Slackware64 -current up to date (4.14.31)

This is maybe some configuration problem but I don't know where to start searching.

The mangled dialog screens are slackpkg and pkgtools as root (su -),
but sbopkg runs ok.

Running pkgtools in a console logged in as root is ok, dialog looks ok.

The other one is a dialog command as regular user, it is ok.
Any help is appreciated.

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Improper $TERM setting, perhaps? Try using TERM=linux.

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Thanks for the answer, $TERM was set to xterm in X terminal, running TERM=linux fixed pkgtool.
I put in root's .bash_profile 'TERM=linux'.
(but sbopkg runs ok with TERM=xterm, and the regular user has TERM=xterm too,
and dialog looks ok.)

It looks like sbopkg contains some code to use xterm-color within the script.

I'll look into this. It seems a similar workaround would be valuable to pkgtool and slackpkg.

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I reverted to aaa_terminfo-6.0-x86_64-1 from -current of October 2017 and all is working ok now.

Maybe the update aaa_terminfo-6.1-x86_64-1 from Mar 26, 2018 has some problem.

Thanks for looking into this.

No lucky here.

Here too, terminal freezes running vim, slackpkg.
But reverting as I posted seems to fix it.

Hi again , i little plays, i find "konsole" , from kde , have TERM=xterm , changing this to linux it works.

konsole --> preferences --> edit profile

Im not sure if this config it comes by default...in this case , need to change.

Yes, I saw that too, it has TERM=xterm by default.
I wrote TERM=linux there and that solved the problem with
slackpkg and pkgtool (that was when I marked the thread [Solved], too soon...),
but it freezes the terminal when running vim and slackpkg, and possibly others.

But the problem happens with Xfce terminal and XTerm as well.

Try TERM=xterm-color instead.

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After reinstalling aaa_terminfo-6.1-x86_64-1 from Mar 26, 2018 and
setting TERM=xterm-color, it seems that all is working ok.
Thanks again Patrick, and thanks Usuarionuevo.

I put TERM=xterm-color in root's .bash_profile and now, on a console,
instead of 'linux', $TERM is set to 'xterm-color'. It is working ok too,
I don't know if has some side effect.

Rather than overwrite it in the profile, it would be better to configure your terminal emulator to set a correct $TERM in the first place.

If you use xterm-color on a linux console, you're going to end up with bs/del and function key issues, and possibly other problems.

BTW, I don't know why konsole doesn't use it by default, but terminfo does appear to contain a 'konsole' entry. Perhaps that is worth investigating.

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Following GazL advice, I will leave root's profile alone and set TERM to 'konsole' only in konsole,
since I login as 'su -' mainly to move files around, and install from SBo and third party mirrors with slackpkg.

@Gazl, do you mean the konsole entry in /etc/termcap?
It is working ok too.

The files in aaa_terminfo package are for non X console, is this right?
Excuse any naive questions, for me this terminal/console subject
is in the dark side.

The files in aaa_terminfo are a subset of the terminfo library shipped in the ncurses package. In general, terminfo is for any console, be it an actual terminal, virtual terminal, xterm or other X console, etc. The aaa_terminfo package contains the more commonly used ones, including xterm and linux. And of course all the DEC VT* terminals, since everyone uses those. ;-)

At this point I'm wondering if the xterm entry shouldn't just point to xterm-color. No idea though if there's a legitimate reason for anyone to require the plain xterm terminfo rather than xterm-color.

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Please don't. A number of terminal emulators set TERM to 'xterm' (though they really should probably all have their own definitions) and there's no guarantee that they'll support all the features defined in xterm-color. There's also non-linux implementations of xterm to consider which may also only support the basic features. Rather than mess with the stock definitions, I think it's better to fix the underlying problem: which in this case seems to be that konsole isn't compatible with the 'xterm' definition, and as such I'd argue shouldn't be using it in the first place.

The extra colours aren't the only differences between the xterm and xterm-color definitions, so you might be opening a can of worms if you followed through on this one.

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