Error while creating child process in terminal

[Jule]

Binary package hint: gnome-terminal

"Beim Erzeugen des Kindprozesses für dieses Terminal ist ein Fehler aufgetreten" ??? Displayed message,when I try to start recording musicstreams with Streamtuner. Due to my beginner Level in using UBUNTU, I do not now what a " Kindprozess " is. May anybody help me ? Thanks to all !
Version Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon Release October 2007.

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
Date: Sun Jul 6 07:52:24 2008
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 7.10
ExecutablePath: /usr/bin/gnome-terminal
NonfreeKernelModules: ath_hal
Package: gnome-terminal 2.18.2-0ubuntu1
PackageArchitecture: i386
ProcCmdline: gnome-terminal -x streamripper http://scfire-chi-aa02.stream.aol.com:80/stream/1011
ProcCwd: /home/alf0815
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games
 LANG=de_DE.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: gnome-terminal
Uname: Linux Ubuntu 2.6.22-14-generic #1 SMP Tue Feb 12 07:42:25 UTC 2008 i686 GNU/Linux

[Marcus Asshauer (mcas)]

Thank you for reporting this bug. First of all i will translate your error message. This will help the most of us to understand your problem.
"Error while creating a child process for this terminal." I hope this is the correct translation for this message.
Can you please describe us what you are doing when the error happens?

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

Closing this bug report as no further information has been provided. Please feel free to reopen this bug if you can provide the information asked for. Thanks!.

[Luis Díaz (piponazo)]

I have the same problem. I just update my ubuntu 8.10 to the latest ubuntu 9.04 and any time I try to run a terminal (gnome-terminal or konsole) I get the message : "There was an error creating the child process for this terminal". If I try to open a xterm, nothing happens.

I observed that if I purge or install a package with aptitude from tty1 (Ctrl+ALT+F1) this error is shown:
"Can not write log, openpty() failed (/dev/pts not mounted?)"

[kiko (kiko-val-gmail)]

I have the same problem with gnome-terminal after upgrading from Ubuntu 8.10 to Ubuntu 9.04 (alpha 6).

I can see also the same error when using aptitude as Luis Diaz.

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

that's not a gnome-terminal then if you get the issue with konsole and xterm as well, this needs to be reassigned.

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

Please, stop reassigning this to gnome-terminal.

[Dimitrios Symeonidis (azimout)]

just saw pedro's comment!!!

[Dimitrios Symeonidis (azimout)]

could be related?
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/slackware-14/cant-start-a-terminal-200544/

[Ian Weisser (ian-weisser)]

Thanks for taking the time to make Ubuntu better.

What specific steps should we take to recreate this bug? Please be detailed...are you using Gnome, KDE, XFCE, are you using a command or clicking a panel or icon? If clicking a panel launcher, please open it's properties and tell us what command it executes. How can we reproduce what you are seeing?

Please try to copy the error message and codes exactly, and tell us if they occur consistently or intermittently.

This information will help us to find and resolve the problem.

Thanks in advance.

[Benjamin (benjamin-mueller)]

the bug appears if you start the terminal with the icon in the upper panel. I am using a gnome desktop.

Thanks for tacking care of the issue.

Sorry I have only the German error msg: "Beim Erzeugen des Kindprozesses für dieses Terminal ist ein Fehler aufgetreten"

the command of the icon is "gnome-terminal"

[bcummings (cummings-bnin)]

I'll add a couple of comments to this bug.
I just upgraded my machine from Ubuntu 8.10 to 9.04. When I attempt to open a terminal session from the Applications - Accessories menu, I receive the error message "There was an error creating the chile process for this terminal" I click on the OK button and the terminal window is open. There is a flashing cursor in the window but I can not type any commands. While typing the cursor stops blinking, but no characters appear. The normal command prompt does not show up. The same thing occurs when I try and open gnome-terminal by pressing "ALT-F2" to get the run program dialog box. I type gnome-terminal in the command window and click on the run button.

I added a launch button the panel and checked the properties. The command line is simply "gnome-terminal"

I am running the gnome desktop. It is consistent every time I attempt to open a terminal.

Let me know if you need more information. Beyond this, I'm not sure how I would tell you to recreate the problem.

Cheers!

[Martin Kossick (hacktick)]

I just upgraded to Jaunty and I can confirm this.

[Martin Kossick (hacktick)]

konsole does not give an error message, but also does not work.

Synaptic is not able to install packages, after downloading them the message "Error failed to fork pty" appears.

[Martin Kossick (hacktick)]

Adding the following line to /etc/fstab
none /dev/pts devpts gid=5,mode=620 0 0

resolves the issue for me.

This Bug is probably a duplicate of Bug #321927.

[Arien Lam (h-a-lam-deactivatedaccount)]

I upgraded from 8.10 to 9.04, and confirm this issue. This was an upgrade from freshly installed 8.10 on a 2nd gen. Macbook, and no tampering by me that would cause this.

There are some related reports, I didn't assign a "duplicate" because this page has the error message that I got.

I am no expert but this is what I found. This problem seems to be caused by the filesystem at /dev/pty not being available. It is possible to make /dev/pty available by changing /etc/fstab (works, should not be necessary) or changing setup to make it available at the right time in the boot process.

Diagnostic:
Looked in /etc/rcS.d using Nautilus, the link S11mountdevsubfs.sh is not there. There is a link S03mountdevsubfs.sh (so maybe the system tries to make it available too early?).

Manual solution:
To make the S11 link, I pressed ALT+F2 and typed:

gksudo ln -s /etc/init.d/mountdevsubfs.sh /etc/rcS.d/S11mountdevsubfs.sh

After a restart, the problem was gone. Afterwards, I removed the link S03mountdevsubfs.sh and found no difference with or without it, as long as the S11 was there.

Sorry developers, only a diagnostic and a solution, not the cause.

[Arien Lam (h-a-lam-deactivatedaccount)]

Sorry, meant /dev/pts as Martin Kossick wrote.

[Angel Angelov (dexterabc)]

>
>
>Adding the following line to /etc/fstab
>none /dev/pts devpts gid=5,mode=620 0 0
>
>resolves the issue for me.
>
>This Bug is probably a duplicate of Bug #321927.
>

That worked for me. Thanks.

[Dimitrios Symeonidis (azimout)]

I don't have this issue, just trying to figure out what's at fault.

If I run "mount|grep devpts" I get:
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,noexec,nosuid,gid=5,mode=620)

However, I have nothing like what Martin suggested above in my /etc/fstab
Strange...

[Dimitrios Symeonidis (azimout)]

in fact this seems a duplicate of bug #321927, marking as such