1- Install Midnight Commander.

This will also install a ncurses ipkg by default.

2- Configure the terminal.

Edit or create /etc/profile to set up your terminal settings. NOTE - the file does not exist by default.

3- Launch the Program (mc).

It should work via ssh or telnet from a linux machine or through PuTTY.

Note: If you get the following error...

4- Troubleshooting.

Some keyboard keys might not work initially. These can be retrained by using the Options->"Learn Keys" menu.
If your function keys are not working, either use the mouse to do this, or use <ESC><NUMBER> to emulate them. For example, to retrain the keys, press <ESC><9>, select "OPTIONS", and then "LEARN KEYS". -Wibble

1- Install Midnight Commander. This will also install by default a ncurses ipkg.

  ipkg install mc

Unslung5.5 Note:

If you have upgraded busybox, installing MC will fail due to Busybox 1.0 providing clear and reset, two commands also provided by ncurses (a dependency of mc). There is a workaround at Wget?.

2- Edit or create /etc/profile to set up your terminal settings. It does not exist by default.

  export TERMINFO=/opt/share/terminfo
  export TERM=xterm-pcolor

Explore the /opt/share/terminfo directory to try other terminal configurations.

Unslung6.8 Note:

The first export line should be /opt/lib/terminfo instead of /opt/share/terminfo.

If MC is unresponsive at startup and terminates with a memory exhausted message upon keypress, you may need to

  chmod 640 /etc/profile

3- Launch the Program (mc). It should work via ssh or telnet from a linux machine or through PuTTY.

... you should install e2fsprogs

  ipkg install e2fsprogs

Note: If you get the following error... "mc: error while loading shared libraries: libext2fs.so.2: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory" ... you should install e2fsprogs (ipkg install e2fsprogs). -- Joordi

--edit: The first export line should be /opt/lib/terminfo instead of /opt/share/terminfo in unslung6.8

4- Some keyboard keys might not work initially. These can be retrained by using the Options->"Learn Keys" menu.

If your function keys are not working, either use the mouse to do this, or use <ESC><NUMBER> to emulate them. For example, to retrain the keys, press <ESC><9>, select "OPTIONS", and then "LEARN KEYS". -Wibble

Midnight Commander (mc), is a two pane interactive filebrowser that can run in a text console. It is a clone of the honorable and venerable Norton Commander and includes a simple text editor and network connectivity.

Some users have reported difficulty with this approach, but it has been used successfully by pvh on both Unslung5.5 and Unslung6.8b.

Unslung5.5 Note- If you have upgraded busybox, installing MC will fail due to Busybox 1.0 providing clear and reset, two commands also provided by ncurses (a dependency of mc). There is a workaround at Wget?.

If mc is unresponsive at startup and terminates with a memory exhausted message upon keypress, you may need to

3- Launch the Program (mc). It should work via ssh or telnet from a linux machine or through PuTTY.

(Note: Procedures listed below tested Sept 4 2006. None presently working. Initial attempts to convert ARM .debs to .ipk unsuccessful -DMH)

(Note: As tested Sept 4 2006, this procedure results in failure, listing unmet dependancies in libglib, libslang2 and libgpmg1, which this user hasn't been able to resolve...yet... -DMH)

Midnight Commander

Mc, aka Midnight Commander, is a two pane interactive filebrowser that can run in a text console. It is a clone of the honorable and venerable Norton Commander and includes a simple text editor and network connectivity.

Installing MC

1- Install Midnight Commander which also installs ncurses

Note- If you have upgraded busybox, installing MC will fail due to Busybox 1.0 providing clear and reset, two commands also provided by ncurses (a dependency of mc). There is a workaround at Wget?.

2- Edit or create /etc/profile to set up your terminal settings. It does not exist by default.

You may need to

if nothing happens when you start mc until you press a key in desperation and get a memory exhausted message. (unslung 5.5 beta, with speed mod) -peterb

OpenSlug 2.x (tried it on 2.5)

Note- If you have upgraded busybox, installing MC will fail due to Busybox 1.0 providing clear and reset, two commands also provided by ncurses (a dependency of mc). There is a workaround at [Unslung/Wget].

2- Edit or create /etc/profile to set up your terminal settings. (It does not exist by default.)

Add these lines to the file:

To try other terminal configurations, explore the /opt/share/terminfo directory.

4- On my machine, some keyboard keys did not work. Fix them by going to the Command->Learn menu.

