Incorrect characters in console when pressing keys(up,down,left,right)

February 2, 2014 9.3k views
temur.fatkulin
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temur.fatkulin
Incorrect characters, when pressing keys(up,down,left,right) on the console Sample: From the root with keyup root@pc~# previous command From user with keyup $ ^[[A From user with keys(up,down,left,right) $ ^[[A^[[B^[[D^[[C How to fix this? VPS - Ubintu 12.04 server.
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6 Answers
groot July 8, 2017

Since no one answered with the solution here it is:
Apparently when you create new user using useradd and you don't pass -s /bin/bash new user has some weird shell...
So to fix it just run: chsh -s /bin/bash username (change shell command).
If you can't type while in "weird shell" run bash first.

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  • vladisgrig November 29, 2017

    Could you please tell how to run bash if I can't type anything without "^[" symbols?

    • groot November 29, 2017

      First type:
      bash
      And you will get bash shell.
      After type:
      chsh -s /bin/bash username
      Just replace word username with your username.

giancarlosoverini February 2, 2014
I can't type the "@" sign in console and de facto I can't login and I can't do anything.
Copy and paste is disabled or doesn't work, too.

I just signed up and pointed my domain to DigitalOcean but the start is a nightmare till now with that big issue.

I have the same VPS - Ubuntu 12.04.
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giancarlosoverini February 2, 2014
Solved by switching my keyboard to the American one.
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chrischapmanpw February 2, 2014
Yes this is a problem, download a SSH client like PuTTY for Windows or iTerm for Mac.
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maga-napanga February 18, 2014
Hello!

I have (almost) the same issue, but switching keyboard didn't seem to help me. I'm using a spanish keyboard in any case, and the same problem happens when connecting through SSH from Linux or from Mac.

The particular problem seems only with non-root users in Ubuntu 12.04.3 x64. We have another couple of droplets using Fedora, and this problem doesn't occur.

In Ubuntu, root console is just fine, but non-root user's console seems misconfigured or something:

- Up/Down/Left/Right keys just print out: ^[[A^[[B^[[D^[[C
- There seems to be no command history (or maybe it's because pressing Up key just doesn't seem to work)
- Console prefix should look like: [@ ]$, but it only shows a "$" sign. It shows no username, no path, nothing.
- TAB to complete commands/paths/file names, doesn't work either.
- Aliases like ll (for ls -l) are not configured by default.

Do yo have any ideas of what the problem could be?
I created the users using: useradd -m -c "User Name" someuser

Thank you very much in advance!
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michaelfaleti March 21, 2019

when I press < (<) >(>) appears. Even when I paste "< " it changes to ">". What's the problem and how to fix?

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