General FIX "Error opening terminal: xterm-256color" for Terminal Commands (e.g., "top") iOS7

[thelatinist]

As many of you may know, the CLI tool "top" is a very useful tool that lists open processes in order of the resources they are using. The tool is available from Saurik's Cydia/Telesphoreo repo and has long been a staple in troubleshooting battery and memory issues on jail broken phones.

But if you've tried to run "top" in iOS 7, you have probably seen an error like this:

Error opening terminal: xterm-256color

After much frustration, I found a simple solution to this problem in reddit, and thought I'd put it here for anyone else who's got the same problem.

The issue is caused by the fact that iOS 7 has moved the terminal profiles. A simple symbolic link fixes the problem.

1. Login as root either through SSH or in MobileTerminal.

2. At the prompt, enter the following commands:

ln -s x /usr/share/terminfo/78
export TERM=xterm-color

The first command creates a symbolic link between /usr/share/terminfo/78, where "top" expects to find the xterm terminal profiles, and their actual location at /usr/share/terminfo/x. The second command changes your terminal setting from xterm-256color to xterm-color for better compatibility.

That's it. You can now run "top."

 

[dasx]

Thanks! Will come in handy when I decide to install MobileTerminal. I've been waiting for it to get "officially" updated to iOS7...

 

[thelatinist]

Thanks! Will come in handy when I decide to install MobileTerminal. I've been waiting for it to get "officially" updated to iOS7...

Why? It works fine on iOS 7. It's not a very active project, and in my experience they are unlikely to release an update unless something is broken.

 

[vasili0s]

awesome, now i can finally run screen and irssi

 

[thelatinist]

awesome, now i can finally run screen and irssi

Glad it was helpful. There are a number of Unix tools which have this issue, and and it had been driving me nuts.

 

[dasx]

Why? It works fine on iOS 7. It's not a very active project, and in my experience they are unlikely to release an update unless something is broken.

I don't know... I backed off because it says through Compatible with iOS 3.2+ to 6.
Where do I get top btw?

EDIT: If it was fully compatible I guess they would've added iOS7, wouldn't they?

 

[Magnus.LPA]

Thank you.

I created an account just to thank you man.

Thanks for finding this solution and more importantly, thanks for sharing it! That was driving me nuuuuuuuts!

Great job

 

[thelatinist]

I don't know... I backed off because it says through Compatible with iOS 3.2+ to 6.
Where do I get top btw?

EDIT: If it was fully compatible I guess they would've added iOS7, wouldn't they?

As I said, it's not a particularly active project. The same version has been working for years, and only one point version update has been made in the past three years. I wouldn't expect them to update the package unless there is something broken. And BigBoss probably won't do it on his own, either.

Don't get me wrong: you're welcome to wait if it makes you more comfortable. But don't be surprised if iOS 8 comes out and they still haven't updated that message.

And "top" is in the default repo (Cydia/Telesphoreo). You can just search. If it doesn't show up, then I imagine you have selected "User" instead of "Hacker" (or "Developer") in Cydia's settings. That setting hides command line tools. You can change it under Manage > Settings in Cydia.

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I created an account just to thank you man.

Thanks for finding this solution and more importantly, thanks for sharing it! That was driving me nuuuuuuuts!

Great job

You're very welcome.

 

[dasx]

As I said, it's not a particularly active project. The same version has been working for years, and only one point version update has been made in the past three years. I wouldn't expect them to update the package unless there is something broken. And BigBoss probably won't do it on his own, either.

Don't get me wrong: you're welcome to wait if it makes you more comfortable. But don't be surprised if iOS 8 comes out and they still haven't updated that message.

And "top" is in the default repo (Cydia/Telesphoreo). You can just search. If it doesn't show up, then I imagine you have selected "User" instead of "Hacker" (or "Developer") in Cydia's settings. That setting hides command line tools. You can change it under Manage > Settings in Cydia.

Thanks man!

 

[thelatinist]

I created an account just to thank you man.

Thanks for finding this solution and more importantly, thanks for sharing it! That was driving me nuuuuuuuts!

Great job

Glad it helped. It was driving me nuts, too.