Any experts on the 'talk' command?

Bradj47 · #1 (**permalink**) 08-25-2009

I'm trying to get the talk command to work on my network. I just recently tried it from my Ubuntu computer to one of my Solaris ones.

Code:

brad@rockstar:~$ talk brad@plug console

I ran 'ps -p $$' on my Solaris one and it called the tty I had open 'console'. On the Ubuntu computer in the Terminal that I ran the command in, it first said:

Code:

[Your party is not logged on]

───────────────────────────[ Press any key to exit ]────────────────────────────

Then it said this:

Code:

[Trying to connect to your party's talk daemon]

I checked the Console on my Solaris computer and it gave an error I've never gotten before:

Code:

plug%  Aug 25 18:50:31 plug sendmail [24032]: n7PM5Vk402: SYSERR (root): Cannot bind to map mail.aliases in domain home1_net: no such map in server's domain: Resource temporarily unavailable

I'm not sure if this is a coincidence but it happened a few seconds after I ran the talk command from my Ubuntu computer.

Here are some stats about my network if needed:
- I have 2 other computers running on the same NIS network as the Solaris one I mentioned. My Ubuntu computer is not on the same NIS network.
- The NIS domain name is 'home1_net'.
- The hostname of the Ubuntu computer is 'rockstar' and the hostname of the Solaris computer is 'plug'.

Thanks,
Brad

EDIT: Also, I've never gotten this to work before on any network ever.

Smiling Dragon · #2 (**permalink**) 08-25-2009

The sendmail error won't be related, it's complaining about the aliases NIS table (something to fix at some point though).

Having the machines in different NIS domains won't matter either, but do check that your domain suffix search order in resolv.conf and nsswitch (or the linux equivalent) is set correctly buy running a ping <unqualified hostname of the other machine> - try it from both boxes just for completeness' sake.

You don't need to specify the terminal unless you are trying to pick a particular one that the user is on out of a bunch of concurrent logins they have running.

Obvious questions:
Is the talk daemon running?
Does talk work locally (ie user to user on the same server)?

Bradj47 · #3 (**permalink**) 08-25-2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by Smiling Dragon

Having the machines in different NIS domains won't matter either, but do check that your domain suffix search order in resolv.conf and nsswitch (or the linux equivalent) is set correctly buy running a ping <unqualified hostname of the other machine> - try it from both boxes just for completeness' sake.

Obvious questions:
Is the remote talk daemon running?
Does talk work locally (ie user to user on the same server)?

Code:

plug% ping 192.168.1.103
192.168.1.103 is alive

Ping works from plug.

Code:

brad@rockstar:~$ ping plug
PING plug (192.168.1.101) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from plug (192.168.1.101): icmp_seq=1 ttl=255 time=0.667 ms
64 bytes from plug (192.168.1.101): icmp_seq=2 ttl=255 time=0.495 ms
64 bytes from plug (192.168.1.101): icmp_seq=3 ttl=255 time=0.506 ms
64 bytes from plug (192.168.1.101): icmp_seq=4 ttl=255 time=0.495 ms
^C
--- plug ping statistics ---
4 packets transmitted, 4 received, 0% packet loss, time 3000ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 0.495/0.540/0.667/0.078 ms

Ping works from rockstar.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Smiling Dragon

You don't need to specify the terminal unless you are trying to pick a particular one that the user is on out of a bunch of concurrent logins they have running.

Thanks, I won't specify the Terminal anymore unless I have to.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Smiling Dragon

Obvious questions:
Is the remote talk daemon running?
Does talk work locally (ie user to user on the same server)?

How do I check if the remote talk daemon is running? I know to check the volume daemon is 'volcheck' so for this would I use 'talkcheck'?
I tried talking to myself on Ubuntu between two Terminals:
In one:

Code:

talk brad@rockstar pts/1

In another:

Code:

brad@rockstar:~$ talk brad@rockstar pts/0

At first I get the error with the talk daemon in both of them then they both display this:

Code:

[Checking for invitation on caller's machine]











────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

I don't know if trying to talk between two Terminals to and from the same user on the same desktop will screw things up, but that's what happened. I'll try from one user to another on the same box and I'll post the results in a sec.

Smiling Dragon · #4 (**permalink**) 08-25-2009

See if the talk daemon is running by looking for one of:

Code:

ps -ef | grep talkd

OR

Code:

grep talkd /etc/inetd.conf

Depends on how it's being run - my setup has it running from inetd

No harm talking to yourself

The simplest way to test it is to open two terminals up, then type 'who am i' in one window and 'talk <user> <terminal from who am i command>' in the other.

But if talkd isn't running that won't work very well

---------- Post updated at 02:33 PM ---------- Previous update was at 02:29 PM ----------

Oh, and don't bother typing the talk command on both sides, you only need to try from one side, then wait for the daemon to contact the other party, once they get the message, they just type what it tells them to type (usually talk <user>@<host>) and it will automagically connect to the right one.

Bradj47 · #5 (**permalink**) 08-25-2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by Smiling Dragon

The sendmail error won't be related, it's complaining about the aliases NIS table (something to fix at some point though).

Having the machines in different NIS domains won't matter either, but do check that your domain suffix search order in resolv.conf and nsswitch (or the linux equivalent) is set correctly buy running a ping <unqualified hostname of the other machine> - try it from both boxes just for completeness' sake.

You don't need to specify the terminal unless you are trying to pick a particular one that the user is on out of a bunch of concurrent logins they have running.

Obvious questions:
Is the talk daemon running?
Does talk work locally (ie user to user on the same server)?

I created a user called 'dummy' but I get the same thing:

Code:

brad@rockstar:~$ talk dummy@rockstar
[Checking for invitation on caller's machine]











────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

I assume when it says '[Checking for invitation on caller's machine]' it's sending an invitation to the only Terminal I have open logged in as 'dummy'.

---------- Post updated at 08:36 PM ---------- Previous update was at 08:34 PM ----------

Code:

brad@rockstar:~$ ps -ef | grep talkd
brad     26296 24592  0 20:35 pts/0    00:00:00 grep talkd
brad@rockstar:~$ grep talkd /etc/inetd.conf
brad@rockstar:~$

Seems to be running...

Smiling Dragon · #6 (**permalink**) 08-25-2009

Ah no, that's showing it not running

The blankness after the grep of /etc/inetd.conf shows it's not configured there and the only process that was returned by the grep of ps was the grep itself.

But I think you want to be doing that test on the server though really (ie the destination of the talk command you run on your desktop). Try it there.

If it's not running there either, you'll have to find the binary for it. Try running:

Code:

ls -l /usr/sbin/*talk*

---------- Post updated at 02:50 PM ---------- Previous update was at 02:47 PM ----------

You can set it up running on your destop if you want in order to get the hang of the process, run that ls command there, find the binary of talkd and add it to /etc/inetd.conf.
I'm not a big linux guy so I'm not certain of the inetd.conf syntax, post a couple of lines from the file and I'll figure it out for you though

Solaris I can do though, but we'll wait to see if talk's running over there first.

Bradj47 · #7 (**permalink**) 08-26-2009

Code:

brad@rockstar:~$ ls -l /usr/sbin/*talk*
ls: cannot access /usr/sbin/*talk*: No such file or directory

It doesn't exist so that must be how Solaris does it.

Code:

plug% ls -l /usr/sbin/*talk*
-r-xr-xr-x   1 root     bin        18744 Jan 22  2005 /usr/sbin/in.talkd*

Yep, Linux must have it's own way of doing things.

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