/dev/tcx0 crashes SunOS 4.1.4 on Sparc 20's

Dixon Ly (dly@BAYNETWORKS.COM)
Mon, 19 May 1997 19:29:20 -0700

A while ago, I asked on Sun Managers group who I should tell about
a crash bug I found on Sparc 20's running SunOS 4.1.4. The general
consensus was not to tell anyone except maybe send a message to CERT.
So I did. Since then more people have suggested that I should send
it to Bugtraqs as well....so while I still have messages sprouting
from my previous email address reminding me this, let me post it before
I cut everything off:

If you try to read /dev/tcx0 on a SunOS 4.1.4 Sparc 20 (it didn't
work on a 10; didn't have access to a Sparc 5, so I couldn't check
that), you will cause a system panic. How do you read it, you ask?
Simply "cat /dev/tcx0" or "ls /dev/tcx0/*". You don't need special
privileges to use it.

Now, I have never own'ed a tcx frame buffer. These only exist on Sparc 5
right? So I don't know what will happen if you do have a tcx device.
If you don't, then the simplest fix is to just remove the darn entry under
/dev.

-d

--


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     Dixon Ly -- Release Test Engineering -- Bay Networks, Inc.
            dly@BayNetworks.com       (408) 495-1396
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