Hi
I ran into the following problem with the current XFree86 distribution, but
could not find any mention of any solution here or elsewhere.
SYMPTOMS
--------
* "vt102" terminal setting (TERM) in xterm windows instead of "xterm"
* "WARNING: terminal is not fully functional" error messages from /bin/less
* Missing /usr/share/terminfo/x/xterm and other terminfo data files
CAUSE
-----
1. The current XFree86 for Cygwin distribution is missing the file
xterm.terminfo (but not xterm.termcap) in Xlib.tgz. (However this is
not true for other distributions, eg FreeBSD.) It is missing in the
distribution available from the Cygwin mirrors and the distribution
available directly from XFree86.
2. After unpacking the distribution files, the script Xinstall.sh asks the
user whether to update the terminfo entries. The default is no, but the
blurb notes that new features will be unavailable otherwise.
If the user says yes:
3. The script moves a number of existing terminfo entries to *.bak
4. The script tries to run tic on /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/etc/xterm.terminfo to
replace them
5. Since this file is not present, tic fails
6. The following terminfo files are subsequently effectively missing: xterm,
xterms, xterm-24, xterm-vi, xterm-65, xterm-bold, xtermm, xterm-boldso,
xterm-ic, xterm-r6, xterm-old, xterm-r5, vs100
INTERIM SOLUTIONS
-----------------
During install (pre-emptive):
* Do not elect to update terminfo entries
After install (treatment):
* Setting the TERM variable to another value such as cygwin or ansi is
a temporary workaround
* Moving the renamed files back to their original names reverses the
damage ("mv xterm.bak xterm" etc)
DISTRIBUTION FIX?
-----------------
Include the file or change the installation script
QUESTIONS
---------
* Is there some reason xterm.terminfo is missing, or is this an error?
* Is it possible to use e.g. the FreeBSD distribution's xterm.terminfo file?
* Is it advised against updating the terminfo data?
* If so, then what about updating termcap entries (suggested by Xinstall.h)?
* What is lost by not using the new terminfo data?
Thanks
Michael
