Please help! can't type in terminal

[nepenthe]

I can't type in the terminal. Every time I open it, it starts showing processes and that's all it does. If I try to type my computer makes an error sound. I think the only thing I can do is send a break and then it says "logout [process completed]". I noticed that the first thing it writes when it's opened is "/usr/bin/top; exit" whereas I think this used to be "/usr/bin/login".
Does anyone know how I can solve this problem so that I can use my terminal again?
I'm using Mac OS X 10.2.8

[yellow]

Did you or someone else enter somthing in your .login or .tcshrc that would cause top to run automatically? When you say break, you mean ^C, right?
I would look at ~/.login and ~/.tcshrc first. Try downloading iTerm (http://iterm.sourceforge.net/) in the meantime.

[huskerchad]

Look at Terminal->Preferences. "When creating a new Terminal window:"

The first radio button should be the one selected. It sounds like maybe you have the second one selected. Also make sure "Open a saved .term file" unchecked.

[nepenthe]

I made sure that the first radio button is selected and that "Open a saved .term file" is unchecked but I don't know how to look at ~/.login and ~/.tcshrc. To be honest, I don't know what they are (I'm sort of new to the terminal thing). When I say break I mean command-. (ctrl-c). I think I had a program once that had to do something with the terminal that may have caused it to run top automatically. If that's what happened is there any way to fix it?

[acme.mail.order]

Open TextEdit from the Finder. In TextEdit, File-> Open
Type ~/.tcshrc including the period. You will not see this file in the list. If it opens, delete the contents and save. Lather, rinse and repeat with .login

[sao]

nepenthe,

You may also want to check the "com.apple.Terminal.plist" file in ~/Library/Preferences to see if it has the command at the "ExecutionString" key, like for example:

<key>ExecutionString</key>
<string>/usr/bin/top; exit</string>

If it does, change it to the following:

<key>ExecutionString</key>
<string></string>

[nepenthe]

Sao, you were right about the execution string, it was set to /usr/bin/top so I changed it and now my terminal works again!! :oD

Thank you all so much for your help :o)

[plobe]

Execution string. This is what it looks like in text edit:
Help?
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>NSColorPanelMode</key>
<string>6</string>
<key>NSColorPanelVisibleSwatchRows</key>
<integer>1</integer>
<key>NSWindow Frame Inspector</key>
<string>271 244 268 435 0 0 1680 1028 </string>
<key>NSWindow Frame NSColorPanel</key>
<string>586 425 201 309 0 0 1680 1028 </string>
<key>StartupFile</key>
<string></string>
</dict>
</plist>

[yellow]

Have you fiddled with Fonts? Try quitting Terminal and moving that preference file to our Desktop. Then open Terminal and see if it's functional again.

[plobe]

okay I moved the preference file to the desktop, the terminal is functional to the point I can type a command, but I still can't type my password.
I still have the same problem.

[yellow]

Can't type your password? Sounds like a different problem then what the original poster was detailing. You should probably start a new thread and detail the particulars of your problem there.

[dwrf]

Found this after a little panic, Terminal had a mind of it's own, starting Lynx Browser everytime, (was using it to view some web work). I was going mad trying to fix it, the .plist file had an execute string for the Lynx.app with exit; at the end, I removed it and Terminal was back up letting me type.
Why or how does this occur? programmers putting this in for fun? Could this be malicious, if you wanted it to?
Thanks, Donny

[hayne]

the .plist file had an execute string for the Lynx.app with exit; at the end, I removed it and Terminal was back up letting me type.
Why or how does this occur? programmers putting this in for fun?


It was you who "put this in" - I think that you must have run Lynx in a Terninal windows and then done a Save from Terminal.app and (inadvertantly) saved the command to be run as well as the colour settings etc you wanted to save.