Need help configuring PuTTY settings
 

Hi,

I use PuTTY to connect to a remote AIX machine.

It work like expected when I connect to my local Linux server but when I connect to the AIX machine I have a few problems: the Tab and Backspace keys don't work, if I press the up arrow the cursor goes up one line etc...

What settings do I have to change in PuTTY to get it to work correctly?

Thanks!

The backspace can easily be fixed by setting the backspace key to 'Control-H' as specified in the Terminal-Keyboard configuration. I've never had a problem with the tab key nor the arrow keys. It depends on your shell as to how the tab and arrow keys are interpreted. Typing in 'set -o vi' may change that behavior to what you expect. Also if you forget to switch the backspace key you can change the backspace key for the session by typing 'stty erase <backspace key>'

Thanks!

That fixed the backspace problem.

Still having the problem with the other keys.

The remote machine is running AIX 5.2.

what does 'echo $TERM' and 'echo $SHELL' report?

$TERM returned xterm and $SHELL returned /bin/ksh.

BTW, this is the first time I'm using AIX. So sorry about that :)

In the putty configuration menu, choose "Terminal", then "Features" and check the second box "Disable application keypad mode", this should fix the numeric keypad, arrows etc... things

I tried this and tab is still not working.

Maybe it is something on the AIX side instead of my side.

What is your terminal definition ? just type "echo $TERM"
mine is "xterm" and the TAB works, for instance for choosing options inside "smit lv".
If your term is not "xterm", try
TERM=xterm
export TERM
tset
smit lv

If this works, you should look where the TERM definition is modified, whether in .profile or in /etc/profile or in /etc/environment.

Yig

I guess the best question to ask you is what exactly do you want to use the TAB key for if you are trying to use the TAB key for command line completion it isn't a putty issue. Your issue is ksh if you are running ksh you default ksh will ksh88 which doesn't have command line completion set to the TAB key you will have to use esc key then the | symbol "shift+|" to complete the names on the command line. This is usually a difference of working on linux using the BASH shell and then going to aix and having to use ksh. If you want you can go to the site of http://www.research.att.com/sw/download/ and get ksh93r which has the TAB command line completion built into it or you can go to the site of http://aixpdslib.seas.ucla.edu/ and in the search type in BASh and you can get bash to setup as you default shell. Hope this helps.

If you use vi mode ("set -o vi" in your .profile or issued at the command line) you can get access to the command history. Hit escape and then use the vi cursor keys to go through the history (k = up, j = down). Alternatively, you can use the command 'r' to run the previous command. It should be noted that the command history is per user, not per session as it is in bash. If you are logged in multiple times as the same user, the last command issued in any of the sessions is the most recent.

In vi mode you can also get filename completion. Just start typing a filename (as an example type "ls /lo") and hit escape and then hit the '\' key. It will complete the rest of the filename ("ls /lost+found").

Thank you for the help. I found this as working in my system