Hi Everyone. I'm posting this under unix discussion because I believe this to be more of a unix related problem than a Synchronet related one. I've just compiled Synchronet on CentOS and the compiling was successful (albeit with many warnings on files starting with js). Anyhoo..

My question is when I run the command line utilities like scfg all the line drawing is messed up. I'm using putty and UTF-8 on my translation and xterm for my term type. (pretty much the default).

I've tried downloading SyncTerm for windows and I couldn't get it to connect
on SSH - it gave me some sort of handshake error - I was trying to connect to linux with it, not the BBS.

I've tried different fonts in putty and also copying the terminfo and termcap files and setting those up according to the docs. I guess I'm at a loss as to how to get the lines to look pretty! :)

I'm very new to Synchronet but not Linux or computers in general - I own my
own IT consulting company going on about 18 years so I'm competent just need some help. Thank you!

Rich

Re: Terminal Settings (CentOS)
By: Rwebb616 to All on Mon Jun 11 2018 08:34 pm

My question is when I run the command line utilities like scfg all the line drawing is messed up. I'm using putty and UTF-8 on my translation and xterm for my term type. (pretty much the default).

Try the different "interface" modes (i.e. run "scfg -?" to list the command-line options and try the different "-i" combinations) - probably "-iF" for cursors with forced "IBM charset".

Also, make sure you have Putty configured for a UTF-8 "Remote characer set" (under settings->Window->Translation).

There are other tricks for getting the *nix console to send the character codes your terminal expects (terminal settings, termcaps, escape sequences).

I've tried downloading SyncTerm for windows and I couldn't get it to connect on SSH - it gave me some sort of handshake error - I was trying to connect to linux with it, not the BBS.

What version of SyncTERM? Recent builds (after 1.0) incorporate a newer version of cryptlib which fixes most SSH incompatibilities.

I've tried different fonts in putty and also copying the terminfo and termcap files and setting those up according to the docs. I guess I'm at a loss as to how to get the lines to look pretty! :)

If you're referrring to the Synchronet docs (wiki?) those termininfo/caps settings are for propert *remote* display of cursors programs (e.g. doors) run by the BBS.

I'm very new to Synchronet but not Linux or computers in general - I own my own IT consulting company going on about 18 years so I'm competent just need some help. Thank you!

You'll get it.

digital man

This Is Spinal Tap quote #18:
Sustain, listen to it. Don't hear anything. You would though were it playing. Norco, CA WX: 69.9°F, 56.0% humidity, 5 mph ESE wind, 0.00 inches rain/24hrs

Try the different "interface" modes (i.e. run "scfg -?" to list the command-line options and try the different "-i" combinations) - probably "-iF" for cursors with forced "IBM charset".

Did that but it still didn't look quite right. Trying to get it to look like the old Novell utilities (syscon) - I know I'm dating myself!

Also, make sure you have Putty configured for a UTF-8 "Remote characer set" (under settings->Window->Translation).

Yep that is what I have it set to. I'm seeing q's and x's where lines should be and a's where the background characters are supposed to be.

What version of SyncTERM? Recent builds (after 1.0) incorporate a newer version of cryptlib which fixes most SSH incompatibilities.

Yep I'm running 1.0 - I guess I wasn't seeing where to get a newer version. Just went to the website and downloaded. That was under Windows. Under my linux desktop I'm
just using putty but I can probably just use the built in terminal.

If you're referrring to the Synchronet docs (wiki?) those termininfo/caps settings are for propert *remote* display of cursors programs (e.g. doors) run by the BBS.

Yep the wiki. I didn't know if it would help so I just did it anyway since the docs said it can't hurt.

Rich

Re: Re: Terminal Settings (CentOS)
By: Rwebb616 to Digital Man on Mon Jun 11 2018 11:05 pm

Try the different "interface" modes (i.e. run "scfg -?" to list the command-line options and try the different "-i" combinations) - probably "-iF" for cursors with forced "IBM charset".

Did that but it still didn't look quite right. Trying to get it to look like the old Novell utilities (syscon) - I know I'm dating myself!

That's what those utils look like when things are configured right.

Also, make sure you have Putty configured for a UTF-8 "Remote characer set" (under settings->Window->Translation).

Yep that is what I have it set to. I'm seeing q's and x's where lines should be and a's where the background characters are supposed to be.

Yup, so something's off.

What version of SyncTERM? Recent builds (after 1.0) incorporate a newer version of cryptlib which fixes most SSH incompatibilities.

Yep I'm running 1.0 - I guess I wasn't seeing where to get a newer version. Just went to the website and downloaded. That was under Windows.

That is how you get v1.0, the latest release. To get the v1.1 beta/dev build for Windows, use this link instead: http://syncterm.net/syncterm.zip

Under my
linux desktop I'm
just using putty but I can probably just use the built in terminal.

I've never run putty on Linux myself (on Windows). When using Linux, I just use the default terminal program.

digital man

Synchronet "Real Fact" #96:
Synchronet v3.13a was released in September of 2005 (9 months after v3.12a). Norco, CA WX: 84.1°F, 42.0% humidity, 3 mph ENE wind, 0.00 inches rain/24hrs

Also, make sure you have Putty configured for a UTF-8 "Remote characer set" (under settings->Window->Translation).

Yep that is what I have it set to. I'm seeing q's and x's where lines should be and a's where the background characters are supposed to be.

Yup, so something's off.

Oddly enough configuring it for ISO-8859-1 made it work perfect... any idea why that might be?
I don't know what that is going to do to other things.

What version of SyncTERM? Recent builds (after 1.0) incorporate a newer version of cryptlib which fixes most SSH incompatibilities.

Yep I'm running 1.0 - I guess I wasn't seeing where to get a newer version. Just went to the website and downloaded. That was under Windows.

That is how you get v1.0, the latest release. To get the v1.1 beta/dev build for Windows, use this link instead: http://syncterm.net/syncterm.zip

Thanks - will try that out on windows although I tend to like to stay in Linux as much as I can.

Under my
linux desktop I'm
just using putty but I can probably just use the built in terminal.

I've never run putty on Linux myself (on Windows). When using Linux, I just use the default terminal program.

Ah yes I tried that just using ssh blah@bbs and everything just automagically displayed properly.
Now I just need to figure out setting up some icons on my linux desktop to automatically ssh over to the bbs machine.

Are there any solutions for sysop page when running the bbs on a virtual machine on vmware?

Rich

Re: Re: Terminal Settings (CentOS)
By: Rwebb616 to Digital Man on Tue Jun 12 2018 11:46 am

Are there any solutions for sysop page when running the bbs on a virtual machine on vmware?

You can setup an external chat pager, but what that pager is/would do, is up to you. I'm not aware of any specific existing pagers for that use. :-)

digital man

Synchronet/BBS Terminology Definition #54:
UART = Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter
Norco, CA WX: 83.2°F, 43.0% humidity, 9 mph ENE wind, 0.00 inches rain/24hrs