nano error: Error opening terminal: xterm-256color

After upgrading to OSX Lion, I started getting this error on certain (Debian/Ubuntu) servers. The fix is simply to install the “ncurses-term” package which provides the file /usr/share/terminfo/x/xterm-256color.

This worked for me on a Ubuntu server, via Erik Osterman.

I can confirm this is a terminfo issue. This is what worked for me. SSH in to the remote machine and run

 sudo apt-get install ncurses-term

Boom. Problem solved.

On Red Hat this worked for me:

export TERM=xterm

further info here: http://www.cloudfarm.it/fix-error-opening-terminal-xterm-256color-unknown-terminal-type/

1. edit your .bash_profile file

   vim .bash_profile

2. commnet

   #export TERM=xterm-256color

3. add this

   export TERMINFO=/usr/share/terminfo

   export TERM=xterm-basic

   to your .bash_profile

4. finally

   run:

   source .bash_profile