"Dialog frontend will not work on a dumb terminal"

[Scott (angrykeyboarder)]

Derek Broughton spake thusly:
> Scott (angrykeyboarder) wrote:
> 
>> Derek Broughton spake thusly on 235326680 ::
>>> Frank McCormick wrote:
>>>
>>>> On Wed, 11 Jul 2007 18:46:49 -0700
>>>> "Scott (angrykeyboarder)" <geekboy at angrykeyboarder.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> I'm not sure when I first started seeing this response in Synaptic's
>>>>> terminal window, but I think it was in edgy. I'm running Feisty now.
>>>>> It's not always been this way.
>>>>>
>>>>> Dialog frontend will not work on a dumb terminal - falling back to
>>>>> readline"
>>>>    I started seeing this in Debian Sid on my machine about a week
>>>> ago...right after a Synaptic upgrade.
>>>> But it doesn't seem to affect installing or removing packages.
>>> It's just the way that the underlying software (debconf?) tries to talk
>>> to the interactive user.
>> The default setting is Dialog and when Dialog encounters the "dumb
>> terminal" in Synaptic (which didn't used to be the case) if falls back
>> to readline.
> 
> I thought that's what I said...
>>> There's no real need to be sending that message
>> Yes there is, because you're being told that your not going to get
>> Dialog (which in my case I'd been expecting).
>>
> No, there isn't.  It's not _necessary_, because it still works.

Yes you get the same information, but in a different (and IMO less user
friendly) format. Therefore I don't consider that "working" as expected.

If popped into a terminal and did a "sudo dpkg-reconfigure debconf" and
voluntarily switched to Readline, that would be a whole other story.
In that case Readline was what I wanted and would be what I got. The
"warning" I mentioned wouldn't appear. In other words, expected behavior
- it's working as it should.


>I didn't say it should be removed, just that it isn't actually _needed_.

A lot of things in this world aren't /needed/ but having them makes life
easier (or at least more convenient). :)

No Dialog vs. Readline isn't like horse drawn carriages vs. automobiles,
but you get the drift (I think..). ;)


> 
> Over 10 years of watching various apt front-ends update my Debian-based
> systems, I've seen those messages come & go.  Next update it may decide you
> can get a full Dialog front-end.

Good. Then the bug will have been fixed. ;)
> 
>> Precisely. But this is new behavior and it's annoying. :)
> 
> It's not new, it's probably regressed. 

As NBC used to say in promos for summer reruns: "If you haven't seen it
before, it's new to you..".



-- 
            Scott
http://angrykeyboarder.com
©2007 angrykeyboarder™ & Elmer Fudd. All Wites Wesewved


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