img/SLyES-2012.gif

found my problem: in /etc/X11/app-defaults/XTerm, there is a 'debian customizations' section.

in there, they have this line:

*backarrowKeyIsErase: true

System Message: WARNING/2 (data/screen-backspace-dont-work.txt, line 6); backlink

Inline emphasis start-string without end-string.

I simply added this line to my ~/.Xdefaults to turn that off:

*backarrowKeyIsErase: false

System Message: WARNING/2 (data/screen-backspace-dont-work.txt, line 10); backlink

Inline emphasis start-string without end-string.

then ran

xrdb ~/.Xdefaults

launched a new xterm, re-attached to screen, and the backspace key worked as it should!! zojas April 3rd, 2006, 01:18 PM normally I will attach to screen in an xterm.

I have recently found that if I have to type input to a program, the backspace key won't work. like if I type 'cat > /tmp/file', then type some text and hit backspace, it just echoes a ^H character.

however, if I attach to screen inside konsole (the kde terminal), the backspace works fine when typing to cat.

backspace works fine with either terminal when typing to the shell directly. hayalci August 12th, 2006, 07:06 PM A simple solution from http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/screen-users/2006-05/msg00048.html

Set the TERM variable to screen before running screen. TERM=screen screen You can define an alias in your ~/.bashrc file like alias screen='TERM=screen screen'