23
[solved] Backspace key broken when running as root
(sh.itjust.works)
Super users don't make mistakes.
[Solved], but what was your solution 👀
They probs jist changed the shell, likely was already in the comments.
Probably a locale issue
Yeah I’d bet this. Had my keyboard set to GB something once and backspace and tilde were all messed up
Yeah, probably a .bashrc difference between users.
It could also be ~/.inputrc (or /etc/inputrc if not in the user's home directory.) https://man.archlinux.org/man/readline.3
What does $TERM say for both users? I assume you use Bash for both users?
It says "linux" for both. You're right, I'm using bash
This is one of those issues where there's a billion different solutions based on a billion different reasons.
Have you compared the configuration files? You most likely have some keybinding that root don't have, and hopefully works for root as well.
I noticed this as well on Void, but never really looked into the cause, but like other people pointed out, the root user must be lacking some shell-related configuration or something. For me tab-completion and up arrowing through the command history was also broken for root. It frustrated me, but never enough to bother trying to solve it lol.
You might also have a look at stty --all output: erase in particular.
stty situation indeed
It says 'erase = ^?'. How do I change this?
What is it when you're root?
What is it when you're not root?
Is it possible to set this permanently?
Sure, but there are many ways to do it, depending on all sorts of details/variables, like what terminal or terminal emulator you are using, what shell, etc.
Consistent BackSpace and Delete Configuration has lots of information that might help you understand the relevant details of your system and options for setting it as you wish for root.
this post was submitted on 30 Jun 2026
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