AT 7.21 with Win XP Pro (sorry, I simply do not have the money right now to update either of them).
I use AT to SSH2 into a netBSD server, where I use Pine 4.64 to read mail and news. This has been a totally satisfactory combination for me for years. I have been an AT user for a long time with excellent results. Suddenly, without warning, today something went wrong, and for the life of me I cannot figure out what happened.
My ISP has five netBSD shell servers, although I tend to use only one of them. (For SSH2, it is necessary to specify exactly which one of the servers to use.) I have *.tnt files for each server, and I have a desktop icon for one of them. I doubleclick on it, and I am quickly at the shell login prompt. (I have a DSL connection.) In order to get the full use of the screen (111x38) after I am logged in, I have to reduce the size of the window with the mouse and then maximize it. (I have never figured out why, but this has been the case all along.)
To read email and news, I invoke Pine. So far so good. Normally I personally run with NumLock OFF (preference), and in Pine I can use the arrow keys and the Home and End keys on the keypad to navigate. Pine does have Ctrl- sequences to do the same thing, but I prefer to use the directional keys.
This afternoon I was using Pine as usual. No problems. I logged off, which I have AT set to automatically close the winidow and NOT save any changes. (Simply resizing the window to get full use of the screen makes AT report "Modified" on the title bar.) A short time later, I logged back into the server and invoked Pine. Suddenly the arrow keys and keypad Home/End keys do not work, whether with Pine or with the editor, Joe, I use to compose messages. The Ctrl- sequences are fiine, but apparently the directional keys are not sending the correct codes.
For the life of me I cannot figure out what happened. I do not recall changing *anything* in AT, and in Windows Explorer I cannot find anything in the AT folder/subfolders with a modified date of today. I can still use Pine and Joe with the Ctrl- sequences, as I say, but I would prefer to be able to use the arrow and Home/End keys, particularly after something happened without warning that I cannot figure out.
Any help will be appreciated.
-----
Later. Sometimes the directional keys are working, and sometimes they are not. I cannot discern any pattern from session to session.
(By the way, this board does not seem to work correctly with my preferred browser, Opera. I use Microsludge Internut Exploder only under great, great duress. What about people who are not using Windoozy at all and therefore do not have IE available to them?)
Paul Bartlett
Paul,
To try to identify if there are environment issues involved, capture the environment variables that are enabled when things are working (and when they're not) like this:
set > environment.good
and
set > environment.bad
mail both of these to me for review.
I hope I can help!
Brian
Thank you for the prompt (weekends don't count) and courteous response. Unfortunately. the sudden onset of the problem seems to be erratic. I will try to catch as much as I can. I have been a satisfied AT user for several years.
the sudden onset of the problem seems to be erratic
When it works, does it work for your entire session?
When it fails, does it fail for the entire session?
If so, I suspect something in your environment. Once you capture both a set of environment variables from a good working session and one from a non-working session, we can compare and see if we come up with anything.
Brian
Again, thank you for the prompt response. I have been a satisfied AT customer for several years, and if I can ever scratch up the money, I will upgrade.
When the problem with the direction keys occurs, it occurs for an entire session, with both Pine and the Joe editor. When it does not occur, it does not happen for the entire session. Just earlier today, everything was fine, so I captured with 'set >' my environment. (If it makes any difference, I use tcsh.) If it happens again, I will again capture the environment per your instruction.
After so many good years with AT, I am puzzled as to what is happening. At this point, I cannot even say that the problem is with AT. It may be somewhere else. Recently, on an in-house newsgroup of my ISP, I recommended AT as a very satisfactory product. This erratic and unpredictable situation is puzzling, and again, it may not be due to AT as such.
Thank you again for your professional level of support.
OK, it has just happened again. Several days ago, when everything was operating correctly, I did a 'set >environ.good'. Here are the results:
------
PAGER /usr/bin/less
_ pine
addsuffix
argv ()
cwd /net/u/13/b/bartlett/tmp
dirstack /net/u/13/b/bartlett/tmp
echo_style bsd
edit
gid 99
group users
history 22
home /net/u/13/b/bartlett
killring 30
loginsh
mail (60 /net/u/13/b/bartlett/.maildir/)
owd /net/u/13/b/bartlett
pager /usr/bin/less
path (/net/u/13/b/bartlett/bin /usr/local/bin /bin /usr/bin /etc /usr/etc .)
perllib /usr/local/lib/perl
prompt
prompt2 %R?
prompt3 CORRECT>%R (y|n|e|a)?
