Re: Enabling xdm in sysinst breaks console login?

[Valery Ushakov <uwe%stderr.spb.ru@localhost>]

On Sun, Jun 09, 2019 at 23:45:34 +1000, matthew green wrote:

> sounds like constty should work for all cases, is there a
> any issue i'm missing?

To provide a bit more context.  From the etc.i386/ttys log:

----------------------------
revision 1.19
date: 2008-10-07 14:00:01 +0400;  author: abs;  state: Exp;  lines: +2 -1;
branches:  1.19.18;  1.19.20;
Add a constty entry, marked 'off', with otherwise the same settings
as the console. Now when coming up in single user mode the tset in
/.profile can set the terminal type correctly.
Note: I believe constty should be 'on' and console 'off', but thats a
separate discussion
----------------------------
[...]
----------------------------
revision 1.17
date: 2003-10-04 11:41:12 +0400;  author: dsl;  state: Exp;  lines: +2 -2;
Revert 'console' back to /dev/console (from /dev/constty)
----------------------------
revision 1.16
date: 2003-10-03 18:54:21 +0400;  author: dsl;  state: Exp;  lines: +2 -2;
Change 'console' login to use /dev/constty so that its output isn't
stolen by code that requests system messages using TIOCCONS.
----------------------------


The original thread (it would be nice if people re-read it before
starting the new bikeshed :)

  http://mail-index.netbsd.org/tech-kern/2003/10/03/0008.html

was quite a bit antagonistic (hence the revert).  From a quick
refresher the positions seemed to be 1) "movable" console as in what
the system currently booted with (what mrg described in the part of
his message not quoted above) vs. 2) "fixed" console tty (using real
hw entry, like tty00 or ttyE0 or whatever).

As I was using sparcs at that time and booting them once headless and
once headful is pretty easy (the OFW just DTRT) I liked the change. I
didn't care for the bikeshed about the default. :)

I haven't thought this through, but my uninfomred opinion is that
constty would seem be a more robust default in the "sh*t happens"
scenario where you need to boot with unusual console setup (headless
instead of headful or vice versa).  It takes care of the TIOCCONS.
People that want console wired down to specific hw device has to edit
the ttys either way.

PS: console(4) would probably be a good idea.

-uwe