BUG #5807: psql fails to launch with "Cannot read termcap database; using dumb terminal settings. Aborted"

On Wed, Dec 29, 2010 at 7:09 PM, Gabe Nell <gabe@kikini.com> wrote:

Launching psql fails:

ubuntu@host:~$ /opt/PostgreSQL/9.0/bin/psql -Upostgres
Password for user postgres:
psql (9.0.2)
Type "help" for help.

Cannot read termcap database;
using dumb terminal settings.
Aborted
ubuntu@host:~$

The above works fine with 9.0.1, suggesting this is a new issue in 9.0.2. I
tried both 32bit and 64bit, same problem. Interestingly, the problem doesn't
repro under byobu (Ubuntu's enhanced 'screen' utility).

There was a change in 9.0.2 to use libedit instead of readline for
this (readline is GPL, which is not acceptable to some people who wish
to use Postgres in other products). One of my colleagues has tested
the issue reported and confirmed that installing the OS's termcap
package should solve the problem.

--
Dave Page
Blog: http://pgsnake.blogspot.com
Twitter: @pgsnake

EnterpriseDB UK: http://www.enterprisedb.com
The Enterprise PostgreSQL Company

There was a change in 9.0.2 to use libedit instead of readline for
this (readline is GPL, which is not acceptable to some people who wish
to use Postgres in other products). One of my colleagues has tested
the issue reported and confirmed that installing the OS's termcap
package should solve the problem.

Ubuntu doesn't seem to use termcap, an apt-cache search for termcap
turns up nothing relevant. I did some searching and the closest
suggestion I could find was to install libncurses5-dev, but this
didn't help. Can you suggest that the appropriate package to install
on Ubuntu?

Thanks!

On Thu, Jan 6, 2011 at 8:54 PM, Gabe Nell <gabe@kikini.com> wrote:

There was a change in 9.0.2 to use libedit instead of readline for
this (readline is GPL, which is not acceptable to some people who wish
to use Postgres in other products). One of my colleagues has tested
the issue reported and confirmed that installing the OS's termcap
package should solve the problem.

Ubuntu doesn't seem to use termcap, an apt-cache search for termcap
turns up nothing relevant. I did some searching and the closest
suggestion I could find was to install libncurses5-dev, but this
didn't help. Can you suggest that the appropriate package to install
on Ubuntu?

Hmm, good question. Let me ask my colleague and get back to you.

--
Dave Page
Blog: http://pgsnake.blogspot.com
Twitter: @pgsnake

EnterpriseDB UK: http://www.enterprisedb.com
The Enterprise PostgreSQL Company

If you install libtermcap then it will start working good. We have
tested it at our end.

On Fri, Jan 7, 2011 at 2:24 AM, Gabe Nell <gabe@kikini.com> wrote:

There was a change in 9.0.2 to use libedit instead of readline for
this (readline is GPL, which is not acceptable to some people who wish
to use Postgres in other products). One of my colleagues has tested
the issue reported and confirmed that installing the OS's termcap
package should solve the problem.

Ubuntu doesn't seem to use termcap, an apt-cache search for termcap
turns up nothing relevant. I did some searching and the closest
suggestion I could find was to install libncurses5-dev, but this
didn't help. Can you suggest that the appropriate package to install
on Ubuntu?

Thanks!

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Dharmendra Goyal
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If you install libtermcap then it will start working good. We have
tested it at our end.

Thanks Dharmendra, however in Ubuntu there is no package called
libtermcap, though it has been suggested that the libncurses5-dev
package provides this [1]http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1329390. However I tried this and I still get the
same error. Do you know the exact Ubuntu package that I need to
install?

Thanks!

Gabe

[1]: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1329390

On Fri, Jan 7, 2011 at 5:52 AM, Gabe Nell <gabe@kikini.com> wrote:

If you install libtermcap then it will start working good. We have
tested it at our end.

Thanks Dharmendra, however in Ubuntu there is no package called
libtermcap, though it has been suggested that the libncurses5-dev
package provides this [1]. However I tried this and I still get the
same error. Do you know the exact Ubuntu package that I need to
install?

Apparently my colleague downloaded and installed a tarball of GNU
termcap 1.3.1.

