XFree86: xterm won't start

[jamesl22]

Hi,

I'm building a new distribution that runs off a live cd. Now I'm trying to get the gui to work. I'm using the XFree86 4.8.0 binaries with Linux 2.6.35.1.

The problem:
When I type startx I see the default X screen for a couple of seconds then it goes back to the terminal and says:

xterm: Error 32, errno 0: Success
Reason: get_pty: not enough ptys

I have checked my kernel config and Legacy PTYS is enabled. How can I fix this problem?

James

[TEDickey]

More likely than not, the xterm binary would be using Unix98 ptys.
Legacy ptys are the explicit pairs of ttyp/ptyp in /dev.

[Rubberman]

You will be better off running the Xorg servers now, instead of the XFree86 ones.

[jamesl22]

Hi,

I'm using XFree86 as it seems smaller and they provide binaries. The xorg build process seemed really confusing. Also, I have unix ptys support enabled also.

James

[jamesl22]

What should be in the /dev directory that would tell me that ptys are working? I have /dev/ptmx.

[Rubberman]

You should also have a directory like /dev/pts with a number of device entries in it.

[jamesl22]

I see... Unfortunatly I dont have that . How can this be created? Do I need to use mknod and if so what devices do I need to create?

[jamesl22]

Ok, so I created a directory in /dev/pts. But what device files do I need to create inside?

[jamesl22]

Sorry for the triple post but I can't find the edit button.

I have run these commands:

mknod /dev/pts/0 c 136 0
 mknod /dev/pts/1 c 136 1
 mknod /dev/pts/2 c 136 2
 mknod /dev/pts/3 c 136 3
 mknod /dev/pts/4 c 136 4
 mknod /dev/pts/5 c 136 5
 mknod /dev/pts/6 c 136 6
 mknod /dev/pts/7 c 136 7
 mknod /dev/pts/8 c 136 8

But this did not improve the situation. I still get:

xterm: Error 32: errno 0: Success
Reason: get_pty: not enough ptys
login: Error 32: errno 0: Success
Reason: get_pty: not enough ptys