Re: F1/F2/F3/F4 don't work on my new laptop

[Micah Cowan]

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Cameron Dale wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I have been using screen for a while, and I have my function keys
> bound to changing the selected terminal like so:
> 
> # Use the function keys to switch among windows.
> bindkey -k k1 select 1
> bindkey -k k2 select 2
> bindkey -k k3 select 3
> bindkey -k k4 select 4
> bindkey -k k5 select 5
> 
> I also have this to (according to the comment where I copied it from)
> enable the function keys in screen:
> 
> termcapinfo xterm 'k1=\E[11~:k2=\E[12~:k3=\E[13~:k4=\E[14~'

This tells screen to ignore what termcap/terminfo might really have for
k1, and use these entries instead.

> However, with my new eeepc laptop this is causing problems. Now, F1 F2
> F3 and F4 no longer work only on the laptop. If I remove the
> termcapinfo line from .screenrc the laptop works fine, but then on all
> my other machines F1-F4 stops working! Most frustrating.

Sounds like, on the system you're using for the laptop, the original
terminfo lines are correct.

> I understand this might be related to the terminfo database on my
> laptop, but I'm not sure what change to make so that it works like my
> other machines. Or, perhaps I need to add another termcapinfo line or
> more bindkey lines to my .screenrc to make the function keys work with
> the laptop too. If I press ctrl-q and then the F1 - F4 keys, I get the
> following key codes from screen:
> 
> ^[OP ^[OQ ^[OR ^[OS
> 
> But I'm not sure what I need to add to .screenrc so they get
> transformed into function keys. Please help!

Why not use the .screenrc without those lines on your laptop, and the
ones with them on all others? If you have two terminal versions which
respect two different sequences, you can't really expect to have both
the same terminfo definition and the same .screenrc for them both.

What terminal emulator are you using, gnome-terminal? Gnome-terminal
isn't perfectly compatible with xterm, especially when it comes to
special key controls; but it advertises itself as xterm. Probably
because of apps like vim (and screen) that recognize "xterm" as
providing mouse support, but not gnome-terminal.

- --
Micah J. Cowan
Programmer, musician, typesetting enthusiast, gamer.
GNU Maintainer: wget, screen, teseq
http://micah.cowan.name/
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