Hi, all.

On the weekend I installed Ubuntu onto a 2011 Macbook Pro - it's really quite quick and functional for a nearly 15 year old machine.

Anyway, one thing I'm really struggling with is finding a terminal to use for BBSing. I'm currently in Qodem, however I am not digging its use of the standard terminal font or the fact it adjusts the row / col count rather than scaling the window if you try to maximise / full-screen it.

I never expected to have such trouble getting others to work, though. I'm on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS and I've tried:

- Syncterm via snap - installs a broken version that can't resolve hostnames or connect to anything

- Syncterm via Meatlotion's installer script - installs and can connect but crashes after the login screen of (e.g.) Magnum BBS with a font render error

- Icyterm via source - refuses to run due to some random type conversion error

- Icyterm via .deb download - similar to above but with a different type

Can anyone recommend me a terminal that works on current Linux setups and does 80x25 full screen, ideally with a VGA font like MuffinTerm does?

This is the last position I expected to be in, I thought I'd have loads of options!

Thanks,

BobW
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I never expected to have such
trouble getting others to work,
though. I'm on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS
and I've tried:

My main computer is running Ubuntu 22.04 on a 10+ year old Dell laptop so not exactly the same.

Are you able to build SyncTerm from source? That's how I do it and haven't had any issues.


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Re: Re: ANSI terminal clients for Linux
By: slacker to Bob Worm on Mon Dec 15 2025 21:55:04

Hi, slacker.

Are you able to build SyncTerm from source? That's how I do it and haven't had any issues.

That's what Meat's script does - pulls a couple of dependencies, grabs the latest source and compiles it.

Possibly I could pull a slightly older version and see if that behaves any better? It's a bit concerning to me that the snap version is so thoroughly broken - like nobody would ever release a package that behaved like that.

Aside from a couple of Mac-isms, though (right click no worky, scrolling is a bit wild in some apps), everything else seems to behave well. Although to be honest I've mostly been taking advantage of the DVD drive to watch some old stoner movies :)

BobW
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Hello Bob!

15 Dec 25 21:11, you wrote to all:

Can anyone recommend me a terminal that works on current Linux setups
and does 80x25 full screen, ideally with a VGA font like MuffinTerm
does?

Netrunner from the mystic bbs website.

https://www.mysticbbs.com/downloads.html


Vorlon


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Re: ANSI terminal clients for Linux
By: Vorlon to Bob Worm on Tue Dec 16 2025 14:10:26

Hi, Vorlon.

Netrunner from the mystic bbs website. https://www.mysticbbs.com/downloads.html

Thanks for the tip - I will give that a try!

BobW
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Re: ANSI terminal clients for Linux
By: Vorlon to Bob Worm on Tue Dec 16 2025 14:10:26

Hi, Vorlon.

Netrunner from the mystic bbs website. https://www.mysticbbs.com/downloads.html

I didn't wait until later - I had the old MBP out doing some legitimate work so I thought I'd install Netrunner while it was booted. On it now and it works perfectly.

I just remembered, actually, that Netrunner was the only thing I could get to run on the Windows XP netbook that I got given the same time as this. For some reason it works the XP machine really hard so it gets hot and runs the battery down but it seems a bit less demanding on here :)

Thanks again!

BobW
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Hi Box,

On Tuesday December 16 2025, Bob Worm said to Vorlon:

Re: ANSI terminal clients for Linux
By: Vorlon to Bob Worm on Tue Dec 16 2025 14:10:26

Hi, Vorlon.

Netrunner from the mystic bbs website.
https://www.mysticbbs.com/downloads.html

I didn't wait until later - I had the old MBP out doing some legitimate work so I thought I'd install Netrunner while it was booted. On it now
and it works perfectly.

Thumbs up emoji! #0)

I just remembered, actually, that Netrunner was the only thing I could
get to run on the Windows XP netbook that I got given the same time as this. For some reason it works the XP machine really hard so it gets
hot and runs the battery down but it seems a bit less demanding on here
:)

That could be due to the way netrunner does it's display things.
XP also dosn't have the controlls in place like the newer os versions do.


\/orlon
aka
Stephen

Rocking FSXnet with an Amiga 4000 and Zeus BBS.

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On 15 Dec 2025 at 09:11p, Bob Worm pondered and said...

Hi, all.

On the weekend I installed Ubuntu onto a 2011 Macbook Pro - it's really quite quick and functional for a nearly 15 year old machine.

Anyway, one thing I'm really struggling with is finding a terminal to
use for BBSing. I'm currently in Qodem, however I am not digging its use of the standard terminal font or the fact it adjusts the row / col count rather than scaling the window if you try to maximise / full-screen it.

I never expected to have such trouble getting others to work, though.
I'm on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS and I've tried:

- Syncterm via snap - installs a broken version that can't resolve hostnames or connect to anything

- Syncterm via Meatlotion's installer script - installs and can connect but crashes after the login screen of (e.g.) Magnum BBS with a font
render error

- Icyterm via source - refuses to run due to some random type conversion error

- Icyterm via .deb download - similar to above but with a different type

Can anyone recommend me a terminal that works on current Linux setups
and does 80x25 full screen, ideally with a VGA font like MuffinTerm does?

This is the last position I expected to be in, I thought I'd have loads
of options!

I have an X11 version of SyncTERM 1.6b compiled and running on my Ubuntu 24.04.3 LTS x86_64. I'll put it up for download on Madman BBS. Look for it in the BBS Utilities dir.

syncterm_lnx86.zip
SyncTERM 1.6b - X11
Precompiled SynchTERM 1.6b for Linux.
Compiled on Ubuntu 24.04.3 x86_64.

"Amy Pond, there's something you better understand about me 'cause it's
important, and one day your life may depend upon it. I am definitely a Mad
Man with a Blue Box."
.oO Madman with a Blue Box BBS Oo.oO madmanbbs.ddns.net Oo.

... I don't want to go!

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Re: Re: ANSI terminal clients for Linux
By: Gryphon to Bob Worm on Fri Jan 16 2026 11:09:45

I have an X11 version of SyncTERM 1.6b compiled and running on my Ubuntu 24.04.3 LTS x86_64. I'll put it up for download on Madman BBS. Look for it in the BBS Utilities dir.

Cheers, Gryphon. It'll be interesting to see if that works on the Mac.

BobW
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