tlug: Duplicate spawns of pppd

[Neil Booth <NeilB@example.com>]

The scripts that come with Redhat 5.2 have an annoying habit of
respawing pppd when the

/etc/sysconfig/network-functions/ifdown-ppp

script is run. I had a similar problem with RH 5.1 at first, which
finally went away. It happens about 40% of the time. Here is an
interesting snippet from the syslog:-

Jan 24 14:47:41 localhost pppd[3904]: Serial connection established.
Jan 24 14:47:42 localhost pppd[3904]: Using interface ppp0
Jan 24 14:47:42 localhost pppd[3904]: Connect: ppp0 <--> /dev/modem
Jan 24 14:47:45 localhost pppd[3904]: local  IP address 203.216.42.65
Jan 24 14:47:45 localhost pppd[3904]: remote IP address 203.216.40.12
Jan 24 14:47:47 localhost pppd[3904]: Terminating on signal 15.
Jan 24 14:47:47 localhost pppd[3904]: Connection terminated.
Jan 24 14:47:48 localhost pppd[4063]: pppd 2.3.5 started by root, uid 0
Jan 24 14:47:48 localhost pppd[4063]: Device modem is locked by pid 3904
Jan 24 14:47:48 localhost pppd[4063]: Exit.
Jan 24 14:47:48 localhost ifup-ppp: pppd started for ppp0 on /dev/modem
at 115200
Jan 24 14:47:48 localhost pppd[3904]: Exit.

What I've managed to almost track down, but not quite, is the creation
of process 4063 above. This second pppd is always created after the
previous one logs "Connection terminated". Here I didn't get connected
to the internet because the exit of 3904 occurred after 4063 was
scheduled and tried to connect to the modem.

However, about 40% of the time 3904 tends to exit before being
pre-empted, and 4063 would then not be locked out and I get reconnected
to the ISP. This is very annoying.

Does anyone with a similar setup know what causes the creation of 4063?

Cheers,

Neil.
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