it gave me the same output as you've got:

[emac:~] me% toe | grep "^vt100 "
vt100 dec vt100 (w/advanced video)
[emac:~] me%

(I assume the $ symbol is not to be entered? ...remember...unix newbie...learning fast:rolleyes: )

blubbernaut,

Could you try running in terminal.app:

% setenv TERM xterm

then close terminal.app and open it again.

Do you get the same message?

Immediately after entering that command, I get No entry for xterm. Then the same stuff when restarting terminal!

Sorry I currently don't have net access from home, so this isn't the exact wording. (OMG, I've turned into one of those people I hate, who ring me and say "it gave me an error" "what did it say" "I dunno, something about can't do something....umm....")

can you run the tack command?

% tack


something very squirrelly here. is there anything in any terminal pref that is questionable? have you toggled any of the prefs?

fs_usage
 

Hmm, since you don't seem to be able to track down what the problem is by the usual methods (looking at the contents of the various "dot" files, etc), maybe it is time to bring out the big guns.

The command 'fs_usage' shows you what files are being accessed and by what program.
To use it to diagnose your problem,
run the following command in one Terminal window:

sudo fs_usage > ~/my_output.txt

(call the output file anything you like)

and then open up a new Terminal window
and then go to the window where fs_usage is running and type control-C to stop it.
Examine the output file with your favourite editor and look for files refererenced by Terminal or any of the shells.

Well, this is what tack brought up:
Terminal reset (rs2)
init
Using terminfo from: /usr/local/share/terminfo/v/vt100

Name: vt100|vt100-am|dec vt100 (w/advanced video)
\r ^M (cr) = ^M
\n ^J (ind) = ^J
\b ^H (cub1) = ^H
\t ^I (ht) = ^I
(clear) = ^[[H^[[J$<50>
(home) = ^[[H
ENQ (u9) = *** missing ***
ACK (u8) = *** missing ***

Terminal size: 80 x 24. Baud rate: 9600. Frame size: 10.0

Main Menu
b) display basic information
m) change modes
t) tools
n) begin testing
l) start logging
q) quit
?) help

tack [n] >



I dunno what any of this means...its all Greek to me!

Also ran fs_usage, there were no references to Terminal in the output. I won't post the contents here as its very very long, but there didn't seem to be any errors or anything...not that I really know what I'm looking for. There was a reference to private/etc/csh.login that I will look at when I get home.

You wouldn't expect to see any errors in fs_usage output. What you are looking for is what files are read by Terminal when it opens a new window.
The file you mention would be /private/etc/csh.login which is the same as /etc/csh.login
You should definitely look to see what is in that file.

Just an update if anybody is still following this thread: as I am a newbie at unix stuff, and didn't have any special stuff installed in that area to lose, I decided to cut my losses and reinstall.

On a whim I just opened up the jag install cd and additional stuff and just double-clicked install BSD subsystem, which all went very smoothly...but unfortunately didn't fix the prob.
Then did archive and install of jag and reinstalled 10.2.6 combo (I'm still scared of .8!)....problem fixed, and it only took half an hour and a little bit of pissing around updating a few things like quicktime and stuffit that were downgraded with the archive and install.

thanks to all your help guys!