[SOLVED] issues with nano via ssh

We're using nano from the AIX Toolbox (installed with yum) via ssh. Scrolling is really bad with it. Am wondering if the problem is a setting with the various ssh clients we're using or termcap/terminfo or with the build of nano. Debating whether I should rebuild nano from source or if that's a waste of time. Anyone else having a similar issue? Any recommendations on how to fix scrolling? Thanks.

What version of nano? Recently in the changelog I saw that a "smooth scrolling" option is now default. Perhaps have a look at it and upgrade /downgrade /set the option to on or off...

Looks like nano 2.3.6 is currently installed on AIX 7.2.

Originally Posted by lm8 Scrolling is really bad with it.

That's not much of a problem description.
What is your definiton of "scrolling" in nano? Mousewheel? Arrow keys? Page Up/Down???
How are you using nano? directly from the ssh command line or via X forwarding in an Xterm?
Have you read the man page (man nanorc) and made adjustments as suggested?
FWIW, I wouldn't ever expect scrolling to be smooth via ssh.

Originally Posted by ondoho That's not much of a problem description. What is your definiton of "scrolling" in nano? Mousewheel? Arrow keys? Page Up/Down??? How are you using nano? directly from the ssh command line or via X forwarding in an Xterm? Have you read the man page (man nanorc) and made adjustments as suggested? FWIW, I wouldn't ever expect scrolling to be smooth via ssh.

I didn't bother to describe the problem in detail, because I assumed anyone using the same hardware and software would immediately see the problem and might already have a solution for it. I posted to the AIX forum because I assumed other AIX users would already be familiar with the problem and the hardware. If that's not the case, I'll try the IBM AIX forum instead. When page up/page down is used or even if you just scroll with arrow keys, the lines become jumbled and in the wrong location. It makes it almost impossible to edit anything because you can't tell where you are in the file and if you're really on the line you think you're on. Read the man page. Didn't help. vi works fine on the same system.

Originally Posted by lm8 Looks like nano 2.3.6 is currently installed on AIX 7.2.

Your version is quite outdated (nearly 4 years...) according to https://www.nano-editor.org/news.php

If you can't upgrade it, I suggest you stick with something else since it will be a PITA to find what option might have any effect on this behavior...

Originally Posted by Tonus Your version is quite outdated (nearly 4 years...) according to https://www.nano-editor.org/news.php If you can't upgrade it, I suggest you stick with something else since it will be a PITA to find what option might have any effect on this behavior...

We're trying to use the "official" IBM AIX Toolbox packages instead of third party rpms. I'm aware a lot of the AIX Toolbox packages seem to be rather dated. That's why I mentioned, I might need to rebuild from source.

Doesn't anyone else use IBM's AIX Toolbox with AIX? If not, where do you get your AIX packages from?

You might have problem with your terminal-emulator too; putty, for example, doesn't emulate 100% correctly 'TERM=xterm', but it does emulate 'TERM=putty'

Mind you, terminal-type 'putty' isn't pre-installed on AIX, you have to install it with 'tic(1)' (you can get the data-file from any linux computer with command 'infocmp putty>putty.ti')

You should also check other text-editors like mcedit (part of Midnight Commander); if those work properly, then it is likely a nano-related problem.

Note: you could provide a link where did you get nano, other than 'via yum'. For example here is where you cannot find nano: https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/ai...nloads-alpha#N, https://public.dhe.ibm.com/aix/freeS...lbox/RPMS/ppc/

Edit: Might have been this place (albeit not the latest version): http://www.oss4aix.org/download/RPMS/nano/

Tried http://www.oss4aix.org/download/RPMS...aix5.1.ppc.rpm it does show some strange behaviour when I press PgDn then Up.
The same happens with http://www.oss4aix.org/download/RPMS...aix5.1.ppc.rpm

Then downloaded https://www.nano-editor.org/dist/v4/nano-4.7.tar.xz, it doesn't compile at first, here is some fix:

sed_repl 's/*tab;/*Syn_tab;/' src/nano.h
sed_repl 's/syntax->tab/syntax->Syn_tab/g' src/rcfile.c
sed_repl 's/syntax->tab/syntax->Syn_tab/
          s/st_mtim.tv_sec/st_mtime/
          s/st_mtim.tv_nsec/st_mtime_n/
          s/ lines = / nlines = /
          s/<tab>lines = /<tab>nlines = /
          s/, lines,/, nlines,/' src/text.c

Now it works without the earlier problem. Mind you, I still suggest using mcedit instead. (For hard-core users there is vim, too.)

Originally Posted by NevemTeve Note: you could provide a link where did you get nano, other than 'via yum'. For example here is where you cannot find nano: https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/ai...nloads-alpha#N, https://public.dhe.ibm.com/aix/freeS...lbox/RPMS/ppc/

We did download it from:
ftp://public.dhe.ibm.com/aix/freeSof.../RPMS/ppc-7.2/
That was done in November of last year. The software no longer seems to be available from there. Maybe it was removed because of problems like the one I was having?

Will rebuild from source. At least I know what I'm working with and can debug using gdb from there if necessary.

Thank you very much for all your suggestions.