Garbled character woes in SecureCRT

[jkr]

Hi!

I'm having a really bizarre experience trying to run Dell's utility for configuring storage systems on a Linux server, called "dellmgr". What happens is basically that the screen fills with garbage. But in a fairly interesting way...

For instance, when the main screen comes up, it's heading is:

PERC/CERC Configuration Utility 5.22(Apr 18,2002) Adapter-0

which is quickly replaced (within one second) to something resembling:

ÐÅÒïÃÅÒà Ãïîæéçõòáôéïî Õôéìéôù µ®²²¨Áðò ±¸¬²°°²© Áäáðôåò*°

(or something to that effect. The string didn't quite survive the cut-and-paste-operation and the characters have come out differently, but I hope you get my point). Most other text (but not always ALL text) is also garbled.

I've been tryng a lot of things to get around the problem, most notably upgrading to the latest version of SecureCRT (version 5.0.4, build 1065), as well as poking around in numerous SCRT-settings (trying different terminal emulation modes like "ansi", "vt100", and "linux", choosing different fonts and character encodings, as well as a lot of other stuff), but to little use. Also spotted a tip about watching out for installing files East Asian Languages, which has always been disabled on my computer.

I've generated a raw log trace for the situation, and have attached it to this post. Now, I'm no expert, but the contents of this file suggests to me that the heading is re-printed with the same characters, but which are "interpreted" differently the second time around... Odd and confusing!

Oh, should probably say that I'm able to see the interface just fine on a Linux-terminal, but I'd save a lot of time not having to run off into the server hall every time I need to use this utility... Also - from what I've been able to google, it's the "linux" terminal setting that seem to work best for people.

Any help or insights into this matter would be greatly appreciated!

Cheers,

- Johan

[toloughlin]

I'd check out: stty -a & env on the dell box and try to match those settings to that SCRT session.

Is this Telnet, SSH, TAPI, Serial?

[jdev]

jkr,

Thanks for providing a raw log.

In brief testing, it appears that the dellmgr application might be expecting an ANSI terminal.

There are a couple of combinations that should work with the ANSI emulation in order to get line drawing to work correctly, etc.

Option 1:
- Session emulation = ANSI
- Session font = Terminal (Appearance category)

Option 2:
- Session emulation = ANSI
- Session font = Lucida Console, Courier New, or other TrueType/OpenType font
- Use Unicode line drawing characters = enabled (Appearance category)
- Character encoding = OEM (Appearance category)

Do either of these configuration options work for you?

--Jake

[jkr]

Thanks a lot for your comments!

First off,toloughlin, I'm running SSH. The output from 'tty -a' is:

# stty -a
speed 38400 baud; rows 37; columns 105; line = 0;
intr = ^C; quit = ^\; erase = ^?; kill = ^U; eof = ^D; eol = <undef>; eol2 = <undef>; start = ^Q;
stop = ^S; susp = ^Z; rprnt = ^R; werase = ^W; lnext = ^V; flush = ^O; min = 1; time = 0;
-parenb -parodd cs8 -hupcl -cstopb cread -clocal -crtscts
-ignbrk -brkint -ignpar -parmrk -inpck -istrip -inlcr -igncr icrnl ixon -ixoff -iuclc -ixany -imaxbel
opost -olcuc -ocrnl onlcr -onocr -onlret -ofill -ofdel nl0 cr0 tab0 bs0 vt0 ff0
isig icanon iexten echo echoe echok -echonl -noflsh -xcase -tostop -echoprt echoctl echoke

Which, I'm afraid, is a bit like Greek to me, but I'll use some time in attempting to decipher it ;-)


