console issue

Question

It's been some time but yesterday I tried to long in using the >console command in the login window. My powerbook would go to the blank sceen then throw this error message at me
date:time:snowbunny getty:/dev/console:operation not suppported by device driver
Either help me understand this or point me to a paper or two for help
Thank you for any help
glen

Answer 1

speaking of ">console", why is it so difficult to find any information on its use?
I think mainly because it only falls in the "neat trick" category for most users. When you login this way, you are not in single user mode. And when you logout, you are back at the login window.
For some people, it can make a mess of things.
What are the reasons that people cite for doing this? Reducing the load on the CPU caused by running the GUI?
Here's a sample list of processes on a system running Panther with a >console login:
TIME COMMAND
0:00.06 /sbin/init
0:00.09 /sbin/mach_init
0:00.04 /usr/sbin/syslogd -s -m 0
0:01.85 kextd
0:00.46 /usr/sbin/configd
0:00.22 /usr/sbin/diskarbitrationd
0:00.19 /usr/sbin/notifyd
0:00.32 netinfod -s local
0:00.04 update
0:00.00 dynamic_pager -F /private/var/vm/swapfile
0:00.03 /usr/sbin/mDNSResponder
0:02.27 /System/Library/CoreServices/coreservicesd
0:00.00 /usr/sbin/KernelEventAgent
0:00.04 /usr/sbin/distnoted
0:00.01 /usr/libexec/ioupsd
0:00.00 cron
0:00.10 /System/Library/CoreServices/SecurityServer -X
0:00.19 /System/Library/Frameworks/ApplicationServices.framework/Frameworks/ATS.framewo rk/Support/
0:00.61 /usr/sbin/DirectoryService
0:00.71 /usr/sbin/lookupd
0:00.01 /usr/libexec/crashreporterd
0:00.00 nfsiod -n 4
0:00.00 rpc.lockd -w
0:00.01 /usr/sbin/automount -f -m /Network -nsl
0:00.02 ntpd -f /var/run/ntp.drift -p /var/run/ntpd.pid
0:00.11 /usr/sbin/cupsd
0:00.02 xinetd -inetd_compat -pidfile /var/run/xinetd.pid
0:00.01 /usr/sbin/automount -f -m /automount/Servers -fstab -mnt /private/Network/Servers -m /auto
0:00.04 /usr/sbin/AppleFileServer
0:00.00 /usr/sbin/postfix-watch
0:00.00 slpd -f /etc/slpsa.conf
0:00.16 login -p1 xxxxxx
0:00.20 -zsh
0:00.02 ps aux