Description of Problem: When some non-ASCII characters are displayed, they corrupt the cursor handling, requiring an stty 'reset' to restore proper function. For example, the "Mail Plus" trailer on Yahoo mail contains an 0x96 (0226) character, and this causes the problem. Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): XFree86-4.1.0-25 How Reproducible: 100% Steps to Reproduce: 1. In an xterm, at a shell prompt (csh), type two 'x' characters. Use backspace to delete them. Observe the characters disappear as they are deleted. 2. Run 'cat' on a file containing a single 0x96 (0226) character followed by a newline. Alternatively, use /bin/mail to view a mail message with the "Mail Plus" Yahoo trailer. 3. Back at the shell prompt, type two 'x' characters. Use backspace to delete them. Observe the characters remain visible even after the cursor has passed over them. Actual Results: Catting a 0x96 character corrupts the cursor handling functions of the xterm. Expected Results: The cursor handling functions (making the deleted characters disappear) should not be corrupted by catting non-ASCII characters (except for documented xterm escape sequences, of course). Additional Information: Doing 'stty -a' before and after the corruption shows no difference. The usual 'reset' sequence restores proper function.
Can you test gnome-terminal and konsole as well and let me know if they also exhibit this behavior?
I tried both gnome-terminal and konsole, and neither one appears to have this problematic behavior.
This must be an xterm specific bug then I presume, and not of greater magnitude. The offically supported terminal emulators shipped in Red Hat Linux are gnome-terminal and konsole, which you've indicated seem to work ok. xterm itself is merely provided with the distribution for end user convenience as a legacy application, however it is not directly supported by Red Hat. Even though unsupported, I have tried to reproduce the problem above on both alpha, x86, and ia64 using the 7.1 releases of each, but was unable to do so. It is possible perhaps that this is a configuration issue, but that doesn't rule out a real bug either. Perhaps a newer xterm from a newer XFree86 release, or from the xterm homepage may resolve this issue for you. It is recommended to test the latest upstream xterm release first, and if the problem is present in that release, to report the issue directly to the xterm author. Be sure to indicate the alpha platform, as it sounds like a platform specific issue. You may also wish to test Red Hat Linux 7.2/Alpha, which is available from Hewlett Packard directly, or from their ftp site at: http://www.support.compaq.com/alpha-tools/redhat or ftp://alpha.crl.dec.com/pub/linux/redhat/7.2-alpha