SUMMARY: Solaris 2.3 utmp logging problem

From: Nick Murray (nmurray@computing-science.aberdeen.ac.uk)
Date: Sat May 21 1994 - 02:18:08 CDT


It seems many other Solaris 2 users have encountered this problem. Sun is aware
of the problem - apparently there are 2 patches for the problem - 101533 &
101615. The trouble is Sun haven't yet released these patches!

The solution (!) that several respondants mentioned, and the one I am currently
using is to run a little daemon called utmpd. It runs in the background and
checks the utmp / wtmp files every 15 seconds and fixes them if they are
inconsistent. It is available by anonymous ftp from "ftp.chpc.utexas.edu"
in a directory called "packages/sunos5" and is called "utmpd.tar".

 The only problem for my setup is that it also zaps the X session entries that
are put in by 'sessreg', presumably because their controlling process only
exists for a brief time.

 So for the time being running utmpd seems the best solution.

Thanks to :-
=========
grs@com.claircom (Gregg Siegfried)
Jason L Tibbitts III <tibbs@edu.uh.tcamc.sina>
adap@edu.andrews (Edsel Adap)
David Stewart <D.A.Stewart@uk.ac.ed.ee>
jose@es.ehu.lc.we (Jose M. Alcaide)
John Caruso <caruso@edu.umd.paradiso>
Linda Cygan <cygan@com.wpm>
Linda Pratt <lcp@uk.ac.liv.ph.ns>

----- Begin Original Message -----

Systems: SPARCserver 1000, dual processor, 192Mb, prestoserve, Solaris 2.3
         SPARCstation 1+, 24Mb, Solaris 2.3

Problem:
========
 On both systems (and on the local Computing Centre's SS1000 running Solaris
2.3), there is a problem with the login records. I presume it's got to do with
the /var/adm/utmp, wtmp files.
 The symptoms are that when a user logs out, their pseudo-terminal entry is not
cleared. The most common effect is that 'finger <user>' shows them still logged
in. Usually 'finger' (with no arguments), 'w' and 'who' do NOT show the user
being logged on. However occasionally, I see output from who (or 'w' & 'finger')
like the following:

root console May 2 19:33
arana pts/5 May 3 10:42 (grouse)
nmurray pts/1 May 2 19:56 (cs100-w)
nmurray asterix:0 May 2 19:59
nmurray pts/0 May 3 09:47
watson pts/0 May 3 10:01 (cs100-w)

Note the two entries for pts/0. This means that many programs misread the user
on pts/0 as me (nmurray). I believe this may also have something to do with
NIS+ error messages I've been getting (which I posted a message about several
weeks ago, and have still mot resolved).

Patches installed: 101331-03 101316-01 101344-05 101347-01 101384-05 101318-41
                   101500-02 101317-08 101329-13 101327-05 101411-04 101448-01
                   101416-02 101494-01 101513-02 101543-01 101514-01 101512-07
                   101415-02

Does anybody have an ideas about this?

Thanks in advance,

Nick Murray
Computer Officer
Department of Computing Science
Aberdeen University

----- End Original Message -----



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