how do you create more /dev/pts files

[John Jimenez]

Hi I hope someone can help me quickly. Last night we upgraded our processor. I was able to log in last night, but as people are coming in this morning they cannot because I ran out of /dev/pts/* files. How do I create more of these drivers? I checked the old system and there are many. But these are driver files and cannot be copied over.

[Peter Godron · Accepted solution]

John,

you can create /dev/pts files with :
cd /dev
insf -e
insf -d telm
insf -d tels

But it could depend on your kernel configuration whether new ones are created

[Court Campbell]

make the kernel parameter npty a higher value, rebuild the kernel, and reboot.

[John Jimenez]

thanks for the kernal info. I was looking for something in the lines of maxpts not npts. But that parameter was okay

I had tried an insf by itself with no luck. but using the -e did the trick.

I was here past 2 am doing the conversion yesterday, so this morning I am really brain dead and cannot think clearly. Thank you for helping me out.

[John Jimenez]

thanks again

[Patrick Wallek]

There are 3 paramters that must be changed:

npty
nstrpty
nstrtel

You should make all 3 of these equal. Check the values on your old system.

These are all static parameters (iirc) and as such will require a reboot after the kernel is rebuilt.

[Bill Hassell]

The easiest way is to use SAM. You need to change three (3) kernel parameters:

npty
nstrtel
nstrpty

Increase these a lot, perhaps 500 or 1000 so you don't have to go back again. These param changes require a reboot. SAM will not only change the kernel values but also run insf to create the additional device files in all the right directories.

Doing it by hand requires generating a new kernel *AND* running insf to create the additional files...too many steps for the casual sysadmin. Let SAM do it.