The terminal on my Mac has no cursor and does not execute commands. The only thing that appears is "Last login: Date Time stamp on ttys001." Any ideas concerning how to resolve? It just does nothing.
Thanks in advance.
John
MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 10.15
Quit Terminal.
Open TextEdit with its Format menu set to plain text (no toolbar, etc.). Or use the free BBEdit text editor. Select Open… and from the File Chooser, press shift+cmd+. to view hidden dot files and open the .bash_profile file in your home folder. If that file does not exist, create it and enter the bare minimum:
export PATH="$HOME:/usr/local/bin:${PATH}"
export PS1="\h: \w $ "
Save this as a plain-text file (.bash_profile) in your home folder. Launch the Terminal application again, and if still no prompt, visit the Terminal Preferences > Profiles > Text panel. Set your font to SF Mono Regular 14 pt. Below, I am using an optionally installed Fira Code font.
Here is my Terminal setup. There is nothing on the Shell tab, and the Advanced tab has Declare terminal as: xterm-256color, and √ set locale environment variables on setup.
I don't know if this will cure your lack of Terminal text and prompt, but it is a start.
Quit Terminal.
Open TextEdit with its Format menu set to plain text (no toolbar, etc.). Or use the free BBEdit text editor. Select Open… and from the File Chooser, press shift+cmd+. to view hidden dot files and open the .bash_profile file in your home folder. If that file does not exist, create it and enter the bare minimum:
export PATH="$HOME:/usr/local/bin:${PATH}"
export PS1="\h: \w $ "
Save this as a plain-text file (.bash_profile) in your home folder. Launch the Terminal application again, and if still no prompt, visit the Terminal Preferences > Profiles > Text panel. Set your font to SF Mono Regular 14 pt. Below, I am using an optionally installed Fira Code font.
Here is my Terminal setup. There is nothing on the Shell tab, and the Advanced tab has Declare terminal as: xterm-256color, and √ set locale environment variables on setup.
I don't know if this will cure your lack of Terminal text and prompt, but it is a start.
Here is my default Terminal view when I first launch it. Notice the yellow cursor that I configured in Terminal > Preferences > Profiles for the specific profile I chose.
There is a Terminal User Guide available.
You don't clarify what "does not run commands" involves, or which commands. If you have switched from Bash to Zsh shell, and have not configured your ~/.zshrc dot file, then Zsh is not getting any dot file data and your PATH is not getting set. That would interfere with seeing normal UNIX system commands, or any package manager added commands.
If Terminal is still executing the previous command and is not done yet, it may have no cursor.
If you launch a new terminal window and you click in the Terminal window and still have no cursor, something is DEEPLY wrong with your Mac.
Terminal requires very little graphical support, and should always work.
JohnColtrane22 wrote:
Looks like it's time for a new Non-Apple PC.
John
Or it could be time to run an etrecheck report (https://etrecheck.com) and post it here so others can evaluate what is going on. My 2011 MBP still runs strong, albeit slower than my newer 2019 model. I cringe at the thought of paying real money for a Windows slab that does not have long-term hardware support and that is designed to be useless in 2 years.
But if Windows kernel crashes every 3 hours for indeterminable reasons is your choice, go for it.
"Does not run commands" - is defined by the inability to enter any text in terminal due to the fact there is no cusor and no commands I enter are executed. I believe there is some basic configuration file that is missing. Bash.rc? Unfortunately, everything that I can find references editing or creating the Bash.rc file is by using the Terminal, which in my case does not work. Maybe the question is how do I create/edit the Bash configuration file without using Terminal?
John.
Looks like it's time for a new Non-Apple PC.
John
Viking:
Thanks for the response, my issue is now resolved. Using your instructions, I was able to locate and edit my Bash profile. The terminal now works correctly.
John
Good. And you are welcome.
Terminal Not Executing commands
