix system as this was how it was done in the old days. It would be able to connect using TERM, as when you login at the box you open a terminal connection. Any suggestions or help would be great!
Well I thought of that, but it should just send the login prompt to the terminal. THen the user would log on. It just seems the server is having problems conversing with the terminals.
Well, these terminals don't use standard networking. These are all done with serial connections. There is no ip address, no MAC address, no nothing. It would be like connecting two computers via com ports except the terminals are just dumb terminals all they include is screen, keyboard, and two com ports (one for printer and one for data). This stuff is pretty old school, but still interesting!
im baffled myself... here is the email for the UNIX admin at my school. if he cant answer this question no one can. feel free to tell him that i sent you to him for his expertese, his name is Paul Mazza III he is a UNIX god. tell him Jeremy Hoffman told you to ask him, i do enough favors for him and his online learning classes that he should help you. [email address removed]. sorry but i personally cant think of why its not working. are you running apache?
the termanal looks like its logging in but its not, you can send a write or talk message from one machine to the other but you cant view the files on the server
last things i can think of
check the httpd.conf file for any errors
check the logs.
your very welcome for the help, im learning myself. make sure you ask paul nicely as he is very christian oriented. if he asks for some reason how you know me just tell him from a unix forum. that will make him happy, btw( dont mention that i told you i help him)
Well the terminals don't use Apache, I just have it installed. They should connect with the TERM sub system (i'm guessing). There is a way you can send, for example, the time to the terminals. I tried such small tests as this but none worked... But this is the way it seems when all users login there is a new "terminal connection" established (or something). That is why when you send the 'halt' command as root, it says that system broadcast message to all terminals.
Dont' worry, I asked very politely and didn't say you helped him.
w/o a unique mac or ip it must think that its all the same computer. hence sending it to all at the same time. good luck, paul might not reply for a couple of days, class doesnt start back untill mondy so you might get some advice from others on here first.
sorry i couldnt help more. if its connected to a windows machine also by chance try using ssh terminal for windows and see what happens.
my buddy tony is also pretty good with this stuff, shoot him a mail and tell him i sent you [email address removed]
jhoffman - Please review the rules - E-mail addresses are not permitted within postings on these boards. These boards are designed to allow information to flow and form a knowledge base for the benefit of all - not for encouraging private emailing between posters and their friends/tutors.
I have removed the email addresses from this thread.
Using a dumb terminal has nothing to do with networks at all. And a dumb terminal isn't "remote". It is local, even if it's on a different continent. The kernel will be talking to a tty device on the local computer. This device will be connected by a cable to dumb terminal or a modem. But the tty device (or serial port) is local. It will have a name in /dev. Maybe /dev/tty01 or something.
I have never done this under Linux. Under HP-UX you use getty while under Solaris, it's ttymon. It's amazing that this thread got this long without anyone mentioning which distro of Linux. But looking at redhat 7.2, I find several things by typing "man -k getty". "man agetty" looks promising. Maybe that would be a place to start. And why not mention your distro to save some time if a linux expert shows up?
Yes, I understand that it is not network. I was just saying that I have a special hub like thing that allows the serial connection to go over a cat5 cable so that you can add many terminals to the single server without adding more ports serial ports. I have tried getty however, it also didn't seem to "find" (?) the terminals. Using red hat 8.0
Okay, that whole thing with the networking and all just confused everybody. Let me make this a bit more simple to understand. From the top: I have a server that is running Red Hat Linux 8.0. The server has two serial connection ports. The server does not have any other software specific to Wyse terminals. Only the standard stuff that comes with the distro is installed. I have one terminal that has been connected to the serial port via the serial port on the terminal. Now when I turn on the terminal and boot up the server all that happens is that random symbols and such appear on the terminal. I have tried messing with VT types and getty. I do not know much about these dumb terminals, but always thought that TERM, and getty would detect that it was a tty connection and just send the login prompt. The terminals are Wyse wy-60s located here: http://www.wyse.com/service/discontd/terminals/wy60.htm And, yes i have been through their knowledge base alot.
asked my web server teacher today and he said somthing about you need to install somthing like ssh and make sure its communicating on a protocol like netboui or tcp/ip he also mentioned somthing about the /dev folder and having a shared file in it.
