getting vi and rxvt to work in cygwin

Question

I am trying to use rxvt on my cygwin w win XP but the terminal appears and disappears. What could be wrong? This is true for all except rxvt-native . I have tried a few commands found online but with no success. I include 2 I have tried:

start C:\cygwin\bin\rxvt.exe -sb -sl 3000 -fg gray -bg black -fn "Lucida Console-14" -e /bin/bash --login -i

.

path C:\cygwin\bin;%path%
ssh-agent rxvt -e bash --login -i

Another problem I am facing is trying to get vi to work in my cygwin bash shell. Setting term to xterm or vt100 does not work. Hitting enter, I see a string 78 or some other issue pops up. I have never modified my .inputrc.

My main issue was trying to get vi to work properly. I just found out that if I run /etc/postinstall/terminfo.sh.done , I can now navigate properly in vi. The 78 (newline) M still appears but at least I can navigate in vi.

Answer 1

Can't answer the first question, but have you tried invoking rxvt from its shortcut in the Cygwin folder of the start menu?

Regarding the second question, the TERM variable tells applications what terminal they're running in, so if you set it to 'xterm' while running in the Cygwin console (where normally TERM=cygwin), they'll be sending xterm control sequences that the Cygwin console doesn't understand. So basically: don't do that!

Btw, you might also be interested in Cygwin's mintty package, which is another terminal that doesn't need an X server. Installing it also creates a start menu shortcut in the Cygwin folder.

Answer 2

I would assume you need an X server running. You could install Cygwin/X