Backspace key taken as garbage during login

[Vibhor Kumar Agarwal]

Hi,

Query about backspace key working funny on my HP systems (B.11.31 U ia64).

During login, if the user name is misspelled and then corrected by pressing the backspace key, the final name looks right on screen but login doesn't happen. This means that though the characters are deleted but the system takes backspace as some control character.

Not an serious or abnormal issue, but just wanted to check if there is an option (system configuration) to correct this.

Thanks

[Johnson Punniyalingam]

I would like to Check TERM ?

echo $TERM

[Vibhor Kumar Agarwal]

echo $TERM
xterm

Is the right terminal or shall i change it to vt100 or something?

[Johnson Punniyalingam]

Once you are logged into the other computer, I believe the following command would do the job:

stty erase "^?"

which sets the erase character to "^?". See man stty for more info on "control characters" (and lots of other things too).

[Johnson Punniyalingam]

>>is the right terminal or shall i change it to vt100 or something?

you can give a try :)

[Raj D.]

Vibhor,
- Check # echo $TERM
- Also check the stty for backspace key by typeing:
# stty erase Enter

It will look like:
# stty erase ^?


Hth,
Raj.

[Vibhor Kumar Agarwal]

Backspace character works perfect after login.

During login, on screen it works as perfect by deleting the previous character, but the system doesn't take it.

How do i set the TERM variable for the system so that it's available for next logins?

[Johnson Punniyalingam]

>>How do i set the TERM variable for the system so that it's available for next logins?<<

.profile

Then type in

stty erase ^?

[Venkatesh BL]

The stuff inside '$HOME/.profile' will be executed only after a successful login. So, I don't think putting 'stty erase' there would make any difference.

I think this has something to do with the default shell that is invoked by the 'login' command.

[melvyn burnard · Accepted solution]

You don't change anything.
WHen logging in, the backspace key will NOT work, use the # key to backspace one character at a time, or use @ to erase the line and start again.
This is why these characters are NOT allowed as part of your login name or password