Your message dated Thu, 19 Feb 2026 18:49:34 +0000
with message-id <[email protected]>
and subject line Bug#1124802: fixed in xterm 407-1
has caused the Debian Bug report #1124802,
regarding xterm: Cannot switch to UTF-8 Encoding without resetting the terminal
to be marked as done.
This means that you claim that the problem has been dealt with.
If this is not the case it is now your responsibility to reopen the
Bug report if necessary, and/or fix the problem forthwith.
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--
1124802: https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=1124802
Debian Bug Tracking System
Contact [email protected] with problems
--- Begin Message ---
Package: xterm
Version: 398-1
Severity: normal
Tags: l10n
Dear Maintainer,
I upgraded to Debian 13 the other day, and afterwards, switching
to/from UTF-8 text in xterm behaves differently.
I made a test vector with both UTF-8 and iso8859-1 in it:
% xxd xterm_test
00000000: 7574 6638 3a20 2fc3 a52f c3a4 2fc3 b62f utf8: /../../../
00000010: e280 932f 0a6c 6174 696e 313a 202f e52f .../.latin1: /./
00000020: e42f f62f 2d2f 0a ././-/.
Here are some steps which show the issue:
1. % LANG=C.utf8 LC_ALL=C.utf8 xterm
-> the xterm Ctrl-right button menu shows "UTF-8 Encoding" enabled
and greyed out (not possible to change)
-> the new shell has C.utf8 locale
-> 'cat xterm_test' renders the UTF-8 text properly
2. % LANG=sv_SE LC_ALL=sv_SE xterm
-> the xterm menu shows "UTF-8 Encoding" disabled
but possible to enable
-> the new shell has sv_SE locale
-> 'cat xterm_test' does not render the UTF-8 text properly;
renders the latin1 ok instead
3. Select "UTF-8 Encoding" in that menu.
-> 'cat xterm_test' still does not render the UTF-8 text properly;
renders the latin1 instead
4. Run 'reset' in the shell.
-> 'cat xterm_test' now renders the UTF-8 text properly.
5. Deselect "UTF-8 Encoding" again in the menu.
-> 'cat xterm_test' does not render the UTF-8 text properly.
6. Select "UTF-8 Encoding" again in the menu.
-> 'cat xterm_test' renders the UTF-8 text properly.
So it seems that if you start out with a non-UTF-8 xterm but want to
switch to UTF-8, you need to both select "UTF-8 Encoding" in the menu
and run reset(1) in the terminal. After that, you can switch back and
forth using only the menu.
I'm pretty sure this is a change compared to Debian 12 and earlier.
I.e. step 3 would have shown the UTF-8 text, with no need for step 4.
I will be able to confirm that, but not until Saturday when I have
access to a Debian 12 system.
I should probably also disclose that I do my daily terminal work in
sv_SE, i.e. a non-utf8 locale. I have 35 years' worth of iso8859-1
data which I don't fancy converting. I only switch to a UTF-8 locale
when I ssh to the host where I read my mail. I open a new xterm
dedicated to this, use the xterm menu to select "UTF-8 Encoding" and
"UTF-8 Fonts", and then:
% LANG=sv_SE.UTF-8 LC_CTYPE=sv_SE.UTF-8 ssh -t aphanes mutt
Aphanes runs OpenBSD, thus the odd locale names. Anyway this should
not be relevant to my problem -- unless you feel starting a non-UTF-8
xterm is unsupported.
BR,
/Jörgen
-- System Information:
Debian Release: 13.2
APT prefers stable-updates
APT policy: (500, 'stable-updates'), (500, 'stable-security'), (500, 'stable')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Kernel: Linux 6.12.57+deb13-amd64 (SMP w/12 CPU threads; PREEMPT)
Locale: LANG=sv_SE, LC_CTYPE=sv_SE (charmap=ISO-8859-1), LANGUAGE not set
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /usr/bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)
Versions of packages xterm depends on:
ii libc6 2.41-12
ii libfontconfig1 2.15.0-2.3
ii libfreetype6 2.13.3+dfsg-1
ii libice6 2:1.1.1-1
ii libtinfo6 6.5+20250216-2
ii libutempter0 1.2.1-4
ii libx11-6 2:1.8.12-1
ii libxaw7 2:1.0.16-1
ii libxext6 2:1.3.4-1+b3
ii libxft2 2.3.6-1+b4
ii libxinerama1 2:1.1.4-3+b4
ii libxmu6 2:1.1.3-3+b4
ii libxpm4 1:3.5.17-1+b3
ii libxt6t64 1:1.2.1-1.2+b2
ii xbitmaps 1.1.1-2.2
Versions of packages xterm recommends:
ii luit [luit] 2.0.20240910-1
ii x11-utils 7.7+7
Versions of packages xterm suggests:
pn xfonts-cyrillic <none>
-- no debconf information
--- End Message ---
--- Begin Message ---
Source: xterm
Source-Version: 407-1
Done: Sven Joachim <[email protected]>
We believe that the bug you reported is fixed in the latest version of
xterm, which is due to be installed in the Debian FTP archive.
A summary of the changes between this version and the previous one is
attached.
Thank you for reporting the bug, which will now be closed. If you
have further comments please address them to [email protected],
and the maintainer will reopen the bug report if appropriate.
Debian distribution maintenance software
pp.
Sven Joachim <[email protected]> (supplier of updated xterm package)
(This message was generated automatically at their request; if you
believe that there is a problem with it please contact the archive
administrators by mailing [email protected])
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA512
Format: 1.8
Date: Thu, 19 Feb 2026 19:19:41 +0100
Source: xterm
Architecture: source
Version: 407-1
Distribution: unstable
Urgency: medium
Maintainer: Debian X Strike Force <[email protected]>
Changed-By: Sven Joachim <[email protected]>
Closes: 1123877 1124802
Changes:
xterm (407-1) unstable; urgency=medium
.
* New upstream release.
- Improve fix for #738794, to show boxes for codes which are
neither combining characters or valid Unicode characters
(Closes: #1123877).
- Improve switching to/from UTF-8 mode by saving, restoring and
resetting the G0-G3 array (Closes: #1124802).
* Update upstream signing key.
* Refresh Debian patches.
* Convert debian/watch to version 5.
* Drop the redundant Priority field from debian/control.
* Bump Standards-Version to 4.7.3, no further changes needed.
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