Hi there, I'm using syslog-ng 2.0.9-4.1 on Ubuntu 9.04. In the configuration file, emergency messages are configured to be logged to all ttys. Sometimes syslog-ng blocks the whole system while opening /dev/ttyS0: # pgrep -f syslog-ng # strace -f -p 3172 Process 3172 attached - interrupt to quit open("/dev/ttyS0", O_WRONLY|O_NOCTTY|O_APPEND I'm surprised because I saw the same bug report, and this was supposed to be fixed in Ubuntu's 2.0.9-1 version as stated in the changelog at See http://changelogs.ubuntu.com/changelogs/pool/universe/s/syslog-ng/syslog-ng_... The changelog says: syslog-ng (2.0.9-1) unstable; urgency=low * New upstream version. (Closes: #397650, #447105) This corresponds to this bug: syslog-ng hangs writing to /dev/ttyN http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=397650 I notice the bug is fixed in syslog-ng: http://git.balabit.hu/?p=bazsi/syslog-ng-2.0.git;a=commit;h=c5cc92d54d2e33b9... Is there maybe another call to tty open() that was not covered by alarm()? The issue happens on several machines, but I don't know what triggers this. Reloading syslog-ng fixes the problem. Thanks in advance, -- Jean-Baptiste Quenot http://jbq.caraldi.com/