source: other-projects/trunk/gs3-release-maker/tasks/sshtaskdef/src/mindbright/FAQ@ 14627

MindTerm FAQ
------------
Q1) I can't get the tunnels to work in the applet, what's wrong?
A1) Only if you are running a signed applet, or otherwise have disabled the
security restrictions the browser/appletviewer puts on applets can you use
tunnels.

Q2) 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).
A2) Only if you are running a signed applet, or otherwise have disabled the
security restrictions the browser/appletviewer puts on applets can you connect
to arbirtrary hosts from it.

Q3) I can't run the applet in Netscape on my Macintosh, what's wrong?
A3) The Netscape on Macintosh does not contain a complete java 1.1.x runtime,
you will have to use the MRJ runtime (found here: http://www.apple.com/java/)
and use it as a plugin (see README).  Or you can use Internet Explorer for the
Macintosh.

Q4) I just get "Applet mindbright.application.MindTerm class
mindbright.application.MindTerm could not be loaded", what am I doing wrong?
A4) This can depend on many things, for example:
    o 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)
    o See "A3"
    o You have installed a html-page containing an APPLET tag referring a
      jar-file that does not exist (tag: "<applet archive="mindtermfull.jar"
      ..." should thus have a file mindtermfull.jar in the doc-root of the
      web-server)
    o There is some class missing in the jar-file that have been accidentally
      removed, check the java-console in the browser to see which class it tries
      to load. If it says it can't load a class that is apparently allready in
      the jar-file, try enabling more output in the java-console of the browser
      to see if it gives more hints.
    o You are running the signed binary which is specifically compiled for
      Netscape browsers

Q5) When I start the applet in Netscape under Linux the terminal-window get's
displaced off the screen so I can't see the window-title.
A5) This seems to be a bug in the Netscape java-runtime in Linux. Workaround:
don't enable "Window position" in dialog "Terminal Settings" in menu Settings,
also don't give a window-position in the 'gm' parameter either.

Q6) I would like the tunnels I define to be used when reconnecting to the same
ssh-server again.
A6) This is done automatically by default. If you disable "Auto Save Settings"
and/or "Auto Load Settings", you must save and/or load settings manually though.

Q7) When I load the signed applet it can still not connect to any host and I'm
not able to use tunnels in it.
A7) When a signed applet is loaded 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. Workaround:
close the browser and restart it.

Q8) I can't get the ftp-tunneling to work, what's wrong?
A8) Have you created the tunnel with an ftp-plugin? In the "Basic Tunnels
Setup", select protocol "ftp" when creating it, the tunnel should show up in the
text-area with the label "Current local tunnels" and should have the string
"(plugin: ftp)" in the end of the description-string in this text-area. Other
things to check for is of course that the given server really has a ftpd
running.

Q9) I am trying to use a ftp-client through a ftp-tunnel with "ftp PORT
commands" enabled but it does not seem to work.
A9) First of all, proxying ftp PORT-commands is not recomended, 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.

Q10) After I have disconnected from the ssh-server and reconnect the last
session seems not to have closed properly, i.e. a file seems locked or some
such.
A10) The preferred way to disconnect from the ssh-server is to simply logout
from the shell or exit the application running as a single-command, otherwise
the ssh-server might keep the session open causing this behaviour. The logout
procedure can not be done automatically by MindTerm since the way to do it
varies between situations/platforms.
     
Q11) What does the "Send keep-alive" option do? Are ssh-connections timed-out?
A11) It just sends a message (which is ignored by the ssh-server) on the given
interval (in seconds).  This will keep the connection alive both if there is an
idle-timeout set on the ssh-server and if "something" inbetween the client and
the server is timing out (such as a address-translating firewall).

Q12) I'm trying to tunnel X-connections but it does not seem to work, what's
wrong?
A12) By default X-tunneling is turned off in MindTerm (unlike e.g. the
"standard" unix-ssh-client).  Enable it in the "SSH Settings" dialog, also
assure 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 as MindTerm is running on).

Q13) Why is there a "Basic.." and an "Advanced..." tunnels dialog? And what are
remote tunnels anyway?
A13) Normally one would only want to set up simple local tunnels, such as to use
imap, smtp etc. on the ssh-server or another server behind it. An advanced user
though might need to set up tunnels going back to the machine running MindTerm,
those are referred to as remote tunnels.

Q14) I created my RSA-identity but I still can't log in to the ssh-server with
it, it says "Server refused our key", why would he want to do that?
A14) Did you 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).

Q15) I don't seem to get a menu-bar in the applet eventhough I wanted to, what's
wrong?
A15) When running inside the browser-window (i.e. 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.

Q16) The terminal seems to have quirks, such as giving reverse video, strange
looking output or wrong settings in general, what's causing this?
A16) There could be a mismatch between the terminal setting in the shell on the
server and in MindTerm, the ssh-server should e.g. 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 really
set to the same as the "Terminal type" in the "Terminal Settings" dialog in
MindTerm. Another possibility is of course that MindTerm has a bug, in which
case I would be glad if you gave an as detailed 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 with different terminal modes to
see what happens.

