Can't write in Terminal

Question

Can't write in Terminal

Hi. I'm trying to use the advice from http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=7361896&#7361896 but whenever I'm in the Terminal I can't write anything!

Can someone just write out how to get into the Terminal and whatnot? I might be doing it all wrong.

Thank you!

Macbook, Mac OS X (10.5.3)

Posted on Jun 13, 2008 10:13 AM

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Answer 1

floba

Level 3

696 points

Jun 13, 2008 10:33 AM in response to Anthony Casareale

I'm not quite sure if I understand you right. Do you mean whenever you open up a Terminal you just can't type anything at the command prompt? So, you press the keys but nothing happens? Please be a little more precise.

floba

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Answer 2

Jun 13, 2008 10:55 AM in response to Anthony Casareale

Usually, the Terminal Application will open a terminal window and what you are seeing is a Unix command line interface.

If no window opens, select File, New Shell. You will get a Unix shell window and a command line prompt.

-fred

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Answer 3

Jun 13, 2008 11:15 AM in response to Anthony Casareale

sorry to followup to my own post...

It might be easier if you describe in detail what you are doing. The instructions on the post to which you refer assume some familiarity with command line use.

-fred

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Answer 4

Jun 13, 2008 7:27 PM in response to Anthony Casareale

OK Here are the specifics: I opened the Terminal application and I entered the code. It then asked me for my password, but when I try to enter it, nothing happens - no letters show up.

I can type in the code originally, but just not the password.

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Answer 5

BobHarris

Level 9

56,933 points

Jun 13, 2008 9:06 PM in response to Anthony Casareale

Or to be more specific, when prompted for a password often the program doing the prompting will NOT ECHO what you type. This is so that no one can see your password.

This is a long standing tradition in the command line world going back 40 or more years.

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Answer 6

orangekay

Level 5

4,085 points

Jun 13, 2008 10:33 AM in response to Anthony Casareale

You launch the application and when the shell prompt appears you may begin typing.

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Answer 7

orangekay

Level 5

4,085 points

Jun 13, 2008 7:34 PM in response to Anthony Casareale

That's a security feature.

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Answer 8

Jun 14, 2008 7:04 AM in response to Anthony Casareale

Computers are very funny! Yesterday if I did press 'return' after invisibly typing my password it would give me an error, but today it works! shrug
Thanks for the info!

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