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psadi merged 2 commits into from
May 16, 2026
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docs: document xterm-ghostty terminfo fix for sudo #146

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bcdce02
docs: document xterm-ghostty terminfo fix for sudo
codemedic May 13, 2026
a7db721
docs: move troubleshooting content to TROUBLESHOOTING.md
codemedic May 16, 2026
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4 changes: 4 additions & 0 deletions README.md
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Expand Up @@ -153,6 +153,10 @@ Since AppImages are self-contained executables, there is no formal installation

</details>

## 🛠️ Troubleshooting

See [TROUBLESHOOTING.md](TROUBLESHOOTING.md) for known issues and fixes.

## 🤝 Contributing

Contributions & Bugfixes are welcome. If you like to contribute, please feel free to fork the repository and submit a pull request.
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30 changes: 30 additions & 0 deletions TROUBLESHOOTING.md
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# Troubleshooting

## `Error opening terminal: xterm-ghostty` when using `sudo`

Ghostty sets `TERM=xterm-ghostty`, but the terminfo entry is bundled inside the AppImage and is not installed on the host system. When you run a terminal application via `sudo` (e.g., `sudo aptitude`, `sudo vim`), the root environment cannot find the terminfo entry and fails with:

```
Error opening terminal: xterm-ghostty.
```

**Fix:** extract the terminfo entry from the AppImage and install it system-wide.

```bash
# Extract the terminfo entry into a temporary directory
tmpdir=$(mktemp -d /tmp/ghostty-appimage.XXXXXX)
(cd "$tmpdir" && /path/to/Ghostty.AppImage --appimage-extract share/terminfo/x/xterm-ghostty)

# Install for the current user
mkdir -p ~/.local/share/terminfo/x
cp "$tmpdir/squashfs-root/share/terminfo/x/xterm-ghostty" ~/.local/share/terminfo/x/

# Install system-wide so root and sudo can find it
sudo mkdir -p /usr/share/terminfo/x
sudo cp "$tmpdir/squashfs-root/share/terminfo/x/xterm-ghostty" /usr/share/terminfo/x/

# Clean up
rm -rf "$tmpdir"
```

This only needs to be done once, or again after upgrading to a new AppImage release.