GNU Screen and 256 color terminal

Okay I've been racking my brain over trying to get 256 colors working while in screen.
If I run the 256colors2.pl script (found in xterm source) while in xterm / roxterm / xfce4-terminal it shows all colours as expected.
$ echo $TERM
xterm
Now I followed the wiki and added the "term screen-256color" line to my .screenrc
but if I run screen and run the 256colors script it doesn't show 256 colours (all messed up)
If I exit screen and manually set my $TERM
$ export TERM=xterm-256color
then run screen again, things seem to work properly.
But why?
I've read elsewhere on this forum that it's not good practice to force your $TERM so what should I do here?
What is the proper way? I just cant wrap my head around why 256 colors work when $TERM=xterm outside of screen, but not when in screen.
Last edited by Zer0 (2009-10-30 05:10:08)

I recommend just using TERM=xterm-256color, as TERM=xterm does not reflect the terminal's capabilities. Replacing the command for your current terminal emulator with something like:
xterm -tn xterm-256color
should be sufficient.
I now use rxvt-unicode-256color from [community], which uses a 256color terminfo by default. Why xterm and friends don't use this when it is supported, I don't understand.
Last edited by chpln (2009-10-30 06:32:44)

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#terminfo and termcap for nice 256 color terminal
# allow bold colors - necessary for some reason
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# tell screen how to set colors. AB = background, AF=foreground
termcapinfo xterm 'Co#256:AB=\E[48;5;%dm:AF=\E[38;5;%dm'
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vbell off
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backtick 1 60 60 /home/username/bin/get_uptime
backtick 2 60 60 /home/username/bin/get_freemem
backtick 3 60 60 /home/username/bin/get_freeswap
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here is my .Xdefaults
!XTerm*font: -*-terminal-*-*-*-*-14-*-*-*-*-*-*-
XTerm*font: xft:DejaVu Sans Mono:size=8
xterm*faceName: Mono
xterm*faceSize: 8
XTerm*background: #191919
XTerm*foreground: white
XTerm*pointerColor: white
XTerm*pointerColorBackground: black
XTerm*cursorColor: white
!XTerm*internalBorder: 3
XTerm*loginShell: true
XTerm*scrollBar: false
XTerm*scrollKey: true
XTerm*saveLines: 1000
XTerm*multiClickTime: 250
XTerm*boldColors: false
xterm*title: xterm
xterm*geometry: 160x25
! Black
XTerm*color0: #262626
XTerm*color8: #252525
! Red
XTerm*color1: #C12121
XTerm*color9: #E50E0E
! Green
XTerm*color2: #597b20
XTerm*color10: #89b83f
! Yellow
XTerm*color3: #Ded838
XTerm*color11: #efef60
! Blue
XTerm*color4: #265997
XTerm*color12: #3F6FD0
! Magenta
XTerm*color5: #706c9a
XTerm*color13: #826ab1
! Cyan
XTerm*color6: #69a2b0
XTerm*color14: #a1cdcd
! White
XTerm*color7: #BBBBBB
XTerm*color15: #EEEEEF
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URxvt*urlLauncher: /usr/bin/firefox
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URxvt*saveLines: 4000
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URxvt*scrollBar: false
URxvt*geometry: 150x25
URxvt.font: xft:DejaVu Sans Mono:size=8
URxvt.xftAntialias: true
URxvt*foreground: white
URxvt*pointerColor: white
URxvt*pointerColorBackground: black
URxvt*cursorColor: white
!URxvt*inheritPixmap: True
!URxvt*shading: 90
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URxvt*keysym.Home: \033[1~
URxvt*keysym.End: \033[4~
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URxvt*color8: #252525
! Red
URxvt*color1: #C12121
URxvt*color9: #E50E0E
! Green
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URxvt*color10: #89b83f
! Yellow
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URxvt*color11: #efef60
! Blue
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URxvt*color12: #3F6FD0
! Magenta
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URxvt*color13: #826ab1
! Cyan
URxvt*color6: #69a2b0
URxvt*color14: #a1cdcd
! White
URxvt*color7: #BBBBBB
URxvt*color15: #EEEEEF
To Fix In Xterm
-Get Vim to display 256 colors without Gnu Screen
To Fix In Urxvt
-Get vim to display any color, but preferably 256 colors in urxvt and urxvt with Gnu Screen. (and yes, it's a 256 capable urxvt)
-Get shells i SSH into to recognize the reported term variable
To Fix In Gnu Screen
-Make it stop reporting the term variable as screen-256color-bce without losing 256 color support as this screws up shells i ssh to.
any help would be greatly appreciated. I feel like a dog chasing its tail b/c when I find a fix to one problem, I end up creating 1-2 more.
Last edited by scv5 (2009-07-31 14:11:31)

