Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. ssh from one gentoo-box to another gentoo-box from an xterm 2. try to C-H 3. repeat step 1+2 in oter distros Actual Results: C-H is like backspace works as expected in other distros Expected Results: C-H works
forgot step 1.5 1.5 start emacs
I don't think it's an emacs side bug or misconfiguration in Gentoo... at least it does show help on my Gentoo boxes. What does your `stty -a` say? If you have erase = ^H it will be an expected result (C-H deletes one character before your cursor). If you didn't touch anything, it might be a problem in shell or whatever. (I use emacs-21.3-r1, zsh-4.1.1-r2, and xfree4.3.0-r3) Does using rxvt or some other terminal emulator change the situation? Or, is it only happen you use the shell you are using at the moment?
I also think it has nothing to do with emacs itself. erase *is* ^H in xterm, independent of shell; and that is exactly the problem. In rxvt I get erase=^?, but rxvt sets TERM=xterm, so a lot of keys do not work in other programs. Also, rxvt does not write utmp records and shows some other breakage wrt ncurses apps. (because of the xterm thing) Debian's xterm has erase=^?
Adding the following to your .Xresources file might fix this problem you are having: XTerm*backarrowKey: false *ttyModes: erase ^?
(ignore that) I think I'm gonna screem. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! Sorry, has nothing to do with emacs, but gentoo''s xfree is seriously broken. (do not ignore that) Does not work. X started from xdm, does not care about .Xresources. (known problem, but unfortunately low priority and apparently not gonna be fixed soon, see #26354) It does work from startx, but I don't want to use it because it leaves device files in a very insecure state (see bug #26648) Also, xterm wouldn't match it's own termcap/terminfo any more. Better fix is to fix xterm itself; CCing xfree.
listen, can you emerge x11-terms/xterm and see if it makes a difference, please?
Nope, still erase=^H suggested workaround in comment #4 still works with startx but not with xdm
testing x11-terms/xterm for almost a month now, still same problem. (Did I mention it works on Debian; or when I log into gentoo from a Debian xterm?)
Yes, i can say that this probles is pain in the ass. You can reproduce easy: use less in xterm try to search some text, and then try to delete using backspace in search input. This is bug of xterm, or term=xterm definition. It's dummy solution, that every user on every host must to setup backspace key. on xfree-x11 xterm has this setings: stty erase = ^H; and this works ok. I will try to look what erase has xorg.
Reporter, roma: is this still an issue xterms 199 and/or 200? We've changed some thing in the termcap/termlib handling since then (was handled upstream at our request).
<skip> Oh... ho i like this fell... This likes like You can fly, Rock which was on you ages ar gone away. Ech.... </skip> Ok. Now unix backspace saga has now one more entry in his history, and this entry has end. Now (with xterm-200) works backspace. But who knows what now doesn't work..... Status: WORKSFORME
Closing this then. Please reopen if this problem returns.
