[SID - Unstable] [solved] Putty does not accept input from pgup and pgdn since the upgrade to 0.81-3

[jim_p]

Hello everyone. It has been 3 weeks since I first noticed the following issue and I would like to ask if anyone else has noticed it too.

After putty's upgrade to 0.81-3, I noticed that pgup and pgdn have stopped working in my ssh session. Then I noticed that all the set of the six buttons (pgup, pgdn, home, end, ins and del) does not work at all. I use it with its stock settings (I have only changed the font to hack 10) and I only connect to a few vm and a system running libreelec. Connecting from my regular terminals (urxvt and alacritty) on the same systems does not reproduce the issue, and downgrading to 0.81-2 makes putty work properly again.

I have already seen the bug reports, but all of them are very old, so I decided to ask here first. Does it happen on your end too?

[Uptorn]

I had no idea that program had a Linux port

Description: Telnet/SSH client for X
This is the Unix port of the popular Windows SSH client, PuTTY. It supports
flexible terminal setup, mid-session reconfiguration using Ctrl-rightclick,
multiple X11 authentication protocols, and various other interesting things
not provided by ssh in an xterm.
.
Pageant is an SSH authentication agent, and a tool for communicating with
an already-running agent.

[wizard10000]

I'd suggest filing a bug report so we can ensure things are working properly for the next stable release.

[jim_p]

@Uptorn
I first discovered putty on linux and later on windows.

@wizard10000
My main mail, with which I started reporting bugs in 2016, is banned from the bts. Why? Because, after hearing a lot of excuses, I sweared at a bug report of mine which almost destroyed my hardware. This was the end of me reporting bugs and it almost became the end of me and debian after 15 years of happy life with it. I had also filed a request to delete my account from the forum here, but it was not accepted as it seems.
Today I am still on debian and I use my second email to comment on open bugs that also annoy me, e.g. the one about the VERY broken lxpanel since it was built with gtk3.

So no, I will not file a bug report for putty. I opened a thread here to ask if someone else has noticed it, but it seems it is not that popular anyway.

---edit
Popcon says that 3000+ users have it installed, so I guess most of them are not on testing or unstable.

[Aki]

Hello,

I'm not a putty user, because there are so many alternatives I prefer. So it's a first time for me.

I installed putty in a updated Debian Testing (with xfce and xwindow):

Code: Select all

$ apt list putty
putty/testing,now 0.81-3 amd64 [installed]

It works fine.

If I press page-up and page-down in combination with shift or ctrl it scrolls the terminal page up or down.

Also cursor keys works as expected.

So, I cannot replicate what you reported.

I'm purging it from my Debian Testing.

[jim_p]

@Aki
Finally someone that did test it. I am also interested to know what you use as an alternative, provided it has sessions.
The keyboard shortcuts of shift/ctrl+pgup/pgdn works on (long) termnal output (like the one of dmesg) because it is a function of the terminal or the shell itself I think.
In a putty session, can you please open a document (I do it with nano) with multiple lines and move up/down with pgup/pgdn? Or delete a character with del? Or move to the start or end of the line with home and end? This is how I first discovered the issue.

[bw123]

I use putty often on stable, so thanks for the heads up. I'll keep an eye out and report bug if/when it applies.

Lately it seems real debian users are few and far between, thanks for your perseverance jim_p!

L8r,
bw

[jim_p]

@bw123
Well, if it reaches stable, it will be for debian 13 and that will not happen until after mid 2025. If someone files a bug report then, I think it will be useless. On top of that, putty is not one of those apps that gets backported updates for stable. Right now, the version in stable is 3 major releases behind the one in testing/unstable, so the issue is impossible to appear on stable too.

[jim_p]

Should I ask on linuxquestions too? Are debian testing and unstable users more active there?
Also, a new bug report was opened yesterday (1087798) but it seems unrelated to the issue here.

[arzgi]

I also installed putty to stable bookworm, also for me pgup and pgn worked though did not try over ssh, as my ssh-server is set to accept only ssh-keys, and had no idea how use with putty. Never tried putty before.

As others have already pointed, there are many alternatives, I would guess userbase for programs ported from windows versions is not very large among linux users.

[wizard10000]

Should I ask on linuxquestions too? Are debian testing and unstable users more active there?
Also, a new bug report was opened yesterday (1087798) but it seems unrelated to the issue here.

I'm running Unstable, can duplicate your issue and have submitted a bug report.

https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugrepo ... ug=1087844

[jim_p]

@wizard10000
Thank you very much! I will keep an eye on it and I will add some extra info when I have time.

@all
Please do not reply if you are not on testing/unstable and v0.81-3. I have opened my thread on the right subforum, I have put the exact version on the title and now I also added the sid tag next to it. Replying with "does not happen on 0.78 or on stable" is pointless, because that version is 3 major (and 3 minor) updates behind the one that has the issue!

If anyone does want to help by confirming it, the simplest way by far is to write a random string on the prompt and try to move to its start or end with home and end, or delete a character with del. If those things do not work, then it is the same issue, no need to do something more.
I believe this is a lot simpler than opening a file (with any text editor, not just nano) and trying to navigate around with page up and page down.

[Aki]

Hello,

It seems that there is some progress being made:

• Debian Bug report logs - #1087844 putty: 'small keypad' keys including PgUp/PgDn do nothing since 0.81-3 - Message #46

[jim_p]

I saw and received the update to 0.82-2 and I can verify that it works like it used to.
Many thanks to everyone who helped with verifying it etc.

p.s. I do not know how to mark the thread as solved .

[arzgi]

Just edit the header of your first post in the thread.

[wizard10000]

Just edit the header of your first post in the thread.

I took care of it for OP - thanks.

[Aki]

@Best_Threads: this thread could be interesting from the point of view of interaction with Debian project with proper use of the Debian bug tracking system.