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Casual Coder
Asked: 2010-05-24 00:12:21 +0800 CST

Ubuntu: move logs from /dev/tty8 to different terminal /dev/tty12 or get rid of it

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I want to know how to move or get rid of /dev/tty8 log output in Ubuntu 9.10. /dev/tty7 is my regular X session. When I am switching user to test account where I can try and test setups and configs I am at next available console i.e. /dev/tty9 because /dev/tty8 is taken by log output. Where can I configure this ? All I've found related to /dev/tty8 is commented lines in /etc/rsyslog.d/50-default.conf. I changed it like that:

daemon,mail.*;\
 news.=crit;news.=err;news.=notice;\
 *.=debug;*.=info;\
 *.=notice;*.=warn /dev/tty12

And I've got nice log output on /dev/tty12 but where is configuration for log output on /dev/tty8. How can I change it?

EDIT 1:

with grep -R '/dev/tty8' /etc/* I found some clearing commands on VT 8 in /etc/init/usplash.conf: 

/etc/init/usplash.conf: tput -Tlinux reset > /dev/tty8 || true
/etc/init/usplash.conf:    clear >/dev/tty8 || true

Clearing and reseting ... hmmm. But where is config responsible for redirecting log output and from what ?

EDIT 2:
lsof | grep tty gives no output for /dev/tty8. So no process is writing to it, right? /dev/tty1-6 are associated with getty and /dev/tty7 is associated with Xorg, nothing for /dev/tty8.

ubuntu logging terminal console

2 Answers

  1. Instead of the change you made, try this:

    $ sudo setlogcons 12

    You could add setlogcons 12 to /etc/rc.local.

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  2. Best Answer

    The culprit is usplash. I've found that after decompressing initramfs and looking around. tty8 output console is hard-coded into the source. So solution is:
    1. download sources for usplash package
    2. modify sources for every tty8 you find.
    3. modify sources for ifs checking if fgconsole is 8 and similar for instance chvt command
    4. rebuild package & install it.
    5. reboot.

    Now what was on /dev/tty8 is on your virtual terminal of choice. In my case /dev/tty11. It works!

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