Frequently Asked Questions

Q: I see color terminal emulation on the homepage. How do I enable that?

Does anyone know why when I am trying to install (term-vt100) on iPhone, I get the "Error, Package download failed" every time?

FSoheil: This is random, but will happen if a previous package failed to load. Simply reboot and that should solve it.

For some reason I'm getting a password prompt on MobileTerminal?. Anyone else experiencing this? All the passwords I've tried simply do not work.. :(

anyone know why in the python interpreter 2.5.1 arrow keys insert funny characters e.g., UP = ^{[[A, RIGHT =} [[C, DOWN = ^{[[B, LEFT =} [[D ??

other than this, terminal is pretty good so far :)

fantastic work!

To aschall: A program can produce colors by issuing the right escape sequences. See ANSI Color Codes for details.

To FSoheil: Did you really mean the "term-vt100" package? If so, that's provided by another repository. Talk to them. The repository I set up calls it just "Terminal" and points straight to the Terminal-207.zip package in the download section of this website. If you have download problems with it, you're probably having problems getting to this website too.

To LokiTek?: If you are getting a password prompt immediately when you fire up Terminal, you are running an old version (probably the old "term-vt100" package). Please upgrade. (See the FAQ above.) If you're having a password problem with su, it's because it has been incorrectly installed by the BSD Subsystem 2.1 package. (See the FAQ above.)

To vbgunz: Those funny characters are the VT100 escape sequences for the arrow keys, i.e. pressing the up arrow produces <esc> '[' 'A'. That is entirely according to the VT100 specification and it's up to the program reading those sequences to know how to handle them.

To edwin.ng.ty: (On behalf of the rest of the dev team:) Thank you! :-)

Hi! First of all, thanks for continuing to maintain this software, you guys are doing a great service to technical iPhone users :)

Okay. Go into Terminal. Type something. Press enter. "Can now UnJustify?!" What? Hmm, strange. Now, type something else and press enter. How thoughtful of nano! It knew you really wanted that stuff on the same line! You can keep typing and pressing enter and it will continue this behavior.

Now, try to save your (incorrectly formatted) text. Ctrl-X, Y. File Name to Write: pick something. Press enter. That's right -- it completely ignores you.

tl;dr: Why does it seem that nano cannot handle the enter key under Terminal (and term-vt100)?

Looks like the return key is producing LF (^{J, ASCII 10) instead of CR (}M, ASCII 13). A quick glance at the code makes me think that this may be a bug in Apple's implementation of the soft keyboard handler, but it shouldn't be hard to work around if needed. Could you do me a favor and file this under the Issues section? Thanks!

Hi. sofar i've liked it, but when i first installed it on 1.1.4 i had the password problem. i installed the BSD Subsystem 2.x SU Replacement in the Tweaks category but nothing happened.

but i remembered something like this happening on 1.1.3 when i first installed it, so i figured that i can installed the term fix in 1.1.3 tweaks. if anything goes bad i could just restore the phone...

anyway, that seemed to work. i'm not sure what the thing that makes it work is, but its something that might need to be looked at. :(

Hey lennart, I have the same problem as FSoheil...I was wondering what the repository you set up is...the one that calls it just "terminal".

I want to make the terminal font to be green by trying ^{[[32m but didn't help. It returned "zsh: command not found:} [[32m" instead. Very much appreciated for your advice. Thank you.

To imnotquitesurewhereiam: There are only two "password problems" that I know of and both are due to the BSD Subsystem package installing commands without the setuid bit turned on (in particular the login and su commands). For the first problem, see the first FAQ on this page; for the other one, see the last FAQ. If you have another problem, please let me know.

To bigminisachin1231: The repository I set up at iphone.lenlolabs.com just points to the Terminal-207.zip file on mobileterminal.googlecode.com, so if you have gone as far as selecting Terminal and selecting Install in the Installer, you are no longer talking to iphone.lenlolabs.com, just mobileterminal.googlecode.com.

To ssorapong: To make text green, you have to send an escape character (ASCII 27) followed by the characters "[32m". You can do this by typing the shell command: echo "^V^[[32mfoo" (with the quotes and where ^V is Control-V entered as <bullet> <V> on the iPhone soft keyboard). That should show "foo" in green.

lennart, thanks a lot. It works greate.

I installed version 2.07:: "su" password: alpine (incorrect password) why?

Man you are da best honestly..

I spent the whole evening browsing forums and reading howtos to get the vt-100 login issue fixed. You cant imagine what oddissey I ve bin through... I had to reset my IPod to fac settings once... Then I followed a howto wich showed me how to create a recursive alias leaving me with my IPod stuck in the boot screen.... untill I finaly found your site on google. All tips worked fine the term is 100 times better then the vt-100 stoneage versiona and all ran smooth 20 mins after I found your page.

Well development for the IPod/iPhone is going on at light speed at the moment leaving many non geek users puzzled about versions installations bugfixes tweaks etc. So I can well understand the confusion of many folks around.