I'm still not clear how this passed our internal testing though; I'm
guessing the QA test VMs do have some package on them which includes
termcap. Continuing the investigation...

--
Dave Page
Blog: http://pgsnake.blogspot.com
Twitter: @pgsnake

EnterpriseDB UK: http://www.enterprisedb.com
The Enterprise PostgreSQL Company

On Jan 7, 1:32 pm, dp...@pgadmin.org (Dave Page) wrote:

On Fri, Jan 7, 2011 at 5:52 AM, Gabe Nell <g...@kikini.com> wrote:

If you install libtermcap then it will start working good. We have
tested it at our end.

Thanks Dharmendra, however in Ubuntu there is no package called
libtermcap, though it has been suggested that the libncurses5-dev
package provides this [1]. However I tried this and I still get the
same error. Do you know the exact Ubuntu package that I need to
install?

Apparently my colleague downloaded and installed a tarball of GNU
termcap 1.3.1.

I'm still not clear how this passed our internal testing though; I'm
guessing the QA test VMs do have some package on them which includes
termcap. Continuing the investigation...

--
Dave Page
Blog:http://pgsnake.blogspot.com
Twitter: @pgsnake

EnterpriseDB UK:http://www.enterprisedb.com
The Enterprise PostgreSQL Company

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Hi all. I have the same problem today was to install and create db in
PSQL program in PostgreSQL 9.0.2 (Ubuntu 10.10 (32bit)). I solved it
by using this command: LD_PRELOAD = /lib/libreadline.so.5 ./psql <and
then your data>

On Jan 7, 6:35 pm, Sergey White <airsun.wh...@gmail.com> wrote:

On Jan 7, 1:32 pm, dp...@pgadmin.org (Dave Page) wrote:

On Fri, Jan 7, 2011 at 5:52 AM, Gabe Nell <g...@kikini.com> wrote:

If you install libtermcap then it will start working good. We have
tested it at our end.

Thanks Dharmendra, however in Ubuntu there is no package called
libtermcap, though it has been suggested that the libncurses5-dev
package provides this [1]. However I tried this and I still get the
same error. Do you know the exact Ubuntu package that I need to
install?

Apparently my colleague downloaded and installed a tarball of GNU
termcap 1.3.1.

I'm still not clear how this passed our internal testing though; I'm
guessing the QA test VMs do have some package on them which includes
termcap. Continuing the investigation...

--
Dave Page
Blog:http://pgsnake.blogspot.com
Twitter: @pgsnake

EnterpriseDB UK:http://www.enterprisedb.com
The Enterprise PostgreSQL Company

--
Sent via pgsql-bugs mailing list (pgsql-b...@postgresql.org)
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Hi all. I have the same problem today was to install and create db in
PSQL program in PostgreSQL 9.0.2 (Ubuntu 10.10 (32bit)). I solved it
by using this command: LD_PRELOAD = /lib/libreadline.so.5 ./psql <and
then your data>

I am still getting this problem.

I do a fresh install of the latest debian. I do the fresh install of
9.0.2 from the binary installer.

Everything works prefectly, except for not being able to run psql....

postgres@debian:~$ /opt/PostgreSQL/9.0/bin/psql
Password:
psql (9.0.2)
Type "help" for help.

Cannot read termcap database;
using dumb terminal settings.
Aborted

Anyone fiqured out how to fix this yet?? I think I may need to resort
to compiling from source otherwise??

Just checking back to see if there have been any updates on this.

Thanks!

Gabe

Apparently my colleague downloaded and installed a tarball of GNU

Hi,

the problem still exists in the 9.0.3 package provided by EnterpriseDB:

psql (9.0.3)
Type "help" for help.

Cannot read termcap database;
using dumb terminal settings.
Aborted

I've done some analysis:
- libtermcap is provided in the 9.0.3 package
- What is missing is the "termcap database"

I worked around the problem by copying the /etc/termcap file from a
RedHat system.
There should be a better way.

Regards,
Martin

On Debian Lenny, I downloaded termcap source from
http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/termcap/ and installed it. Then the error is gone.

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Hi, try with this:

as superuser type: #infocmp -C > /etc/termcap

it worked for my

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Hi,

It worked for me: "infocmp -C > /etc/termcap"

Thank you so much!

- Hari

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