The environment bit is:
# set
BASH=/bin/bash
BASH_ENV=/root/.bashrc
BASH_VERSINFO=([0]="2" [1]="05b" [2]="0" [3]="1" [4]="release" [5]="i386-redhat-linux-gnu")
BASH_VERSION='2.05b.0(1)-release'
COLORS=/etc/DIR_COLORS
COLUMNS=105
DIRSTACK=()
EUID=0
GROUPS=()
G_BROKEN_FILENAMES=1
HISTFILE=/root/.bash_history
HISTFILESIZE=1000
HISTSIZE=1000
HOME=/root
HOSTNAME=prd-file1
HOSTTYPE=i386
IFS=$' \t\n'
INPUTRC=/etc/inputrc
LANG=en_US.ISO_8859-1
LESSOPEN='|/usr/bin/lesspipe.sh %s'
LINES=37
LOGNAME=root
LS_COLORS='no=00:fi=00:di=01;34:ln=01;36:pi=40;33: so=01;35:bd=40;33;01:cd=40;33;01:or=01;05;37;41:mi =01;05;37;41:ex=01;32:*.cmd=01;32:*.exe=01;32:*.co m=01;32:*.btm=01;32:*.bat=01;32:*.sh=01;32:*.csh=0 1;32:*.tar=01;31:*.tgz=01;31:*.arj=01;31:*.taz=01; 31:*.lzh=01;31:*.zip=01;31:*.z=01;31:*.Z=01;31:*.g z=01;31:*.bz2=01;31:*.bz=01;31:*.tz=01;31:*.rpm=01 ;31:*.cpio=01;31:*.jpg=01;35:*.gif=01;35:*.bmp=01; 35:*.xbm=01;35:*.xpm=01;35:*.png=01;35:*.tif=01;35 :'
MACHTYPE=i386-redhat-linux-gnu
MAIL=/var/spool/mail/root
MAILCHECK=60
OPTERR=1
OPTIND=1
OSTYPE=linux-gnu
PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/X11R6/bin:/root/bin
PIPESTATUS=([0]="0")
PPID=13698
PS1='[\u@\h \W]\$ '
PS2='> '
PS4='+ '
PWD=/root
SHELL=/bin/bash
SHELLOPTS=braceexpand:emacs:hashall:histexpand:his tory:interactive-comments:monitor
SHLVL=1
SSH_ASKPASS=/usr/libexec/openssh/gnome-ssh-askpass
SSH_AUTH_SOCK=/tmp/ssh-XX0TK24y/agent.13698
SSH_CLIENT='...'
SSH_CONNECTION='...'
SSH_TTY=/dev/pts/0
TERM=linux
UID=0
USER=root
USERNAME=root
_=-a[/FONT]

where I guess that the "TERM=linux" is the most important part.

Next, Jake, I've attempted your two settings, and with ANSI, the characters do come out ungarbled, but the formatting of the screen doesn't seem to work. Instead of

Preaterea
censeo
Cartagine
esse
delandam

I get:

Preaterea
censeo
Cartagine
esse
delandam

where the indentation seems to be as long as the string on the line above it, meaning that the cursor doesn't return to the correct column when moving it down one line I guess... (Although OEM definately looks better than the Default font. UNICODE line drawing, however, doesn't seem to do any difference at all).

Getting late. Getting tired. Thanks again for your help!

Cheers,

- Johan

[jdev]

> where the indentation seems to be as long as the string on
> the line above it, meaning that the cursor doesn't return
> to the correct column when moving it down one line I
> guess...


Did you disconnect and reconnect between making changes to the terminal configuration in SecureCRT?

If not, it's possible that the remote side (shell) still thought you were a "linux" instead of an "ANSI" terminal.

Do you notice any change in behavior if you disconnect and reconnect after setting up the session as per the earlier instructions?
(Just so I know where we're at, which did you decide to go with, option 1 or option 2?)

> (Although OEM definately looks better than the
> Default font. UNICODE line drawing, however, doesn't seem
> to do any difference at all).


The Unicode line drawing option will only have an effect on fonts that are TrueType or OpenType (like Lucida Console, or Courier New).

What do you currently have specified as your font (Session Options / Terminal / Appearance category, Normal font setting) ?

--Jake

[Maureen]

This has been fixed and will be in the next maintenance release of SecureCRT, which is scheduled for tomorrow. If you would like an installer before then, please send an e-mail to me at Maureen.Jett@vandyke.com.

Maureen