IDE terminal doesn't handle interactive commands

[apmcpherson]

Commands that need a yes/no response do not respond correctly on the IDE terminal. For example:

i2cdetect -r 1

This will abort for not receiving an expect Y/n response.

[giuliomoro]

This happens "by design". The "terminal" in the IDE is not actually a terminal and the commands are running non-interactively, which is why commands that are interactive or require a terminal misbehave.

For instance, vim or less would not work properly because they require stdin and stdout to be terminals.

In your case you can probably fix that with

yes | i2cdetect -r 1

or this may also work

printf "y\n" | i2cdetect -r 1

This probably requires a slightly more detailed entry in the wiki

[apmcpherson]

We don't need any particularly fancy terminal emulation (e.g. to run the likes of emacs), but basic capability to use interactive commands would be useful for a variety of common scenarios.

For the moment, more details on the wiki would be a good idea. Long term, a different solution that enables interactive commands would be nice, but it isn't high priority since someone can always open an actual terminal if they need to.

[LBDonovan]

I wouldn't say this happens by design, really it happens because pty.js which is a node.js pseudo-terminal module that would allow the terminal emulator to work properly does not compile on the BeagleBone. The current system runs bash as a child-process without a pseudo-terminal which is a bit of a hack.

I haven't really had a chance to look into why it doesn't build, so it's possible this can be fixed.

[giuliomoro]

@LBDonovan is this the error you are getting?

$  npm install --verbose --save pty.js

npm info it worked if it ends with ok
npm verb cli [ '/usr/local/bin/node',
npm verb cli   '/usr/local/bin/npm',
npm verb cli   'install',
npm verb cli   '--verbose',
npm verb cli   '--save',
npm verb cli   'pty.js' ]
npm info using [email protected]
npm info using [email protected]
npm WARN package.json [email protected] No repository field.
npm WARN package.json [email protected] No README data
npm WARN package.json [email protected] No repository field.
npm WARN package.json [email protected] No repository field.
npm WARN package.json [email protected] No repository field.
npm WARN package.json [email protected] No repository field.
npm WARN package.json [email protected] No repository field.
npm WARN package.json [email protected] No repository field.
npm WARN package.json [email protected] string_decoder is also the name of a node core module.
npm verb cache add spec pty.js
npm verb addNamed pty.js@*
npm verb addNameRange registry:https://registry.npmjs.org/pty.js not in flight; fetching
npm verb request uri https://registry.npmjs.org/pty.js
npm verb request no auth needed
npm info attempt registry request try #1 at 10:14:20 GMT+0000 (UTC)
npm verb request id 2d3087a6a6179528
npm http request GET https://registry.npmjs.org/pty.js
npm info retry will retry, error on last attempt: Error: write EPROTO 3069472768:error:1006706B:elliptic curve routines:ec_GFp_simple_oct2point:point is not on curve:../deps/openssl/openssl/crypto/ec/ecp_oct.c:417:
npm info retry 3069472768:error:1408D132:SSL routines:ssl3_get_key_exchange:bad ecpoint:../deps/openssl/openssl/ssl/s3_clnt.c:1869:
npm info retry
npm info attempt registry request try #2 at 10:14:35 GMT+0000 (UTC)
npm http request GET https://registry.npmjs.org/pty.js
npm info retry will retry, error on last attempt: Error: write EPROTO 3069472768:error:1006706B:elliptic curve routines:ec_GFp_simple_oct2point:point is not on curve:../deps/openssl/openssl/crypto/ec/ecp_oct.c:417:
npm info retry 3069472768:error:1408D132:SSL routines:ssl3_get_key_exchange:bad ecpoint:../deps/openssl/openssl/ssl/s3_clnt.c:1869:
npm info retry
npm info attempt registry request try #3 at 10:15:36 GMT+0000 (UTC)
npm http request GET https://registry.npmjs.org/pty.js
npm verb stack Error: write EPROTO 3069472768:error:1006706B:elliptic curve routines:ec_GFp_simple_oct2point:point is not on curve:../deps/openssl/openssl/crypto/ec/ecp_oct.c:417:
npm verb stack 3069472768:error:1408D132:SSL routines:ssl3_get_key_exchange:bad ecpoint:../deps/openssl/openssl/ssl/s3_clnt.c:1869:
npm verb stack
npm verb stack     at exports._errnoException (util.js:949:11)
npm verb stack     at WriteWrap.afterWrite (net.js:793:14)
npm verb cwd /root/Bela/IDE
npm ERR! Linux 3.8.13xenomai-bone41
npm ERR! argv "/usr/local/bin/node" "/usr/local/bin/npm" "install" "--verbose" "--save" "pty.js"
npm ERR! node v6.1.0
npm ERR! npm  v2.7.4
npm ERR! code EPROTO
npm ERR! errno EPROTO
npm ERR! syscall write

npm ERR! write EPROTO 3069472768:error:1006706B:elliptic curve routines:ec_GFp_simple_oct2point:point is not on curve:../deps/openssl/openssl/crypto/ec/ecp_oct.c:417:
npm ERR! 3069472768:error:1408D132:SSL routines:ssl3_get_key_exchange:bad ecpoint:../deps/openssl/openssl/ssl/s3_clnt.c:1869:
npm ERR!
npm ERR!
npm ERR! If you need help, you may report this error at:
npm ERR!     <https://github.com/npm/npm/issues>
npm verb exit [ 1, true ]

npm ERR! Please include the following file with any support request:
npm ERR!     /root/Bela/IDE/npm-debug.log

[LBDonovan]

That looks a little different actually, it seems there have been quite a few commits to the pty.js repo since I last tried to do this so I might give it another go...

[giuliomoro]

Could it not als obe to the fact that the board has an old version of npm ?

[giuliomoro]

also, funny enough, if you run this on the console:

rm -rf /root/Bela/projects/tar/bela.tar && tar cvzf /root/bela.tar /root/Bela/* && mkdir -p /root/Bela/projects/tar && mv /root/bela.tar /root/Bela/projects/tar

Once it's done,

• the prompt at the console displays the wrong folder
• the console actually has cd'd to /root (regardless of where it was before)

[giuliomoro]

Codiad ("a minimal-footprint IDE") has an extension for terminal http://market.codiad.com/. I pin this here, though most likely we want to try to compile pty.js on 4.4.x FTW

[giuliomoro]

https://xtermjs.org/

[giuliomoro]

yes this works on the host:

git clone https://github.com/xtermjs/xterm.js
cd xterm.js
npm install
npm run watch  # Run this in its own terminal: builds the bundle and monitor file changes
npm start  # Run this in its own terminal, starts the server

[jarmitage]

Related issue: #503

[giuliomoro]

It seems that xterm.js would probably be the way to go. It seems to be doing very well, actively supported and used by VSCode among many others.

[giuliomoro]

so I tried xterm.js . It stil uses pty, which now builds. See here for a PoC https://github.com/giuliomoro/Bela/tree/xterm , but it requires a fair amount of extra work to:

• make it coexists with the Bela console
• fix css and appearance
• expose options
• understand what the js code does ... currently I just got whatever came bundled in xterm.js/demo/ and repurposed its transpiled js files, instead of using the typescript.

Here's the stub. https://github.com/giuliomoro/Bela/tree/xterm
preview:

@lewiswolf