Hello sun-managers,
my question was:
> 
> We tried to set up xdm on a SS2 running 4.1.3 and OWN 3.0. We used the
> OpenWindows xdm and xlogin 2.01 rev.1.3.  On a first look everthing
> seemed ok, but then we noticed that every cmdtool or shelltool that 
> is started from openwin-init or from the olwm-menu is taking a lot of
> cpu time. A trace of such a cmdtool looks like this:
> 
> Process 592 attached - interrupt to quit
> select (256, 0xf7fffa00, 0xf7fff9e0, 0xf7fff9c0, 0) = 1
> readv (4, 0xf779cd88, 2) = -1 EIO (I/O error)
> ioctl (3, 0x4004667f, 0xf7fff80c) = 0
> select (256, 0xf7fffa00, 0xf7fff9e0, 0xf7fff9c0, 0) = 1
> readv (4, 0xf779cd88, 2) = -1 EIO (I/O error)
> ioctl (3, 0x4004667f, 0xf7fff80c) = 0
> 
> This is repeating endless. One way to stop this behavior is to do
> an [ echo "" >/dev/ttyp? ]  to the pseudo device that belongs to the
> cmdtool. But if we do an [ stty sane ] or [ stty dec ] or an 
> [ rlogin anywhere ] from this cmdtool, the strange behavior starts
> again. 
> 
> If we start a cmdtool from a remote machine with the display on the
> xdm-running machine this does not happen. Even if we do a remote login
> to this machine and start a cmdtool on :0 it works fine. Just the tools
> that are started from the xdm-controlled environment (openwin-init or olwm)
> seem to have this problem (with their ttyp??).
> 
The solutions in short: 
  - use xterm
  - use X11R5 xdm and 'stty sane' before xdm startup
  - start xdm with "-nodaemon" option
I will go with the last one, because many of our users like the "scrolling feature"
of cmdtool and I had some problems with X11R5 xdm and no time to deal with them now.
Fernando Dias (fdias@silvac.pt) said he posted a similar question about buggy
cmdtool some time ago. Maybe the workaround from Matt Cohen (Matt.Cohen@chron.com) 
can help him too. I'll include his message at the end of this mail.
Thanks a lot to all who responded, you are really great!!!
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Joerg Theuerkauf                    /|        
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---w--U--w-----------------------------------------------------------
P.S.: original messages:
> From: Matt.Cohen@chron.com (Matt Cohen)
> 
> Joerg,
> 
> 	This is a bug in shelltool/cmdtool.
> 
> 	Whenever one is started without a controlling terminal,
> it goes into the loop you traced.
> 
> 	There is no fix, but a workaround is to provide a controlling
> terminal.  The best way I've found to do this is to arrange for one
> to be inherited from xdm.  Normally, xdm disassociates itself from
> a controlling terminal to protect against a variety of basically unlikely
> potential problems.  
> 
> 	You can suppress this behavior by starting xdm in nodaemon mode - 
> either use the "-nodaemon" option on the command line, or put the line: 
> "DisplayManager.daemonMode: false" in your xdm-config file.  Be sure to 
> start xdm in the background, since it won't exit in nodaemon mode.
> 
> 	Good luck - I hope this helps.
> 
> 				-- Matt @8^1
> 
> -- 
> Matt Cohen                              INET: sysnmc@chron.com
> Department of Technology Resources      UUCP: ...!uunet!chron!sysnmc
> The Houston Chronicle                   AT&T: +1 713 220 7023
> 801 Texas Avenue, Houston, TX 77002     "Quidquid Latine dictum sit,
> "Houston's Leading Information Source"         altum viditur."
> 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
> From ivan@fac.anu.edu.au Wed Jun 16 01:00:58 1993
> 
> I solved this problem by placing a 'stty sane' in the script where I
> start up xdm.  I am using the X11R5 xdm, as from all reports the OW 3.0
> one is not very good.
> -------------------------------------------------------------------
> Ivan Angus - ne Dean                    Here :                x3261
> Faculties Computer Unit                 There :       (06) 249 3261
> Australian National University          Everywhere : +61 6 249 3261
> 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
> From Ian_MacPhedran@engr.usask.ca Tue Jun 15 21:40:45 1993
> 
> Use xterm in place of {shell,command}tool. The tools are brain damaged.
> The problem seems to be that they have no controlling terminal. You could
> launch them from an xterm, once you have one on the screen.
> 
> Ian.
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Ian MacPhedran,   Engineering Computer Centre,   University of Saskatchewan.
> 2B13 Engineering Building, U. of S. Campus, Saskatoon, Sask., CANADA S7N 0W0
> macphed@dvinci.USask.CA     (306) 966-4832      Ian_MacPhedran@engr.USask.CA
> 
Status: RO
Status: RO
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