ncurses and ls problem - I thought they're colors but it's not!

ncurses and ls problem - I thought they're colors but it's not!

[Luca Ferrari]

Hi all,
I'm quite attonished by this problem. I've got two Linux server on two 
different networks, connected thru a vpn tunnel (made by hardware). Until 
yesterday everything was working fine, today there's a strange behaviour. If 
i conenct (telnet,ssh) from server A to B, then I can execute each 
application. If I telnet from B to A I cannot either do ls. I mean, the 
command is parsed, then no output is presented and the cursor remains 
waiting, without presenting the command prompt. After a while I found that 
the problem was related to use of colors in ls, and in fact removing the 
colors (my ls was aliased as ls='ls --color=tty') I was able to do ls and to 
see the normal behaviour. But I'm unable to execute any other program, either 
ncurses based ones, either emacs, either 'env'. 
I've tried to change the TERM variable (that on both hosts is set to xterm), 
trying vt100, but I cannot get the system working.
I've trying to connect to A and B separately from another network, and both 
work. Thus the problem seems to be between A and B, or better between the A 
network and the B network. Of course, nothing changed since yesterday, and 
I'm sure of that!
I've tried to reset routers and vpn appliances, and I've checked that there's 
not a firewall that blocks connections (and in fact all protocols seem to 
work, and speed is good as usual).
Where should I look for?

Luca

Re: ncurses and ls problem - I thought they're colors but it's not!

[Luca Ferrari]

Just another thing I discovered: if I telnet from A to C (another host in 
another network) and then from C to B I can run ncurses based applications 
and colored ls. From C network I'm able also to connect to server A and B 
using them with success.
Guess this can help someone to suggest me a possible cause.

Thanks,
Luca

Re: ncurses and ls problem - I thought they're colors but it's not!

[terry white]

... ciao:

: on "9-21-2006" "Luca Ferrari" writ:
: Just another thing I discovered: if I telnet from ...

    it's been my experience, that a change one place, can have unexpected
results someplace 'else'.  with that in mind, i'd try using "ls" or
"find" to lacate files that've been changed recently ...

-- 
... i'm a man, but i can change,
    if i have to , i guess ...

cups timeout problem (was Re: ncurses and ls problem - I thought they're colors but it's not!)

[Luca Ferrari]

Hi,
I'm still fighting with the problem of the connection, but I'm experiencing 
also another problem: if I try to print via smb/cups to a windows printer I 
get cups in timeout (the server didn't respond in 10000 msec). The strange 
thing is that I cannot connect to the printer via smbclient!
Now, If I create the printer via lpadmin the printer seems enabled, after the 
first print the printer goes disabled and I cannot enable it back.
Any suggestion?

Thanks,
Luca

Re: cups timeout problem (was Re: ncurses and ls problem - I thought they're colors but it's not!)

[Adam T. Bowen]

Luca Ferrari wrote:
> Hi,
> I'm still fighting with the problem of the connection, but I'm experiencing 
> also another problem: if I try to print via smb/cups to a windows printer I 
> get cups in timeout (the server didn't respond in 10000 msec). The strange 
> thing is that I cannot connect to the printer via smbclient!
> Now, If I create the printer via lpadmin the printer seems enabled, after the 
> first print the printer goes disabled and I cannot enable it back.
> Any suggestion?

Total shot in the dark, but what is your locale set to?  We had a number
of wide ranging problems, including printing and console applications,
when we installed a new version of Linux on our desktop systems, a few
years ago, which was caused by a change in the default locale (I think
to a Unicode one!).  Worth a look.

Cheers

Adam