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Heinrich_Wutz

Member

Registered: 2016-12-08

Posts: 12

How to enable scrolling in xterm?!

I can't scroll and I don't have the dimmest idea how to enable it.

Here's my .Xresources:

xterm*faceName: Hack
xterm*faceSize: 10

xterm*loginshell: true
xterm*saveLines: 4096

!double-click to select whole URLs
xterm*charClass: 33:48,36-47:48,58-59:48,61:48,63-64:48,95:48,126:48

!DOS-box colours
xterm*foreground: rgb:a8/a8/a8
xterm*background: rgb:00/00/00
xterm*color0: rgb:00/00/00
xterm*color1: rgb:a8/00/00
xterm*color2: rgb:00/a8/00
xterm*color3: rgb:a8/54/00
xterm*color4: rgb:00/00/a8
xterm*color5: rgb:a8/00/a8
xterm*color6: rgb:00/a8/a8
xterm*color7: rgb:a8/a8/a8
xterm*color8: rgb:54/54/54
xterm*color9: rgb:fc/54/54
xterm*color10: rgb:54/fc/54
xterm*color11: rgb:fc/fc/54
xterm*color12: rgb:54/54/fc
xterm*color13: rgb:fc/54/fc
xterm*color14: rgb:54/fc/fc
xterm*color15: rgb:fc/fc/fc

!right hand side scrollbar
xterm*ScrollBar: true
xterm*rightScrollBar: true

!stop output to terminal from jumping down to bottom of scroll again
xterm*scrollTtyOutput: false
xterm*metaSendsEscape: true

I don't understand what I did  wrong but the scrollbar is simply missing and I cannot scroll at all.

Would appreciate any help!

Last edited by Heinrich_Wutz (2017-01-23 11:10:46)

Mr.Elendig

#archlinux@freenode channel op

From: The intertubes

Registered: 2004-11-07

Posts: 4,092

Re: How to enable scrolling in xterm?!

shift-pgup/down does nothing?

---

Evil #archlinux@libera.chat channel op and general support dude.
. files on github, Screenshots, Random pics and the rest

Heinrich_Wutz

Member

Registered: 2016-12-08

Posts: 12

Re: How to enable scrolling in xterm?!

shift-pgup/down does nothing?

Absolutely nothing.

Starfish

Member

From: Germany

Registered: 2015-10-21

Posts: 134

Re: How to enable scrolling in xterm?!

I can offer a solution, but embedded in a larger framework and assuming you
(a) have never heard of terminal multiplexers
(b) are interested in using one:

Suppose that scrolling is not the only thing you want to do. You also want to have "tabs" or "windows" in xterm, between which you can switch using shortcuts, where you can scroll within each of them and copy/paste between them. In that case, you should use a terminal mutliplexer, such as tmux, which does all of it for you.

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"Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why it is called the present." - Master Oogway

Heinrich_Wutz

Member

Registered: 2016-12-08

Posts: 12

Re: How to enable scrolling in xterm?!

I can offer a solution, but embedded in a larger framework and assuming you
(a) have never heard of terminal multiplexers
(b) are interested in using one:

Suppose that scrolling is not the only thing you want to do. You also want to have "tabs" or "windows" in xterm, between which you can switch using shortcuts, where you can scroll within each of them and copy/paste between them. In that case, you should use a terminal mutliplexer, such as tmux, which does all of it for you.

Well thank you for the offer but the thing is that I'm an accomplished minimalist (I prefer to combine little things and make them do more complex jobs but no more than that) so due to very well known reasons I'm not in favour of large "I can do everything" sort of frameworks.
It seems like I misconfigured something somewhere and this something is looking right in my eyes but I don't see it...the .Xresources seems to be alright so it must be something else but I...am just out of ideas...

