System Administration 174 Getting Started Guide your OpenLinux server via voice telephone lines. Setting up a terminal server for a least one modem line is usually the preliminary step to configuring a PPP server for dial-in access to your system. Because Linux is not restricted in the number of users that it can support (except by your hardware capacity), you can connect as many terminal or modem devices to your OpenLinux system as you feel the speed of the system can support. To configure a terminal server, you must • Define the devices to use • Set up the terminal device definition • Configure the initialization of the terminal sessions • Test the settings Defining the devices to use is simple if you are using the standard serial ports on your PC. If you need to add additional ports (such as a 256 port serial card), see the documentation included with your additional hardware for instructions and software to help you create the devices you need within Linux. A device name for each port should be available in the /dev directory. To define a terminal device for the getty program, add a line to the /etc/gettydefs file that defines the device characteristics. For many devices, you can simply duplicate an existing line with a new name. For example, the VC entry (used for all Virtual Consoles) looks like this: VC# B9600 SANE CLOCAL # B9600 SANE -ISTRIP CLOCAL #@S login: #VC You can duplicate this line with a new name, such as MYTERM, and speed, 38400: MYTERM# B38400 SANE CLOCAL # B38400 SANE -ISTRIP CLOCAL #@S login: #MYTERM NOTE: To learn the meaning of each field in the gettydefs entries, see the gettydefs man page. Finally, you must define how to initialize these terminal devices by adding them to the /etc/inittab file. By assigning each terminal a number, you can keep track of how each one is assigned in /etc/inittab. The default getty section of /etc/inittab looks like this: # Run gettys in standard runlevels