Some users may be able to use the mouse to do this, but if your function keys are not working, you can use <ESC><NUMBER> to emulate them. To retrain the keys, press <ESC><9>, select "OPTIONS", and then "LEARN KEYS". -Wibble

NOTES: These instructions were originally by sdm485, and have been updated by pvh.

To install Midnight Commander in OpenSlug 2.x (tried it on 2.5):

At the time of this writing, there is no mc package for openslug. We will install the unslung package instead by downloading the .ipk file directly, like this:

As an alternative to adding '/opt/bin:/opt/lib' to the PATH variable, you can just move the /opt/bin en /opt/lib directories created by the Unslung 'mc' package to another place and remove the '/opt' directory tree:

1. chmod 640 /etc/profile

or nothing happens until you press a key in desperation and then get a memory exhausted message. But it works like a dream over ssh once that is sorted! (unslung 5.5 beta, with speed mod)

You need to

1. chown 640 /etc/profile

or nothing happens until you press a key in desperation and then get a memory exhausted message. But it works like a dream over sshn once that is sorted!

peterb

For some reason only Func keys F1-F4 worked on my install. To start with the only way I could find to close MC was to close the telnet or SSH session!

(1) If the Func keys dont work, use <ESC> <x> instead. Eg <ESC><9> for F9, <ESC><0> for F10.

(2) Use F9 (or <ESC><9>) to select the top menu and select "OPTIONS" then "LEARN KEYS" to reassign any keys that dont work

-Wibble

-jake

An alternative way to install Midnight Commander in OpenSlug 2.x (tried it on 2.5):

If you don't need any other Unslung package, there is no need to add the Unslung feeds. You can just download the '.ipk' file and install it, like this:

  wget http://ipkg.nslu2-linux.org/feeds/unslung/cross/mc_4.1.35-2_armeb.ipk
  ipkg install mc_4.1.35-2_armeb.ipk
  (this assumes you already have ncurses installed)

As an alternative to adding '/opt/*' to the PATH variable, you can just move the /opt/bin en /opt/lib directories created by the Unslung 'mv' package to another place and remove the '/opt' directory tree:

  mv /opt/bin/* /usr/bin ; rmdir /opt/bin
  mv /opt/lib/* /usr/lib ; rmdir /opt/lib
  cd /
  rmdir /opt

-ronm

Better to use:

  export TERM=xterm-color

-jake

NOTES: V2.3R25-uNSLUng-standard-3.17-beta, The Midnight Commander 4.1.35

To get Midnight Commander working on OpenSlug version 2.0:

Add 'src http://ipkg.nslu2-linux.org/ipkg' to ipkg.conf in /etc

Do an 'ipkg update'

Do 'ipkg install mc' (also installs ncurses)

Edit /etc/profile by adding:

  export TERMINFO=/etc/terminfo   (note the different location)
  export TERM=xterm
  Also add '/opt/bin:' to the PATH statement that has other 'bin' locations
  Also add '/opt/sbin:' to the PATH statement that has other 'sbin' locations

This should do it but you will have to login again to make the exports available

NOTE: Using Unslung packages like this is tricky (and a dirty fix) because of the load locations (/opt directory) but it is a way to get things going until the packages are available configured for openslug. Of course this assumes a hard drive based '/'.

sdm485

The above did't work, so I stumbled on: Bug Tracker (ID 40) mc 4.1.35-1 will not start,

Hence in "TERMINFO=/opt/..." ... changed from "/share/" into "/lib/"

Works like a charm.

"SlugBug? (ID 40)"

NOTES: V2.3R25-uNSLUng-standard-3.17-beta, The Midnight Commander 4.1.35

sdm485 --- SlugBug? (ID 40) mc 4.1.35-1 will not start,

Notes Unslung 3.17, The Midnight Commander 4.1.35

NOTES: This was done from a laptop running Mandrake 10 using Rxvt as the terminal program. Rxvt reports itself as xterm. The nslu2 is running unslung3.16 and has dropbear and vsftpd installed (as well as mc and ncurses of course).

sdm485

(Comments are in parenthesis)

1- Install Midnight Commander (which also installs ncurses)

2- Edit or create /etc/profile (it did not exist on my installation)

3- Launch the Program (mc). It should work via ssh or telnet from a linux machine.

4- For color, set TERM=xtermc and adjust the arrow keys by using Command>Learn keys.

(I was able to use the mouse to do this)

5- To try other terminal configurations, explore the /opt/share/terminfo directory.

NOTES: This was done from a laptop running Mandrake 10 using Rxvt as the terminal program. Rxvt reports itself as xterm. The nslu2 is running unslung3.16 and has dropbear and vsftpd installed (as well as mc and ncurses of course).