First time I have experienced this. My terminal no longer accepting input. The program I am using is mobaxterm. I know my program is not frozen because I have several other servers open that I am working on. I know my server did not freeze because I have the server open in another tab. The only input it seems to be accepting is ctrl + c. Unfortunately ctrl + c does not do anything but put it on the screen and send me to the next line. Anything else I type does nothing. Any idea why this is happening? How do you fix this?
Could you have accidently entered CTRL-S (x-off) thereby suspending traffic?
If so, try entering CTRL-Q (x-on) to see if that enables terminal traffic.
Such commands are interpreted by the host as wanting to suspend/resume terminal traffic so restarting the terminal will not reset the suspension. You need to reboot the host or send a CTRL-Q from the terminal.
If that doesn't work we'll think again.
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No.
I am using an old school sunos if that makes a difference.
I was using nslookup. This is what my manpage says. Doesn't things in brackets mean optional?
NAME
nslookup - query Internet name servers interactively
SYNOPSIS
nslookup [-option] [name | -] [server]
DESCRIPTION
nslookup is a program to query Internet domain name servers. nslookup
has two modes: interactive and non-interactive. Interactive mode allows
the user to query name servers for information about various hosts and
domains or to print a list of hosts in a domain. Non-interactive mode
prints just the name and requested information for a host or domain.
ARGUMENTS
Interactive mode is entered in the following cases:
a. when no arguments are given (the default name server is used);
b. when the first argument is a hyphen (-) and the second argument is
the host name or Internet address of a name server.
Non-interactive mode is used when the name or Internet address of the
host to be looked up is given as the first argument. The optional sec-
ond argument specifies the host name or address of a name server.
Options can also be specified on the command line if they precede the
arguments and are prefixed with a hyphen. For example, to change the
default query type to host information, with an initial timeout of 10
seconds, type:
nslookup -query=hinfo -timeout=10
The -version option causes nslookup to print the version number and im-
mediately exit.
I thought things in brackets was optional? So I did not provide it a server. It seemed to freeze so I pressed ctrl + c. Then nothing seemed to work. It also left a caret > on the screen. The colon is part of my terminal :. It does not bother me so I have not changed it.
: nslookup
>
: ^C
: ^C
Some googling gave me the idea to type reset. Not sure why that helps. Had to type that a few times for it to work.
:
-bash: kijsal: command not found
-bash: kmreset: command not found
:
:
I also googled ctrl + q after you mentioned it above. I found this.
https://web.cecs.pdx.edu/~rootd/catdoc/guide/TheGuide_38.html
This seemed to help. Not sure why ctrl + \ is better than ctrl + c.
<kbd>ctrl-\</kbd>
same as ctrl-c but stronger (used when terminal doesn't respond)
This was the output after I typed ctrl + \.
: nslookup
> Quit (core dumped)
Quickly leave the interactive nslookup ( : prompt) with ^D (Ctrl-d, produces an EOF).
Also the exit command should work.
A not understood entry causes a host lookup.
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I just tried mobaxterm with interactive nslookup (like you did) to a Linux host.
And it worked just fine - names and IPs are "mocked-up":
$ nslookup
> myhostName
Server: 1.1.2.3
Address: 1.1.2.3#53
Name: myhostName.domain.com
Address: 1.1.1.4
> exit
$
I'd say something wrong with your mobaxterm setup when talking to your Solaris box.
Either
do stty sane in your mobaxterm emulation window and "see what happens"
OR
try the same with another term emulator to your Solaris box - say putty.
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Have you considered trying a different terminal program?
For example, tools like screen or tmux aren’t traditional terminal emulators but allow you to open multiple shells within a single session. They’re also useful for reconnecting to sessions if you get disconnected.
screen is often more compatible with older Unix systems like SunOS than tmux and is generally easier to find and install.
Sometimes, switching to a different program can help if the one you’re using is having issues, as there are many reliable options out there.
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Sorry do not understand this part.
If you enter quit, nslookup does not understand it, so does a DNS lookup for the hostname quit
Do stty sane and reset do the same thing? It returned to normal after I typed reset a few times.
I actually have both screen and tmux. screen is a really useful program :). If you are already running a program that is taking forever is there a way to start screen. I have done that a few times recently. Started a program that is taking forever then wish I would have started screen.
Oh did not realize that :). Why does ctrl + c not work either?
Ctrl-C sends a SIGINT to the current process. Default action is: terminate.
But your nslookup has got extra code to ignore the SIGINT. For whatever (bad) reason.
Another signal is SIGSTP. Send by
Ctrl-Z
The program stops, and the console prompt should re-appear. Then you can continue the stopped process with command
bg (in the background) or
fg (in the foreground)
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I can only suggest comparing man reset to man stty for the "sane" setting:
The snippet for the former:
When invoked as reset, tset sets cooked and echo modes, turns off cbreak and raw modes, turns on
newline translation and resets any unset special characters to their default values before doing the
terminal initialization described above. This is useful after a program dies leaving a terminal in
an abnormal state. Note, you may have to type
<LF>reset<LF>
....
....
and for the latter:
sane same as cread -ignbrk brkint -inlcr -igncr icrnl -iutf8 -ixoff -iuclc -ixany imaxbel opost
-olcuc -ocrnl onlcr -onocr -onlret -ofill -ofdel nl0 cr0 tab0 bs0 vt0 ff0 isig icanon iexten
echo echoe echok -echonl -noflsh -xcase -tostop -echoprt echoctl echoke, all special charac-
ters to their default values