I am running SSH in Terminal window and my function keys don't work.

Question

Level 1

8 points

I am running SSH in Terminal window and my function keys don't work.

Hi all,

The company I am working in is using mainly Windows and they are running a database on Putty.exe

I managed to set up the SSH in Terminal on Mac OSX and I can see the database well and fine. Certain "commands" within the database are executed by numbers 1, 2, 3 etc while other "commands" are executed by function keys F1, F2 - F16 etc. However, when I press the F1 - F12 keys on my keyboard, they don't work as expected.

If any one has any expert advice, I would greatly appreciate it, thanks!

MacBook Air, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.4)

Posted on Sep 3, 2013 1:47 AM

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Answer 1

bluepaua

Level 2

197 points

Sep 3, 2013 3:56 AM in response to Shiqin

FInd out from your database administrator what terminal type the database application supports. Examples of terminal types are vt100 and ansi. Now go back to the Mac's Terminal Preferences and set the terminal to the matching type.

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Answer 2

Sep 3, 2013 1:56 AM in response to Shiqin

Do you have System Preferences>Keyboard setup to use the F keys as standard Function keys?

Clinton

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Answer 3

Shiqin Author

Level 1

8 points

Sep 3, 2013 2:06 AM in response to clintonfrombirmingham

Hi Clinton,

Yes I've already enabled the F keys as standard function keys.

In the Terminal window when I am running the SSH/database thingum, when I press F1, the alphabet "P" appears instead. When I press F2, the alphabet "Q" appears instead. Just to illustrate what I mean.

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Answer 4

Barney-15E

Level 10

123,026 points

Sep 3, 2013 4:18 AM in response to Shiqin

Another thing to look at is the Keyboard pane in Terminal Preferences. You will need to find out what escape sequence their program is expecting for the function keys and set those in the keyboard pane.

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