I need some help.  When using VT-100 or VT-52 emulation from the 
terminals at AA public library, error messages keep appearing saying
"this terminal cannot scroll backwards," and no scrolling is evident.
The cursor just overwrites what is already on the screen, sometimes 
without a full linefeed.  This graphic interface is pretty, but I would 
rather have telnet.
Any suggestions?  Library staff seems to think it's a problem with grex.

-mb

20 responses total.

Hmmm...  I've been able to Grex from the Ann Arbor Public
Library successfully, using a Windows 95 platform with its
standard telnet application. Is that the type of platform you're
using, or is it something different?

scroll back is a function, i believe, ofthe comm program in use locally,
not of the system *to which* you are connected.

That "terminal cannot scroll backwards" message that Michael
sees is, I think, a message from Grex's default "less pager".

It looks like the problem is in Michael's .profile file --
the standard line that sets the terminal type to vt100 has
been commented out and a line that says simply 'tset vt100'
added. The result is that grex is not being informed that
Michael's terminal type is vt100, resulting in the error
messages and the incorrect scrolling behavior.

What you need to do is remove the # character from the line
that starts with '#eval ...' and remove the 'tset vt100' line
that follows. If you're not sure how to do that, send me mail
requesting that I do it and I'll make the change myself.

Hmmm.  If this is the place to ask about odd monitors....we've got
a Digital VRT19-HA which is a 19" RGB.  It doesn't recognize the
VT-100 set of commands.  For grins, I tried ansi and dumb, and 
neither of these worked well (i.e., I couldn't run vi).  Does
anyone know what it emulates or have a termcap entry for it?

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(However, if Grex thinks that Michael's terminal type is "dumb"
or "network" or something like that -- which I suspect is the
case -- then pico isn't going to function.)

Re Carl's question (Hi from me too!): I'm not familiar with the
VRT19-HA either.  If it's a stand-alone terminal and not just
a monitor whose display is under the control of a PC, then I'd
be surprised if it doesn't understand *some* set of DEC standard
commands. If it doesn't do ansi or vt100, you might try vt52. Or
maybe h19, the old Heath standard.

(Maybe this item should be linked to info. Who's the fw there
these days?)

A 19" RGB monitor doesn't (by definition) understand *any* sort of
escape sequence; all it understands is separated video inputs.  The
video must be generated by *something else* - the *real* question is
what is that box, and what does it understand.

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(Thanks Valerie!  Now I can say hi to you and John and know that
it's in the right conference ;-)

Marcus, you've given me a clue.  The VRT19 is on a small Digital
workstation (3000 or 5000) and may be a monitor instead of a
terminal.

I've already checked the config files, and they think they're operating a
vt-100 device.  I've already searched Digital's website and Alta Vista.
I've even looked through Grex's very nice (thanks John!) termcap
file--no luck.

Does anyone know how I can find out more?

A 3000 or 5000 sounds like an early DEC risc workstation.  The early
machines used the mips risc processor, running in little endian mode.
An interesting feature of this early risc chip is that it had no
instruction "interlock" logic - if an instruction used the results of a
previous instruction before it was completed, it would get garbage.  In
any event, these workstations might run either VMS or Ultrix, and the
terminal emulation support would certainly depend strongly on the logic
in the operating system.  You would have to consult your OS
documentation to learn more.  If it *is* running ultrix, one other
source of documentation would be the termcap definition in ultrix
itself.

Yes, it is Ultrix, and yes, I was afraid you were going to say that.
I've already looked through what online documentation there is (not
much) and I've gone through the termcap file.  We don't have any
printed docs and Digital doesn't support it any more.

Another machine (486 Win 95 box) is using the identical monitor, so
I'm guessing that someone removed the original and replaced it with
the VRT19.  I think I'm ready to chalk this up as one of those
things that I'd probably be happier not knowing the details. ;-)

I found some old ultrix stuff.  You can say:
        man 4 console
        man 4 pm
to get more information on the console display.  The terminal type of
all local terminals, including the console should be contained in
/etc/ttys.  Nothing comes right out & *says* what the terminal emulation
supported by the console is, but all of the configuration files I can
find seem to say that "vt100" or "ansi" is indeed the correct terminal
id.

It is possible to run X on ultrix.  If you're running X, then the
terminal emulation would be done by "xterm", not by ultrix.  If so, the
correct terminal type is "xterm".

One other "gotcha" to watch for is the screen size.  Apparently, the
built in glass tty software provides for 53 lines of 80 characters, &
xterm's can be resized to arbitrary dimensions.  In both cases, you'd
have to say something like "stty rows 53 cols 80" (varied as necessarily
for xterm) to make things work right.  You could also try the "resize"
command here on grex.  This will ask the remote terminal what window
size it is, and set the rows & cols on grex accordingly.  It works with
xterm & some other terminal emulators.

I remember of looking at several configuration files (it's not
running X) and all of them were set for vt100.  I'm sure that the
original console was vt100 and someone wanted to use it on another
machine, so this machine got  the "clunker from the corner."

Thanks for the tips on the console and pm man pages...I'll check
them out.

Hi!

I'm afraid I trashed my .profile file.  Any way to restore it?

thanks

-mb

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If .profile is missing or garbaged, you'd need to set up some kind of sane
PATH first.  At a shell prompt:
        PATH=/usr/local/bin:/usr/ucb:/bin:/usr/bin
        export PATH
(This must be sh, since we're talking about .profile in the first place,
right?  Or conceivably bash, in which case that's still right ...)

Last time I looked, Michael's login shell was bbs, for which
.profile is appropriate also.

Um, yes, so it's really running sh, so the syntax I gave was right, right?

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Changing the .cfone file by adding pager "more -d" cured the problems I was
having.  Thanks, folks.

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