I had similar but different issues regarding this. Now, i have 256 color support in whatever terminal/ssh/screen session I'm in.
The relevant config lines:
.Xdefaults:
XTerm*termName: xterm-256color
URxvt*termName: rxvt-256color
.vimrc
" 256 colors only if you can handle it
if $TERM =~ "-256color"
set t_Co=256
colorscheme zenburn
endif
.screenrc
# term
term xterm-256color
# main options
altscreen on
attrcolor b ".I"
defbce "on"
# some termcaps
termcapinfo xterm-256color 'Co#256:AB=\E[48;5;%dm:AF=\E[38;5;%dm'
termcapinfo rxvt-256color 'Co#256:AB=\E[48;5;%dm:AF=\E[38;5;%dm'
note: this setup caused an issue where background colors in mutt/htop inside screen did not extend passed the line's text. i had to solve that via this workaround.
Last edited by brisbin33 (2009-07-31 21:28:55)

Gnu Screen theme cycle with keybinding

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vbell off
#Backticks to display information in status bar
backtick 1 60 60 $HOME/bin/get_uptime
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backtick 4 60 60 $HOME/bin/get_gmail
backtick 5 60 60 $HOME/bin/get_sessionname
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# if this is the first time then set
# the index to 0
if [[ ! -e $INDEXFILE ]]
then
echo 0 > $INDEXFILE
fi
THEMENO=`cat $INDEXFILE`
THEMEMAX=5
if [[ $THEMENO -eq $THEMEMAX ]]
then
THEMENO=0
else
THEMENO=`expr $THEMENO + 1`
fi
echo $THEMENO > $INDEXFILE
THEMEFILE=$HOME/bin/themes/theme${THEMENO}
if [[ -e $THEMEFILE ]]
then
bash $THEMEFILE $STY
else
# reset the index back to zero if broken
echo 0 > $INDEXFILE
fi
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theme0 theme1 theme2 theme3 theme4 theme5 theme_index
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An example of theme0 ( remember when doing yours to escape your backticks, otherwise it'll break).
#!/bin/bash
# yellow
SESSION=$1
screen -S $SESSION -X caption always "%{= KW}%-w%{= yk}%n %t%{-}%+w %-="
screen -S $SESSION -X hardstatus alwayslastline "%{= kW} %-= %{= ky}Session: %u%{= kW}%5\` | %{= ky}Host:%{= kW} %H | %{= ky} MEM:%{= kW} %2\`MB |%{= ky} SW: %{= kW}%3\`MB | %{= ky}Unread: %{= kW}%4\` | %m/%d %c"
Here's how my screen started:
http://tuxtraining.com/images/screen1.png
After C-g
http://tuxtraining.com/images/screen2.png
After C-g again
http://tuxtraining.com/images/screen3.png
and so on.
Last edited by scv5 (2009-10-12 16:38:51)

thayer wrote:
steve___ wrote:
Lich wrote:... useless for most of us as we only use one screen session normally.
How do you know this?
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