Commands in less don't work on Debian Etch
 

Good afternoon, Granted, this is a bit of a trivial problem, but I want to figure out whether the problem is with me reading the man pages or the software really doesn't work.

I won't rant, but trying to set up Debian Etch on my Acer Travelmate 4001 has been a total nightmare and I currently have about half the functionality of my Windows XP boot, but I'm determined to learn this thing instead of being one of those newbies who complains and goes right back to Windows.

In trying to fix one of many hardware problems, I downloaded a shell script to analyse my hardware. Surprise, surprise, the script had errors and wouldn't execute. I fired up less (that is, in the tty console) to try to diagnose the problems using the interpreter's debugging output. I tried to jump to the line references by using the "-j" command, and later the "--jump-target" command, followed by my desired line number at the prompt. Nothing happened. Since less doesn't have a status bar telling you what line you're on, I am left with counting the lines my hand. Clearly a waste of time.

Anyway, I'm not proficient enough in C++ to chase down the source code and try to rewrite it - heavens knows I'd just introduce more errors. I'm just curious whether this is a bug with less (version 393 according to >less -V), the Kernel 2.6.12, or whether I just don't know how to use software correctly.