changing key behavior

[Alex Dean]

On Mar 13, 2006, at 8:52 PM, Darrin Chandler wrote:

> Eric "Shubes" wrote:
>
> That being said, does this happen with non-x terminals (ctl-alt-f1)  
> (ctl-alt-f2) etc., or just terminals under X? If only xterms are  
> affected, I'd look into the x config. If non-x terms are screwy  
> too, I'd look into mingetty, but I really don't know how that works  
> (especially on Debian).

I don't have X installed on this machine.  No joy there.

> What does "stty -a" show for the "erase" key? It should show ^?
> Login at console (uses getty) and see what happens. Then login  
> using "login" and see what happens. Same, or different?

Let me be sure I understand.  'Login at console' means 'stand in  
front of the box and use a keyboard & monitor directly attached to  
it', right?  (I almost never do this...)  The results of 'stty -a'  
include 'erase = ^?;', both when standing in front of the machine and  
when I'm logged in via ssh.

The delete key functions correctly on the command line.  The only  
place I've seen it not function as expected is in vi and pico/nano.   
I tried sending an email by running mail direct from a shell.  I was  
able to delete text just fine, and send the message as normal.

What kind of problem could affect vi AND pico but not affect bash?   
Are there other tests I could do to narrow down the list of  
culprits?  Would a more detailed description of the editing oddities  
help?

The pico issues seems easiest to define : how can I get it to delete  
what's to the left of the cursor rather than what's to the right when  
'delete' is pressed?  I suspect that this is the same issue  
manifesting differently in the 2 editors, but vi's behavior is a lot  
harder to describe.

alex
.