"can'texec getty'/usr/X11R6/bin/xdm" for port /dev/tty8: no such file or directory

[Joachim Dagerot]

I have had this error message for quite some time now. It's not
bothering me too much because it's mainly published in the logs and on
the console, and I normally don't even have a monitor attached to the
system.

But now during this weekends maintainance I have been working from
console and get the message:

"can't exec getty '/usr/X11R6/bin/xdm" for port /dev/tty8: no such
file or directory

every 30 second or so, incredibly irritating when writing a longer
bash-command.

I searched the archive but only found a solution telling that the /usr
was improperly mounted, which in no way is the case.

Any other ideas?

[Matthew Seaman]

Post by Joachim Dagerot
I have had this error message for quite some time now. It's not
bothering me too much because it's mainly published in the logs and on
the console, and I normally don't even have a monitor attached to the
system.
But now during this weekends maintainance I have been working from
"can't exec getty '/usr/X11R6/bin/xdm" for port /dev/tty8: no such
file or directory
every 30 second or so, incredibly irritating when writing a longer
bash-command.
I searched the archive but only found a solution telling that the /usr
was improperly mounted, which in no way is the case.
Any other ideas?

Edit /etc/ttys and change the line that says:

ttyv8 "/usr/X11R6/bin/xdm -nodaemon" xterm on secure

to say:

ttyv8 "/usr/X11R6/bin/xdm -nodaemon" xterm off secure
^^^
The tell init(8) to re-read that file:

# kill -HUP 1

That's presuming you don't actually have xdm(1) installed or want to
run it.

Cheers,

Matthew