Re: unix shell says "dumb" terminal

[glyn@cs.ualberta.ca (Devin Reade)]

In article <5igvfb$j7t$1@news1.i1.net>, Deb Alcorn <byte@mail1.i1.net> wrote:
>
>    When I log into my isp and try to read my mail it tells me
> that I can't because I have a "dumb" terminal.  

Don't be offended, it's talking about your ISP account, not your IIgs ;)
On startup, your shell probably tried to determine your terminal type.
Since you were on dialup instead of telnet/rlogin, it couldn't do so and
so selected the simplest terminal which is "dumb" or "glass".
Unfortunately, dumb terminals can't handle a lot of common programs.

You need to tell your UNIX shell what terminal emulation you're 
_really_ using.

At your UNIX prompt, type
	setenv TERM vt100
	tset
If you get an error message on the first line, try this instead
	set TERM=vt100
	export TERM
	tset
Make sure that you're using vt100 emulation in Spectrum.  (I don't
have Spectrum, so I don't know how to set it.)

Now you should be able to run lynx et al.

If you would like to avoid typing the above lines every time you log
in, you can add them to your shell initialization file.  If you used
the first set of commands, try adding them to ~/.login or ~/.cshrc
If you used the second set of commands, add them to ~/.profile
Since these file names start with a '.', they don't show up on a
normal directory listing.  (They also might not exist at all.)  To
see them in the listings, use 'ls -a'.

--
	Devin Reade	gdr@myrias.com