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Asked: 2010-12-11 15:47:49 +0800 CST

Ncurses prompts look broken in PuTTY from Windows

  • 772

Byobu looks very broken in PuTTY. I've already fixed the key mapping issue, but this issue isn't specified in the man page or even Google:

Broken PuTTY Console

Notice the misplaced position of the list of windows, the broken selector position, the duplication of the last window, the random a in the top right, and the misplaced apply option. You can't see this, but the last option is not selectable.

Is there some option in PuTTY I need to use in order to see this correctly?

command-line putty

5 Answers

  1. Configure putty to read utf8. putty -> config -> window -> translation choose utf in "Recieved data in ..." This is not a byobu issue, it is a putty issue.

    See also:

    • 10

  2. Related to Putty, I added this note to the byobu(1) manpage a while back:

    > PuTTY  users have reported that the
> F2, F3, and F4 shortcut keys are not
> working properly.  PuTTY sends the
> same escape sequences as the linux
> console for F1-F4 by default.  You can
> fix this problem in the PuTTY config,
> Terminal -> Keyboard -> Function keys:
> Xterm R6.

    See:

    • 8

  3. Ubuntu uses UTF-8 for its terminal, but byobu appears to use the "ISO-8859-1 (Western European)" charset for it menus. You can set the charset in Window -> Translation.

    I've found the following code on the Internet, and I'm still happy with it. byobu might have more options, but I like this as well (~/.screenrc):

    startup_message off
hardstatus alwayslastline
hardstatus string '%{= kG}[ %{G}%H %{g}][%= %{=kw}%?%-Lw%?%{r}(%{W}%n*%f%t%?(%u)%?%{r})%{w}%?%+Lw%?%?%= %{g}][%{B}%Y-%m-%d %{W}%c %{g}]%{w} %l'
shelltitle "$ |bash"
termcapinfo xterm ti@:te@
altscreen on

    Note: for byobu, shelltitle "$ |bash" must be removed / commented, otherwise byobu won't work.

    • 3

  4. So for byobu to look good in putty you should actually make two changes.

    First is change your keyboard to xterm-R6 as already mentioned, but second, on your linux machine run the command as your normal user: byobu-select-backend and then choose the option screen (usually 2).

    Should work great now! Enjoy!

    • 0

  5. It worked for me (fit for Putty - temporary):

    Window -> Translation -> Remote character set: DEC-MCS

    For a definitive solution in your application:

    1. add in file .bashrc (for olny current user) or add in etc/bash.bashrc (for all users)

    NCURSES_NO_UTF8_ACS=1

    1. make sure you have:

      • sudo apt-get -install ncurses

      • sudo apt-get install libncursesw5-dev

    2. Add in code: #include <locale.h> #include <ncurses.h> //change curses ------------------------------------- //add in main setlocale(LC_TYPE, "");

    3. Compile the application with -lncursesw, something like this:

      gcc -o arquivo arquivo.c -lncursesw

    • 0