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FAQ for MindTerm

MindTerm FAQ.

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  • I can't get the tunnels to work in the applet.

    You can use tunnels only if you are running a signed applet, or have disabled the security restrictions put on applets by the browser/appletviewer.

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  • I can't connect to the host 'hostname1' from the applet (though I can connect to 'hostname2', which incidentally is the same host as the web-server serving the applet).

    You can connect to arbitrary hosts from the applet only if you are running a signed applet, or have disabled the security restrictions put on applets by the browser/appletviewer. This also means that you cannot use the unsigned applet to connect to hosts through a firewall or proxy.

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  • I can't run the applet in Netscape on my Macintosh. I just get "Applet mindbright.application. MindTerm class mindbright.application. MindTerm could not be loaded."

    The Netscape on Macintosh does not contain a complete java 1.1.x runtime. You will have to use the MRJ runtime (found at: http://www.apple.com/java/) and use it as a plugin (see README). Or, you can use Internet Explorer for the Macintosh.

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  • I just get "Applet mindbright.application. MindTerm class mindbright.application. MindTerm could not be loaded."

    This can depend on many things, for example:

    • You are running from an outdated browser which does not contain a complete java 1.1.x runtime (e.g. Netscape v4.05 or less). See "A3".

    • You have installed an html-page containing an APPLET tag referring to a jar-file that does not exist.

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  • When I start the applet in Netscape under Linux, the terminal-window becomes displaced off the screen so that I can't see the window-title.

    This seems to be a bug in the Netscape java-runtime in Linux. As a workaround, don't enable "Window position" in dialog "Terminal Settings" in menu Settings, also don't give a window-position in the 'gm' parameter.

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  • I would like the tunnels I define to be used when reconnecting to the same SSH-server again.

    This is done automatically by default. However, if you disable "Auto Save Settings" and/or "Auto Load Settings", you must save and/or load settings manually.

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  • When I load the signed applet, it can still not connect to any host, and I'm not able to use tunnels in it.

    When you load a signed applet that was previously loaded as a non-signed applet in the same instance of the browser, the browser seems to "remember" that it was previously unsigned and don't give it the right permissions. As a workaround, close the browser and restart it.

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  • I can't get the ftp-tunneling to work. Create the tunnel with an ftp-plugin. In the "Basic Tunnels Setup", select protocol "ftp", and the tunnel should show up in the text-area with the label "Current local tunnels," It should have the string "(plugin: ftp)" in the end of the description-string in this text-area. Also check that the given server really has an ftpd running.

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  • I am unable to use an ftp-client through an ftp-tunnel with "ftp PORT commands" enabled.

    Proxying ftp PORT-commands is not recommended. If at all possible, use a client which supports "passive mode" ftp; most do. If that is not possible, check that the "Real sshd address" in the "SSH Settings" dialog is the ip-address (not hostname) of the machine running the sshd. This will not necessarily be the case if the sshd is running behind a firewall which is doing address-translations.

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  • After I have disconnected from the SSH-server and then reconnect, the last session seems not to have closed properly, i.e. a file seems locked.

    The preferred way to disconnect from the SSH-server is to logout from the shell or exit the application running as a single-command. Otherwise, the SSH-server might keep the session open, which would cause this behavior. MindTerm cannot automatically do the logout procedure, since the way to do it varies between situations/platforms.

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  • What does the "Send keep-alive" option do? Are SSH-connections timed-out?

    It sends a message (which is ignored by the SSH-server) on the given interval (in seconds). This will keep the connection alive if there is an idle-timeout set on something in between the client and the server (such as a address-translating firewall).

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  • I'm trying to tunnel X-connections but it does not seem to work. By default, X-tunneling is turned off in MindTerm. Enable it in the "SSH Settings" dialog. Also make sure that the X-server on the MindTerm side answers on the given DISPLAY (e.g. if "Local X11-display" is set to localhost:0 then the X-server should listen on port 6000 on the same machine that MindTerm is running on).

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  • Why is there a "Basic" and an "Advanced" tunnels dialog? What are remote tunnels? Simple local tunnels are normally setup, e.g. to use imap, smtp etc. on the SSH-server or another server behind it. An advanced user might need to set up tunnels going back to the machine running MindTerm; these are called remote tunnels.

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  • I created my RSA-identity but I still can't log in to the SSH-server with it. It says "Server refused our key."

    Please read all the instructions in the text-box in the "Create RSA Identity" dialog. (Hint: Put the contents of the identity.pub file into the file ~/.ssh/authorized_keys on the ssh-server).

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  • I can't get a menu-bar in the applet. When running inside the browser-window (as opposed to in a separate frame), it is not possible to have a menu-bar. This is a limitation of java and can not (easily) be fixed.

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  • The terminal seems to have quirks, such as giving reverse video, strange looking output or wrong settings in general.