Trilby

Inspector Parrot

Registered: 2011-11-29

Posts: 29,523

Website

Re: How to enable scrolling in xterm?!

xterm*ScrollBar: true

ScrollBar != scrollBar

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"UNIX is simple and coherent..." - Dennis Ritchie, "GNU's Not UNIX" -  Richard Stallman

Heinrich_Wutz

Member

Registered: 2016-12-08

Posts: 12

Re: How to enable scrolling in xterm?!

xterm*ScrollBar: true

ScrollBar != scrollBar

True! Fixed the typo but to no effect whatsoever.
And yes, for updates to take effect, I issue

$ xrdb -merge .Xresources

Last edited by Heinrich_Wutz (2017-01-23 14:43:24)

JohnBobSmith

Member

From: Canada

Registered: 2014-11-29

Posts: 804

Re: How to enable scrolling in xterm?!

Huh, using xterm and the following minimal .Xresources worked flawlessly for me to get a righthand scroll bar:

[jbs@dmb-gaming-laptop ~]$ cat .Xresources 
xterm*scrollBar: true
xterm*rightScrollBar: true
[jbs@dmb-gaming-laptop ~]$ 

I even used your xrdb command to make it work, so that wasn't the issue. My xterm package info, in case a different version has bugs or something:

[jbs@dmb-gaming-laptop ~]$ pacman -Qi xterm | grep -A3 Name
Name            : xterm
Version         : 327-1
Description     : X Terminal Emulator
Architecture    : x86_64
[jbs@dmb-gaming-laptop ~]$ 

I suspect you have conflicting options. This is my first time *ever* doing this, so I don't know what to look for. But check this out, it's very helpful! Use ctrl + f to navigate better. http://www.linuxcommand.org/man_pages/xterm1.html

In short: I'm not quite sure why this hasn't worked for you . Perhaps you could try a minimal scroll bar to rule out conflicting options? Just backup your existing .Xresources first.

---

I am diagnosed with bipolar disorder. As it turns out, what I thought was my greatest weakness is now my greatest strength.

Everyday, I make a conscious choice to overcome my challenges and my problems. It's not easy, but its better than the alternative...

Trilby

Inspector Parrot

Registered: 2011-11-29

Posts: 29,523

Website

Re: How to enable scrolling in xterm?!

Can we get a better description of the symptoms?  You are actually using xterm, not some other emulator, right?  Does a scroll bar show up at all?  If so, is it disabled, or is there just nothing to scroll back to?

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"UNIX is simple and coherent..." - Dennis Ritchie, "GNU's Not UNIX" -  Richard Stallman

Mr.Elendig

#archlinux@freenode channel op

From: The intertubes

Registered: 2004-11-07

Posts: 4,092

Re: How to enable scrolling in xterm?!

also `printenv SHELL`

---

Evil #archlinux@libera.chat channel op and general support dude.
. files on github, Screenshots, Random pics and the rest

TrevorBramble

Member

From: Seattle, WA, USA

Registered: 2009-11-12

Posts: 21

Website

Re: How to enable scrolling in xterm?!

And yes, for updates to take effect, I issue

$ xrdb -merge .Xresources

Forgive me, but are you opening a new terminal after applying your changes? The current terminal will not be reconfigured.

Heinrich_Wutz

Member

Registered: 2016-12-08

Posts: 12

Re: How to enable scrolling in xterm?!

Guys, thank you for your attempts to help me, but I'm extremely sorry for misinforming you...in fact scrolling does work what I can't do is scroll with Shift+up/down...

seth

Member

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 51,056

Re: How to enable scrolling in xterm?!

The shortcut is SHIFT+PgUp/PgDwn ... (Bild Auf/Ab)

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How to upload text · How to boot w/o GUI · Disable Windows Fast-Start! · Fix your xinitrc

Texbrew

Member

From: The Lone Star State

Registered: 2016-02-09

Posts: 580

Re: How to enable scrolling in xterm?!

The shortcut is SHIFT+PgUp/PgDwn ... (Bild Auf/Ab)

I learn something new every day, hanging around the Arch forums. This shortcut works in xfce terminal, too. Very handy shortcut. Thanks, seth.