Re: Mc Digest, Vol 13, Issue 14

[Ben <2blkbelt nemontel net>]

I have a problem I am hoping members of the list may be able to help me with. This is going to be a bit 
long-winded, for which I apologize, but I feel that I need to explain the problem as much as I can. So:

I have a new mac mini, which I like very much. The mini is a bsd derivative underneath, and has a terminal 
application. xwindows can be run, but it is a separate app. More on that below.

MC can be compiled there (jumping through a LOT of hoops, but that's not my goal. I have some remote server 
systems, red hat 9 systems, that I administer, and my habit is to do so via MC, because I'm very familiar 
with MC and I just plain like it.

I've found a way to do it -- very indirect -- by opening the X implementation, opening an xterm, slogin to 
the server, then opening another xterm that "lives" on the server -- at that point, MC works perfectly. But 
it's annoying to hop through all those steps, and slogin requires a LOT more network overhead than does an 
SSH or TELNET connection. Some of the servers are remote, and that overhead is a problem.

The problem with SSH via the Mac's terminal to the server is that the character set and keystrokes are all 
screwed up. I don't know why; I know that the terminfo databases and suchlike are what deal with this issue, 
but I don't understand them at all.

So if I log into the remote server via SSH and type mc, I get a mess; it's unworkable. Even using the switch 
to turn on using + and - as the "line drawing characters" doesn't resolve the problem.

So -- can anyone show me a path that will end up with a remote mc invocation working under the Mac's (OS X 
10.3.9) terminal this way:

[terminal] - ssh - mc

 Or am I doomed to the following slow and step-heavy process:

[x] - xterm - slogin - xterm - mc