shell /usr/local/bin/tcsh
shlvl 1
status 0
tcsh 6.13.00
term xterm-color
tty pts/55
uid 20175
user bartlett
version tcsh 6.13.00 (Astron) 2004-05-19 (i386-intel-NetBSD) options 8b,nls,dl,al,kan,rh,color,dspm,filec
------
Today (actually, I am still logged on), the problem happened again, so I did a 'set >environ.bad' :
------
PAGER /usr/bin/less
_ mail
addsuffix
argv ()
cwd /net/u/13/b/bartlett/tmp
dirstack /net/u/13/b/bartlett/tmp
echo_style bsd
edit
gid 99
group users
history 22
home /net/u/13/b/bartlett
killring 30
loginsh
mail (60 /net/u/13/b/bartlett/.maildir/)
owd /net/u/13/b/bartlett
pager /usr/bin/less
path (/net/u/13/b/bartlett/bin /usr/local/bin /bin /usr/bin /etc /usr/etc .)
perllib /usr/local/lib/perl
prompt
prompt2 %R?
prompt3 CORRECT>%R (y|n|e|a)?
shell /usr/local/bin/tcsh
shlvl 1
status 0
tcsh 6.13.00
term xterm-color
tty pts/13
uid 20175
user bartlett
version tcsh 6.13.00 (Astron) 2004-05-19 (i386-intel-NetBSD) options 8b,nls,dl,al,kan,rh,color,dspm,filec
------
Again, if it makes any difference, I am using tcsh. And again, for the life of me, I cannot tell any difference from session to session. I have been a happy user of AT for several years, and I cannot say that this is an AT problem, but any assistance will be gratefully received.
Thank you.
Paul Bartlett
Ok, nothing different in the environment, so lets check the output of Absolute. Now that you have a bad session opened, lets capture the output of the arrow keys.
In the session, type the following
cat > arrows.bad [now hit enter]
[ now hit each arrow key once.... up, down, left, right]
[ hit enter again]
[type a control-d, which should return you to a prompt]
zip the arrows.bad file and send it to me.
Brian
The frustrating thing about all this is that it seems unpredictable, and I cannot keep a "bad" session open indefinitely. As soon as I have another "bad" session I will follow your instruction and send you the file.
Paul Bartlett
I understand there is not a quick fix, but we will find the problem whether it is your problem or mine.
An arrows.good file will help as well. YOu can attach the files here or mail them to me.
(Somehow after I was logged on, I seem to have lost something when trying to do a back-arrow in my browser, Opera [I despise Micro$haft Internut Exploder].)
Over the last few days, everything seems to have been fine. Then just a few minutes ago the problem recurred. I could not even do an Up-Arrow from the tcsh shell prompt, which is supposed to scroll backward though the command history. When I pressed the Up-Arrow key, all I got was a digit.
From the shell prompt I did cat >arrows.bad. I have previously done a cat >arrows.good when everything was OK. Today I could not even do a Ctrl-D or Ctrl-Z to regain control to get back to the prompt. I had to do a Ctrl-C. I am attaching arrows.bad. I don't know whether I can attach two files. If I can, I will also attach arrows.good. If not, let me know, and I can send it by email.
This is puzzling, as I cannot detect any pattern at all in success or failure.
Thank you.
Paul Bartlett
P.S. Apparently I can only attach one file.
P.P.S. Apparently I cannot attach a single file in some formats. I will try again with arrows.zip, which is the arrows.bad file, even though the latter is only nine bytes! [file name=arrows.zip size=127] http://www.celestialsoftware.net/images/fbfiles/files/arrows.zip [/file]
Are you using the arrow keys on the keypad or the actual arrow keys?
I use the actual arrow keys on the keyboard for arrow movement. For Home, End, PgUp, and PgDn, I use the numeric keypad keys (in some case with Ctrl-) with NumLock off. Because I can apparently only attach one file at a time, with this post I am attaching an arrowsg.zip file, which is arrows.good. If you want, I can send you the *.tnt file which I use. It doesn't change. Every time I resize the window (which I have to do to get use of the full screen), the *.tnt file title bar shows "modified," but I do not save the file when I exit, so as to keep the same configuration from session to session
Paul Bartlett
Somehow I must have made a mistake in attaching the arrowsg.zip file. I will try again. [file name=arrowsg.zip size=141] http://www.celestialsoftware.net/images/fbfiles/files/arrowsg.zip [/file]
I think I have at least a partial answer. The host can change the keyboard modes by sending escape sequences. This is why the behavior seems to change without you doing anything. The server is doing it. To determine why and when the server is doing it may require more analysis. However, to turn off the behavior in Absolute, try disabling the 'options->properties->vtoptions-VTKEYPAD' option. By disabling VTKEYPAD, the kaypad and arrow keys should retain their functions regardless of what the server tries to tell them.
Now normally, this option only affects the keypad, including the arrow keys on the keypad. However, it appears that your arrow keys are behaving as if they were keypad arrow keys, if this makes any sense. Is there anything unusual about your keyboard? Is it a standard 101 key keyboard? Laptop keyboard?
Brian