To get this straight again: To get the su command to work and substitute u to root, u need to install the sux2 patch in tweaks as mentioned above. additionaly you have to connect to your iphone via putty or sshd and change the mod of the su and login files by using this two commands: chmod +s /usr/bin/login chmod +s /usr/bin/su

if this does not fix your problem I d recommend uninstall all terms and term patches vise vera and rinse repeat.

cheers to lennart so long going to have fun with my terminal now ;D

friends, perfect explication. My iphone with terminal 2.07 ready.

thanks.

I need the screen to be 80chars wide.. anyway to do this?

Whenever I try downloading Terminal in Installer.app (using directions above), it unexpectedly quits and doesn't install. What's up with that? I've tried rebooting, but that doesn't help. It's only when I try to install Terminal that it force quits... Please help. Thanks! :-)

I just fixed su, and now a few commands (namely chmod and ls out of the ones I've tried using) yield:

dyld: Library not loaded: /usr/local/arm-apple-darwin/lib/libgcc s.1.dylib

Referenced from: /bin/''(command I attempt to use)''

Reason: image not found

zsh: trace trap ''(command)''

Eh?

Brilliant stuff!! One thing I have to say though, is that I had trouble doing what everyone refers to as "add iphone.lenlolabs.com" to sources. In order to do that, it osunds obvious once you know the trick, but for someone who has only ever added sources via the installer, it is not so obvious :-). So the trick is : go to intaller-> sources -> edit. Once you have pressed edit, all the sources show a sign with which you can delete them, but you also get a "add" button in the top left corner. Just tap it and type in the address you need to add. That done, you can enjoy the fix everyone is talking about above and it will solve, in particular, your dyld issue.

Hi, I upgraded to the new version 278 today and it works great, thanks a lot. I just don't know how to get to the old menu with the arrows and tab completion. Taps with one finger brings up the new window with some commands like ls and with two fingers I can move berween different terminals. But how do I get to the arrows again? Thanks for any hint

Briliant Stuff :D Keep up the amazing work!

term = the true /~ of all power :D

How I can use Gestures Menu in 278? For Main Menu I just tab and it shows but, how work Gestures Menu?

Hi, I am using v 278, and I configured a new command (tab completion) on the "one tap menu". You can just add a new command to tab completion ( "dot" > ). If you want more commands, you can easily add.

And by the way, v 278 it's amazing. Keep doing the great job mobileterminal group!

After instaling Mobile Finder and selecting Term Here, I have some warning mesage every time I open terminal in iPod Touch (1.1.4):

Last login: Sat May 10 13:56:26 on ttyp0 mv: /var/mobile/.profile.tmp: No souch file or directory &

I can't find .profile file anywhere.

Can someone help me to fix this issue. Thanks!

EDIT FOR MY UPPER POST: Installed TextEditJ and open the file: /var/mobile/MobileFinder?/.MobileFinderProfile? then add the # (comment mark)in front of: /bin/mv '/var/mobile/.profile.tmp' to look like this: # /bin/mv '/var/mobile/.profile.tmp'

No more error on terminal startup... :-)

q?How I can use Gestures Menu in 278? For Main Menu I just tab and it shows but, how work Gestures Menu?[/q]

Having the same issue. Can't figure out how to access the gestures menu, need arrow keys :<

The gestures menu does not appear except in the settings. Swipe upwards with two fingers (the "Settings" gesture) to show the settings and see all your gesture options. You have to memorize which gestures do what so you can use them in the terminal window.

I have been having a problem with this new version of Mobile Terminal. Now when ever I do ANYTHING I get the error message: "You don't exist, go away!". Then when I try to su, I get: "User root does not exist". I have tracked this problem down to the use mobile...

I was able to SSH in and su - to mobile which confirmed my suspicions. how do I fix this issue and make Mobile a viable user in the system?

P.S. The user mobile does have a home directory and an enrty in passwd

Please advise

Thanks

I can't seem to find how to send "^", i.e. the control key, in 278. Seem like the Gesture window can do it but I can't find a way to invoke it. Any tips would be appreciated!

hi

How do I get UTF-8 to work?

The Gesture menu of v287 will not show up.

E.g. if you want to enter control-C, you first swipe your finger from center to lower right direction, the cursor will change to red and then you type C to get the control-C

if you swipe short to left, you get left arrow. If you swift short to right, you get right arrow If you swipe long to left, you get control-A. If you swipe long to right, you get control-E

And you can customize them in the settings menu (two finger swipe up).

One thing I found missing is the ` (back quote) character which can't be found in the iPhone Keyboard, but this version allows me to manually add this character in the menu.plist

Thank you

There is lot of info in the chain, but isn't organized. I think, there should be a section called "System Requirements" stating the pre-requisites. But, the wiki doesn't have one. Find below the Sys Requirement based on my experience:

BSD Subsystemt 2.1 - Nullriver Software BSD Subsystem 2.x SU - iphone.lenlolabs.com Terminal 207 - mobileterminal.googlecode.com

Lennart, give a quick look at my listing above.

Is there any chance this is going to become official? I.e. without having to jailbreak your iphone?

Any news on a version that will support the Iphone 3g. The current version doesn't work. It looks like you can use the control characters. you don't get the circle with the options. You also, can't minimize the keyboard either.