Bug 3736

Summary:	less exit code 256
Product:	Drivers	Reporter:	Alex (alexmed2000)
Component:	Input Devices	Assignee:	other_other
Status:	REJECTED UNREPRODUCIBLE
Severity:	normal	CC:	protasnb
Priority:	P2
Hardware:	i386
OS:	Linux
Kernel Version:	2.6.9	Subsystem:
Regression:	---	Bisected commit-id:
Attachments:	strace output when less fails Difference between 2.6.9-rc1-bk1 and 2.6.9-rc1-bk2 which causes this problem Possible fix for this problem.

Description Alex 2004-11-11 23:48:59 UTC

Distribution:
Hardware Environment: N/A
Software Environment: N/A
Problem Description:
"man <word>" cause error in "less" when "less" is a default pager

Steps to reproduce:
just set up "less" as pager and type "man ping"

Comment 1 Andris Pavenis 2004-11-18 09:02:18 UTC

I have the same problem. It appears on only one machine of 2, where I have tested.
It also seems to be related with other problem mentioned in linux-kernel mailing
list (http://www.ussg.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0411.2/0510.html). I see
either both or none of them.

1) AtlonXP 1800+ with 512Mb: doesn't appear (less works as expected, also
recently mentioned problems with SSH doesn't appear). 

2) Pentium-4 with 1Gb RAM: I can reproduce problems both with less and SSH.
As far as I have verified, kernel 2.6.9-rc1 doesn't have this problem, but
2.6.9-rc1-bk5, 2.6.9-rc1-bk10, 2.6.9-rc2, 2.6.9, 2.6.10-rc2 have

Comment 2 Andris Pavenis 2004-11-18 09:23:00 UTC

Created attachment 4078 [details]
strace output when less fails

strace output when less fails. The end of it realted to /dev/tty is really
strange
and seems to be wrong. Such strange error reports doesn't appear on other
machine where I tested, only ono one of two.

Command: 
ls -lR | strace -o less_strace.log less

Comment 3 Andris Pavenis 2004-11-22 00:43:31 UTC

Created attachment 4113 [details]
Difference between 2.6.9-rc1-bk1 and 2.6.9-rc1-bk2 which causes this problem

Reverting this patch (differnce between 2.6.9-rc1-bk1 and 2.6.9-rc1-bk2) fixed
the problems both with less and SSH with kernel 2.6.9 for me.

Comment 4 Gerald Richards 2004-11-24 06:38:39 UTC

Repeatable results with kernel 2.6.9 on 3 machines:
Athlon 650 'Classic', VIA chipset, less and ssh don't work
Athlon 2500+, VIA chipset, less and ssh work fine
Pentium 4 2.6C, Intel ICH5 chipset, less and ssh don't work
I may be able to provide kernel .config's, logs, etc

Comment 5 Andris Pavenis 2005-01-17 08:28:42 UTC

Reproduced again with 2.6.10. 

As earlier, reverting the same patch fixes the problem.

Comment 6 Andris Pavenis 2005-01-24 07:41:10 UTC

Created attachment 4449 [details]
Possible fix for this problem.

At list this small patch fixed the problem with kernel 2.6.10 for me. At least
I saw this problem with unchanged 2.6.10. After applying patch and rebuilding
kernel problem no more appeared

Comment 7 Olaf Hering 2005-02-06 10:28:36 UTC

this patch is wrong.

Comment 8 Natalie Protasevich 2007-08-26 00:38:40 UTC

Any updates, has the problem been resolved?
Thanks.

Comment 9 Natalie Protasevich 2008-03-04 19:13:30 UTC

Since no complaints/updates I am closing the bug. Please reopen if needed.