[SOLVED] 'xterm': unknown terminal type.

[ersiko]

Hi!

After the last upgrade to 16.0, there's a thing that's bugging me... I get these errors on "top" and "htop" (and others, but I think they're all related)

root@lacie:/ # top
'xterm': unknown terminal type.

root@lacie:/ #htop
Error opening terminal: xterm.

Am I the only one? Any hint on how can I fix it?

[Jocko]

hi ersiko,

Can you check if you have a xterm file in /usr/share/terminfo/x

Try also to use vt100 as terminal type string in your Putty settings (connection -> Data)

[ersiko]

Indeed it is there

root@lacie:/ # ls /usr/share/terminfo/x/
xterm xterm-alt
root@lacie:/ # ls /usr/share/terminfo/v/
vt100

Also changing to vt100 doesn't fix it

root@lacie:/ # echo $TERM
vt100
root@lacie:/ # top
'vt100': unknown terminal type.

[Jocko]

:scratch

At least for top, it searches the terminal info in another folder and so a symlink is required. Maybe you lost it:

Code: Select all

root@Acrab:/ # ls -l /opt/share/terminfo
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root 24 2014-12-30 11:41 /opt/share/terminfo -> ../../usr/share/terminfo


[ersiko]

Well... I already checked that. Running a strace on top shows:

stat64("//.terminfo", 0xbea2b158) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
stat64("/opt/share/terminfo", 0xbea2b158) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
write(2, "'xterm': unknown terminal type.\n", 32'xterm': unknown terminal type.
) = 32
exit_group(1) = ?

But then the soft-link exists

root@lacie:/ # ls -la /opt/share/terminfo
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 24 2015-01-26 17:02 /opt/share/terminfo -> ../../usr/share/terminfo

I could access that directory, but as the "../../" part doesn't look good, I removed the soft-link and re-created it again:

root@lacie:/ # ls -la /opt/share/terminfo
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 24 2015-01-26 17:02 /opt/share/terminfo -> ../../usr/share/terminfo
root@lacie:/ # rm /opt/share/terminfo
root@lacie:/ # ln -s /usr/share/terminfo /opt/share/terminfo
root@lacie:/ # top
top - 11:32:24 up 1 day, 15:18, 1 user, load average: 0.81, 0.80, 0.87
Tasks: 82 total, 1 running, 81 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie
Cpu(s): 20.6%us, 2.7%sy, 0.4%ni, 70.8%id, 5.2%wa, 0.0%hi, 0.2%si, 0.0%st
Mem: 250404k total, 147584k used, 102820k free, 2828k buffers
Swap: 524284k total, 106692k used, 417592k free, 11908k cached

Now it works!

I think that soft-link is wrong, and it should be fixed in future versions. Any reason why it should stay a relative path instead of an absolute path?

[fvdw]

I think that soft-link is wrong, and it should be fixed in future versions. Any reason why it should stay a relative path instead of an absolute path?

no it isn't wrong, unless you changed something in the structure of the firmware.

[Jocko]

-- In addition with the fvdw post --

I think that soft-link is wrong, and it should be fixed in future versions. Any reason why it should stay a relative path instead of an absolute path?

First you must be aware that after upgrading the firmware, filesystem is chrooted. It is why it is better to use a relative path instead of an absolute path.
Indeed if for any raeson, there is an error with the chroot or you don't work in a normal environment (use a serial console), with a relative path, the firmware still uses the resource of the mounted filesystem and not an obsolete file version.

So the symlink is not wrong but we need to understand why you have this issue.

Some ideas:
Did you install some ipkg packages ?
check you chroot environment (what is your mount output)


Note :

Code: Select all

rm /opt/share/terminfo

It is a dangerous command with a symlink. I advise you to use instead the command unlink where there is no risk to delete something on the target side

[ersiko]

Indeed I changed the env. That's why my first question was "Am I the only one?" :P

I tried to install a bunch of programs in /opt (ntop, for instance), as I have them before installing this firmware, but I was running out of space quickly (I could install just one or two ipkg apps!), and that's why I copied everything from /opt to /share/1000/opt and then created a soft-link to /opt. It was a quick'n'dirty fix, I know, I'm not proud of it, but it did the trick.

I understand now the reason for the relative path, and why it's not working for me.

Thanks, guys!