Prevention of recurrent respawns for non-operational terminals

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As of s390-tools 1.9 (kernel 2.6.34), you can use ttyrun to prevent recurrent respawns.

If you set up user logins on a terminal that is not available or not operational, the system startup procedures might keep respawning the getty program. Failing respawns increase unproductive system and logging activities.

Whether a particular terminal is available can depend:
  • On the platform where the Linux™ instance runs, LPAR or z/VM®
  • On the conmode= and hvc_iucv= kernel parameters
You can use ttyrun to provide entries for terminals that might or might not be present. The ttyrun program prevents respawns if the specified terminal is not available or not operational. For example:
  • You can freely change kernel parameters that affect the presence of terminals.
  • You can use a superset of terminal definitions for multiple Linux instances with different terminal configurations.

See the section about consoles and terminals in Device Drivers, Features, and Commands, SC33-8411 for more details about ttyrun, and the conmode= and hvc_iucv= kernel parameters.