Q17) Backspace/Delete does not seem to work, what's wrong?
A17) 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)

Q18) I get strange terminal behaviour with a ssh-server running Digital Unix,
what's wrong? (e.g. scrolling does not seem to work within VI)
A18) There seems to be something wrong with using terminal mode vt100 on Digital
Unix, if possible use another terminal mode. Also see Q17.

Q19) When MindTerm is started in Netscape on Linux the window resizes and then
it seems to hang?
A19) It has not hung, it just lost keyboard focus, there seems to be something
strange with the focus-handling here, click terminal to get focus back.

Q20) When adding tunnels, what's the deal, it functions the same whether I'm
connected or not?
A20) When not connected, adding a tunnel just adds it to the current
settings. If you add it while connected it is also opened and fully operational
as soon as you have added it.

Q21) I have a tunnel configured, it shows up in Basic/Advanced tunnel-dialogs
but the current connections dialog is empty, where did it go?
A21) The current connections dialog just shows open connections through the
tunnels, not the tunnels themselves.

Q22) The clipboard does not seem to work, I can only copy/paste within
MindTerm, what's wrong?
A22) There are two explanations here:
     o When running as an unsigned applet MindTerm do not have access
       to the system-clipboard but instead uses its own "local"
       clipboard instead
     o The java runtime does not support copy/paste to/from the system-
       clipboard. This is the case in Netscape on Linux for example.

Q23) I configure a tunnel when running MindTerm in Netscape, the tunnel is added
without errors yet it is not there, why is this?
A23) There seems to be a bug in the java-runtime in Netscape that makes the
socket call successful eventhough it should have thrown an exception.

Q24) 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, huh?
A24) With some java-runtimes there is a thread-scheduling lag that starves the
updating thread while sending lot's of text to the terminal having the
effect that the window don't get updated until all of the text is sent to
the terminal. The whole 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.

Q25) When I do "select all" MindTerm hangs, what sort of a feature is that!?
A25) It does not hang, it just takes a very long time, be patient. Actually what
really takes time is to copy the selected area, if you disable the "VT Option"
"Copy On Select" it is much quicker.

Q26) I try to run a single command but MindTerm just exits, why?
A26) When running a single command with MindTerm (as with the unix ssh-client),
you have to allocate a PTY if you are going 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 as: '<param name=forcpty value="true">'. Note, when running a
single command Mindterm will typically exit immediately if the command is not
found.

Q27) I try to run MindTerm as an applet in Opera, is Opera not supported?
A27) I have now tried Opera version 3.61 (on win32) with Sun java-plugin v1.1.3
(go to http://www.opera.com/support/instplug.htm#java to get it) and it can run
MindTerm without problems. This is only tested with win32 (Linux version of
Opera does not support plugins yet). (NOTE: with Opera you don't need to use a
plugin-specific html-page it uses the normal APPLET tags for launching the
plugin).

Q28) I don't see a -C flag equivalent for doing compression, is it not
supported?
A28) The java.util.zip package contains the code to do this, however the right
(native) interface is not exposed so it can't be used with ssh right now (hence
it is not supported in MindTerm). Doing it in pure java is too painful IMHO. A
feature-request (id: 4255743) is submitted to Javasoft so maybe in the (far?)
future this can be implemented.

Q29) When I use MindTerm in Netscape on Linux with black background the popup-menu
can't be used since it's black-on-black, how can I fix this?
A29) There is a bug in Netscape on Linux making the popup inherit the black
background from the main-window while keeping the text black . I don't know how
to fix this.

    Workaround (from D Roland Walker <[email protected]>):
netscape -xrm "netscape*drawingArea*canvas.canvas.XmMenuShell*XmRowColumn*foreground:lightgray"
    OR
Make it permanent by adding the following to your ~/.Xdefaults file:
netscape*drawingArea*canvas.canvas.XmMenuShell*XmRowColumn*foreground:lightgray"
Note that you may have to substitute "netscape" with one of the following:
    Netscape
    netscape-communicator
    netscape-navigator

Q30) 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
A30) Ok, this seems to be a bug (I can't think of anything else) in the jview of
certain versions. Try upgrading to a newever jview (found at
http://www.microsoft.com/java/)

Q31) I'm trying to transfer to/from a (local) file which have spaces in it's
name with the SCP File Transfer but it fails!
A31) README 4.1.9: ...if a name contains a space enclose it in quotes like: "a
file with spaces"...

Q32) 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.
A32) This was due to a bug in the Microsoft JVM (jview), it was fixed in
MindTerm v1.2pre1 and later. It occurred in version "4.0 Release 4.79.0.2424" of
jview.

Q33) On linux when using ibm-jdk1.1.8 or jdk117v3 I can't get a tilde on swedish
(international) keyboard!
A33) This seems to be a bug in the keyhandling code of these jdk's

Q34) I get an error when connecting saying "Address already in use", why's that?

A34) This occurs because the same tunnels Due to how sockets behave it might be needed to exit the JVM to
release sockets properly.