    There could be a mismatch between the terminal setting in the shell on the server and in MindTerm. For example, the SSH-server should set the TERM environment variable to the right string upon login, but sometimes it gets set to something else by login-scripts, etc. Check that the TERM environment variable is set to the same as the "Terminal type" in the "Terminal Settings" dialog in MindTerm. Another possibility is that MindTerm has a bug, so please send as detailed a report as possible of what/when/how/where this happened. A third possibility is that the terminal-libraries on the server is either buggy or does not think the same about the terminal mode used as MindTerm. Try different terminal modes to see what happens.

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  • Backspace/Delete does not seem to work. Backspace (and Delete) can be sent using different ascii-codes. Try changing what is sent with the "Backspace sends Delete," and vice-versa in the "Terminal Misc" dialog. (See also Q16.)

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  • I get strange terminal behavior with an SSH-server running Digital Unix (e.g. scrolling does not seem to work within VI.)

    There seems to be something wrong with using terminal mode vt100 on Digital Unix. If possible, use another terminal mode. Also see Q17.

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  • When MindTerm is started in Netscape on Linux, the window resizes and then it seems to hang.

    It has not hung, it has just lost keyboard focus. There is something strange with the focus-handling; click terminal to get focus back.

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  • When adding tunnels, why does it function the same whether I'm connected or not?

    Adding a tunnel when not connected results in the tunnel being added to the current settings. Adding it while connected causes the tunnel to be immediately opened and fully operational.

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  • I have a tunnel configured, and it shows up in Basic/Advanced tunnel-dialogs, but the current connections dialog is empty. The current connections dialog shows open connections through the tunnels, not the tunnels themselves.

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  • The clipboard does not seem to work; I can only copy/paste within MindTerm.

    There are two explanations:

  • When running as an unsigned applet, MindTerm does not have access to the system-clipboard. Instead, it uses its own "local" clipboard.

  • The java runtime does not support copy/paste to/from the system-clipboard. This is the case in Netscape on Linux, for example.

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  • I configure a tunnel when running MindTerm in Netscape, and the tunnel is added without errors, yet it is not there.

    There seems to be a bug in the java-runtime in Netscape that makes the socket call successful, even though it should have thrown an exception.

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  • When I do a really long directory-listing or 'cat' a large file, MindTerm hangs for a while, and then it only shows the end of the listing/file.

    With some java-runtimes, there is a thread-scheduling lag which starves the updating thread while sending a great deal of text to the terminal. The result of this is that the window doesn't get updated until all of the text is sent to the terminal. The entire text has been written to the terminal, though most of it has scrolled off the screen without showing. Look in the scrollback buffer for it.

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  • When I choose "select all," MindTerm hangs.

    It does not hang; it just takes a very long time. Disable the "VT Option" "Copy On Select" to speed things up; what really takes time is to copy the selected area.

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  • I try to run a single command but MindTerm exits.

    When running a single command with MindTerm (as with the Unix SSH-client), allocate a PTY to run a command that uses other than a dumb tty. This is done with command-line option '-forcpty true', or as an applet parameter such as: ''. Note that when running a single command, Mindterm will typically exit immediately if the command is not found.

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  • I try to run MindTerm as an applet in Opera; is Opera not supported?

    Opera version 3.61 (on win32) has been tested with Sun java-plugin v1.1.3 (go to http://www.opera.com/support/instplug.htm#java to get it.) It can run MindTerm without problems. This is only tested with win32. (NOTE: with Opera you don't need to use a plugin-specific html-page; it uses the normal APPLET tags for launching the plugin.)

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  • When I use MindTerm on Internet Explorer, or standalone with Microsoft's jview JVM (e.g. version 4.79.2435), I get a tiny/unusable window and the message in the console: BorderLayout: cannot add to layout: unknown constraint: null.

    This seems to be a bug in the jview of certain versions. Try upgrading to a newever jview (found at http://www.microsoft.com/java/)

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  • I'm trying to transfer to/from a (local) file which hs spaces in its name with the SCP File Transfer, but it fails.

    README 4.1.9: ...if a name contains a space, enclose it in quotes like: "a file with spaces."

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  • When starting MindTerm as an applet in Internet Explorer, all I get is a minimal window, which is empty when I enlarge it, and nothing seems to work. This was due to a bug in the Microsoft JVM (jview. It was fixed in MindTerm v1.2 pre1 and later. It occurred in version "4.0 Release 4.79.0.2424" of jview.

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  • On Linux, when using ibm-jdk1.1.8 or jdk117v3, I can't get a tilde on Swedish(international) keyboard.

    This seems to be a bug in the keyhandling code of these jdk's.

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  • I get an error when connecting saying "Address already in use."

    This occurs because of the same tunnels. Due to how sockets behave, it might be necessary to exit the JVM to release the sockets properly.

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  • I am trying to build an application that uses MindTerm, but when compiling the MindTerm classes are not found in mindterm.jar

    The mindterm.jar in the binary distribution is obfuscated and can not be used to compile against. You have to download the MindTerm sources and compile your own (unobfuscated) mindterm.jar.

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  • How do I build the MindTerm source?

    MindTerm 2.4 and later uses Ant and JavaMake for building. See the instructions here.

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    Updated 2008-08-19 12:22 Copyright © 2002-2008 AppGate Network Security AB. All rights reserved.
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