In terminal, I cannot type the letter (lower case) "e"

does it work in any application?

Try safe mode if your Mac doesn't finish starting up - Apple Support

is it an apple keyboard or 3rd party?

Have you tried another keyboard?

Please back up all data.

Select

Shell ▹ New Command

from the Terminal menu bar. Uncheck the box marked

Run command inside a shell

if checked.

Copy and paste the following line into the text box that opens, then press return:

mkdir disabled_shell_files

Close the Terminal window that opens. Repeat with this line:

mv .profile .bash_history .bash_profile .bashrc .inputrc disabled_shell_files

Your old shell initialization and history files will be saved in a directory named "disabled_shell_files" at the top level of your home directory. It's normal that some of these files will not exist, and therefore you will get some "no such file" errors.

Close the window, open a new one, and test.

You may already know that files with a name beginning in "." are not visible in the Finder by default. So if you open the folder you just created in the Finder, it will appear to be empty, even though it isn't. If you need to recover some of the data in the shell files, use a shell-based text editor such as nano(1). Make sure you're not recreating the problem. Otherwise, you can delete the folder.

Hello Indygreg,

Since you can't type or paste an 'e' in the Terminal, you can't use the Terminal to fix this problem.

There are two approaches to try:

1) You can create a new administrator account on your machine and see if Terminal is working properly there. If it is, then you can use that Terminal to "su" into your original account and compare the various init scripts and environment settings to locate the problem.

2) Another option is to use System Preferences > Users & Groups > (your account) > command or right click > Advanced options and change your shell from whatever it currently is (probably bash) to something else (I suggest zsh). Then, you should be able to use the Terminal. You can manually run bash and compare init scripts and environment settings with those of zsh.

Since the problem is 'e', I'm guessing the cause is some funky bash escape sequence that doesn't work on the ancient OS X bash version or was just mistyped. So look for your PS variables first.

You can, of course, use Terminal to solve the problem, as I wrote earlier.

Linc Davis wrote:

You can, of course, use Terminal to solve the problem, as I wrote earlier.

Indygreg disagrees:

Indygreg wrote:

The fact that a pasted string of text that has an e in it - and that the e fails in the post - this really eliminates the keyboard in my mind. Does that make sense?

like right now I copy this

sense

and when I paste it in terminal, it shows as sns and you can hear 2 beeps. Maddening really.

Therefore, neither the .profile nor the .bash_profile files could be moved as you instructed.

In case you're confused by the noise in this thread, the problem is caused by a shell configuration file, most likely .inputrc. I gave you a procedure to move aside those files using the Terminal application (which is working normally), but not using the shell (which is not working.) All you need, in order to understand how that procedure works, is enough reading comprehension to understand the phrase "Run command inside a shell." Of course, not everyone has that much reading comprehension, but you do.

Really? The fact you can type an "e"? So no chance you could have possibly posted from something other than that computer that can also type an "e"?

.

Sorry Linc, I normally ignore your boilerplate because I don't like to read the insults you typically scatter throughout. The truth is, you don't know what causing the problem. I agree that it is most likely a configuration file issue, but there could be other causes as well. And by the same token, there could be other solutions. I happen to think my solutions are better and cover more potential causes.

This one is weird.

I don't think this is a bash config problem, but that should be easy to test - just start a different shell, by typing, e.g.

tcsh

at the prompt. If the letter "e" starts to work then it would confirm to be related to bash.

But I don't think it will, because it is happening while you type, and before bash gets it.

I believe it is something with the Terminal application itself.

Whenever you visit ASC, think of it like this: