[jeffatspry]

I keep getting this "No more PTYs" error from screen. In /dev/ I have 356 ptys listed and I now I'm not using that many shells. Does this have anything to do with being on a vps?

[spry_dustin]

Hello,

Our VPS products have a limit in place for the maximum number of PTYs. You can see the current limit vs usage by logging into your VPS as root via ssh and executing the command:

cat /proc/user_beancounters | egrep 'pty|lim'

The output should be something similar to :

# cat /proc/user_beancounters | egrep 'pty|lim'
       uid  resource           held    maxheld    barrier      limit    failcnt
            numpty                1          1         16         16          0

In this instance the maximum number is 16.

If you need the maximum number of this value increased you may upgrade your VPS to the next product level in your category. To do so, please submit a support ticket via https://www.spry.com/support/myaccount or contact our sales department at sales@spry.com.

Please let me know if that's not the answer you were looking for or if you have any additional questions.

Regards,
Dustin

Spry Hosting Support
https://www.spry.com/support/myaccount/

[portalgod]

#cat /proc/user_beancounters | egrep 'pty|lim'
uid resource held maxheld barrier limit failcnt
numpty 1 1 32 32 0


As root, 'screen' runs no problem eating up more PTYs, but as any user it complains about no more PTYs available. Any ideas?

[spry_joseph]

Originally Posted by portalgod

#cat /proc/user_beancounters | egrep 'pty|lim'
uid resource held maxheld barrier limit failcnt
numpty 1 1 32 32 0


As root, 'screen' runs no problem eating up more PTYs, but as any user it complains about no more PTYs available. Any ideas?

Most likely your user account doesn't have the permissions to read or write to the pty devices. Check the permissions on /dev/pty* and see if you are able to access them.

[Benjamin]

My Spry VPS server did not have all of the devices actually set up. Here is how you can fix that oversight.

You will probably find something like this.

server> su -
server# cd /dev
server# ls
MAKEDEV  kmem  ptmx   ptyp4  ram0     stdin   ttyp2  ttyp7
core     log   ptyp0  ptyp5  ram1     stdout  ttyp3  urandom
fd       mem   ptyp1  ptyp6  ramdisk  tty     ttyp4  vzfs
full     null  ptyp2  ptyp7  random   ttyp0   ttyp5  zero
initctl  port  ptyp3  ram    stderr   ttyp1   ttyp6

Only 8 PTY/TTY pairs have actually been created. We want more!

You can let MAKEDEV create 256 devices. The ones above 32 will just be useless filesystem clutter though.

server# ./MAKEDEV pty && ./MAKEDEV tty

To avoid the clutter you can create only the devices you need.

server# ./MAKEDEV ptyp8 && ./MAKEDEV ttyp8
server# ./MAKEDEV ptyp9 && ./MAKEDEV ttyp9
server# ./MAKEDEV ptypa && ./MAKEDEV ttypa
server# ./MAKEDEV ptypb && ./MAKEDEV ttypb
server# ./MAKEDEV ptypc && ./MAKEDEV ttypc
server# ./MAKEDEV ptypd && ./MAKEDEV ttypd
server# ./MAKEDEV ptype && ./MAKEDEV ttype
server# ./MAKEDEV ptypf && ./MAKEDEV ttypf
server# ./MAKEDEV ptyq0 && ./MAKEDEV ttyq0
server# ./MAKEDEV ptyq1 && ./MAKEDEV ttyq1
server# ./MAKEDEV ptyq2 && ./MAKEDEV ttyq2
server# ./MAKEDEV ptyq3 && ./MAKEDEV ttyq3
server# ./MAKEDEV ptyq4 && ./MAKEDEV ttyq4
server# ./MAKEDEV ptyq5 && ./MAKEDEV ttyq5
server# ./MAKEDEV ptyq6 && ./MAKEDEV ttyq6
server# ./MAKEDEV ptyq7 && ./MAKEDEV ttyq7
server# ./MAKEDEV ptyq8 && ./MAKEDEV ttyq8
server# ./MAKEDEV ptyq9 && ./MAKEDEV ttyq9
server# ./MAKEDEV ptyqa && ./MAKEDEV ttyqa
server# ./MAKEDEV ptyqb && ./MAKEDEV ttyqb
server# ./MAKEDEV ptyqc && ./MAKEDEV ttyqc
server# ./MAKEDEV ptyqd && ./MAKEDEV ttyqd
server# ./MAKEDEV ptyqe && ./MAKEDEV ttyqe
server# ./MAKEDEV ptyqf && ./MAKEDEV ttyqf

And that's all there is to it.