Can't get keyboard to work correctly in putty

Question

I'm using putty on win7 as client, to log into ssh on a debian server. But I've met a strange problem about keyboard behaviors on putty console.

I noticed that it's about keyboard config in putty. After reading the manual of putty, I successfully made backspace key to work, but still have troubles about ESC, arrows, home and end, and F1-F12 keys.

Here I list their behaviors below. It seems that the mismapping of ESC is the root cause.

• ESC => ^[
• up => ^[OA
• down => ^[OB
• right => ^[OC
• left => ^[OD
• home => ^[[1~
• end => ^[[4~
• F1 => ^[[11~
• F12 => ^[[24~

================================================

Here I will show why I think esc is mismapping:

When in a correctly working ssh console, I press esc, it should show nothing.

(before)
root@somemachine:
(after)
root@somemachine:

But in this malfunctioning ssh console, I press esc, it shows ^[.

(before)
root@somemachine:
(after)
root@somemachine: ^[

I ran od -c on both ssh console, and pressed esc, they gave the same output.

(normal one)
root@opengg:~# od -c
^[

(malfunctioning one)
$ od -c
^[

Answer 1

The problem is the value of the TERM environment variable does not match the configured terminal characteristics - specifically the "Home and End keys" and "Function keys and keypad" settings.

These can be hard to get right.

What is expected by the Debian server.

Type infocmp -I to see what your computer is expecting.

$ infocmp -I 
#       Reconstructed via infocmp from file: /usr/share/terminfo/a/ansi
ansi|ansi/pc-term compatible with color,
        …
        rmul=\E[m, il1=\E[L, kbs=^H, kcbt=\E[Z, kcud1=\E[B,
        khome=\E[H, kich1=\E[L, kcub1=\E[D, kcuf1=\E[C, kcuu1=\E[A,
        …

khome=\E[H means that the server expects to receive three characters ESC [ H when you press Home.

You can look at what is expected for other values of TERM

$ infocmp -I xterm
#       Reconstructed via infocmp from file: /usr/share/terminfo/x/xterm
xterm|X11 terminal emulator,
        …
        is2=\E[!p\E[?3;4l\E[4l\E>, il1=\E[L, ka1=\EOw, ka3=\EOu,
        kb2=\EOy, kbs=\177, kbeg=\EOE, kc1=\EOq, kc3=\EOs,
        kdch1=\E[3~, kcud1=\EOB, kend=\E[4~, kent=\EOM, kf1=\EOP,
        kf10=\E[21~, kf11=\E[23~, kf12=\E[24~, kf13=\E[25~,
        kf14=\E[26~, kf15=\E[28~, kf16=\E[29~, kf17=\E[31~,
        kf18=\E[32~, kf19=\E[33~, kf2=\EOQ, kf20=\E[34~, kf3=\EOR,
        kf4=\EOS, kf5=\E[15~, kf6=\E[17~, kf7=\E[18~, kf8=\E[19~,
        kf9=\E[20~, khome=\E[1~, kich1=\E[2~, kcub1=\EOD,
        kmous=\E[M, knp=\E[6~, kpp=\E[5~, kcuf1=\EOC, kcuu1=\EOA,
        …

Here you can see that, if TERM were set to xterm, this server would expect to receive ESC [ 1 ~ when Home is pressed (khome)

If the above is too cryptic, try infocmp -L

You can also do things like tput khome | hexdump -C if you know the terminfo capability names for the keys you are interested in.

$ tput khome | hexdump -C
00000000  1b 5b 48                                          |.[H|

or, arguably more legibly

$ tput khome | hexdump -e '12/1 "%3_u" "\n"'
esc  [  H

or to see what another TERM setting might mean

$ TERM=xterm tput khome | hexdump -e '12/1 "%3_u" "\n"'
esc  [  1  ~

if the output is empty the server thinks that terminal type (TERM) doesn't have that key.

What is actually sent by Putty.

To see what Home actually sends, run vi, press i (for insert mode) press Ctrl+V then press Home and press Esc to exit insert mode.

Solution

Adjust Putty config (or TERM) until what is sent matches what the other end expected.

Answer 2

There is no mismapping of the ESC key - ^[ means Control-LeftSquareBracket which is ASCII 27 which is ESC

If you suspect the keys to give wrong sequences, check them with od -c and compare them to the infocmp output:

 $ od -c
 (hit F1 Ctrl-D Ctrl-D)

Output may be (033 is ESC):

 0000000 033   [   1   1   ~

Compare it to the output of infocmp (here \E means ESC):

 $ infocmp -1 | grep 'kf1='
    kf1=\E[11~,

Short introduction to infocmp output:

kbs = Backspace

kcub1, kcud1, kcuf1, kcuu1 = Cursor Keys

kf* = Function keys

kpp / knp = Page up/down

khome / kend = Home / End keys

kich1 / kdch1 = Insert / Delete keys

Using these Informations it should be easy to configure your putty for your system correctly.

Answer 3

Until you find a full solution try using vi-style keys instead of the arrows.
H => left
J => down
etc.