Hi all I have been trying to use the terminal to add a user to my new Librem 14.
Every time I put a comand in ( in this case sudo adduser followed by the name I want this user to have) and push enter the screen of ther terminal gets bigger!
In fact all I have to do is push the enter and it does this and only this as it does not follow any sudo camand rather just gets bigger and bigger until it is 4x the size of the screen.
I’m guessing that this is somthing I’ve done wrong as I’m new to Linux.
Does anybody here have any advice you can give me that will help me out all should I ask at customer suport?
So that is gonna sound a bit harsh, but it is well intended.
What did you do?
Everbody could just guess about what happend here, but it would be much easier if you tell what you did and then there will be an answer how to fix this.
And please don’t say you didn’t do anything, because these things do not just happen on its own.
I also use a terminal. Since it is designed to emulate old HP terminals, there is no end to wierd things that can happen if I use the escape key or a control. Carriage Return is always followed by DC1 also.
Did you change your terminal’s “Zoom In” sequence from Ctrl-+ to Return ??? If your terminal is GNOME Terminal, look under the menu “Edit” --> “Preferences” --> “Shortcuts” and look for “Zoom In”. It should read “Ctrl++”. I just changed mine from “Ctrl++” to “Return” (by going to the field and hitting ‘enter’) and it changes the behavior to exactly what you described. [Aside: One can use a gsettings command to similarly set that preference. I hope you didn’t paste in some gsettings command off the internet that someone might have included as a joke.]
In addition to what Privacy2/Redrumsir recommends, you might want to use the xinput and xev commands to check that your touchpad/mouse/keyboard isn’t sending strange input. I had this happen once with a defective keyboard, so worth checking if this is a new machine. See: https://askubuntu.com/questions/789829/find-details-of-click-and-keyboard-events
Hi all I first want to say thank you all for your replies and sorry it’s taken me time to get back.
The only thing this has been on line for is updates as I won’t use it until I can get it to have a user account.
Was I playing around with it?
Well I did look at the accessiblity stuff as I found the writting small on the terminal at first,
I tried out the zoom but did’nt like it and only changed the cursor size.
I’ve checked the short cuts (wich I have’nt used yet ) and found that the “zoom in” is Alt+Super+=.
I have also been in the pull out menu on the terminal it self but have put it all back to as it was.
While playing around I did put the terminal in to full screen and found that esc did not bring me back so at that point I might of tried variations with the ctrl key but I would not of tried return then.
(yep I found double click the mouse worked)
The return key does work in office which I thought was a safe place to try it out but in terminal it just makes it bigger.
My test comand is sudo clear as I feel it’s safe.
I tried both xinput and xev with sudo and with out but it’s the same.
I don’t have to type anything in and just push the return for the terminal to go bigger.
Is there “RESET” or FACTORY DEFAULT" I could try?
Once again thank you all for your help I will come back on tomorrow.
I think you would have to know which terminal emulator is in use here. xterm? gnome-terminal? kgx?
Also, uninstalling the terminal is risky if there is only one available.
Likewise, reset to factory default is going to depend on which terminal emulator is in use.
Just a guess but this sounds like the problem. Maybe there is some weird accessibility option for the vision and dexterity impaired i.e. easy zoom.
(There is a risk that this option is implemented outside of the terminal emulator. Do you get the same problem in other applications where you can type stuff?)
So, at this stage, do you have any means of entering shell commands at all?
One option could be to ssh in from another computer but that is only going to work if you have already taken the steps to enable it.
Ironically, one of the ways of “resetting” the config is to create a new user, at least as far as any config that is per-user goes.
If the user cannot use the Enter key in the terminal then apt will not be usable for deinstalling and reinstalling software. It would have to be GUI or nothing. This may or may not actually be the case since the user has not clarified whether a workaround is available for the non-functioning of the Enter key.
The TTY suggestion was made in response to the desire to “reset.” I’d thought that the zoom thing was looked at in the terminal preferences versus gnome’s, but maybe not.
You probably accidentally changed the “Zoom” control sequence for GNOME Terminal.
I’m presuming you are using GNOME Terminal. If so, the “zoom” increases the font size and makes the terminal bigger. To fix this:
Open GNOME Terminal.
Navigate the menu: “Edit” --> “Preferences” --> “Shortcuts” and look for “Zoom In”.
a. If that entry says “Ctrl++” then it is the default and that isn’t the problem.
b. If that entry says “Return” then you have accidentally changed the setting and every time you hit the “Enter” key when in the terminal, it will change the size. To fix this, click on the entry (not just the row, but the field where it says “Return”; you may have to click that field twice) and while holding down the “Ctrl” key, type the “+” key (on your keyboard it might require you to use the Shift key since “+” if usually a shift).
