hi everyone! I’m back with another tutorial for you all. This time, I’ll show you how to fix the xterm-kitty: unknown terminal type error when connecting to a remote server via SSH. This error can be quite frustrating, but don’t worry—I’ll guide you through the process step by step.

Steps#

1. Open Shell Configuration File#

First, we need to open the shell configuration file. You can use any text editor you prefer, but for this tutorial, I’ll use helix. Open your terminal and run the following command:

# Bash
helix ~/.bashrc
# Zsh
helix ~/.zshrc

2. Modify Kitty Environment Variable#

Next, we need to check if the TERM environment variable is set to xterm-kitty. If it is, we need to change it to xterm-256color while connecting via SSH. Add the following alias to your shell configuration file:

[[ "$TERM" == "xterm-kitty" ]] && alias ssh="TERM=xterm-256color ssh"

changes

3. Save and Apply Changes#

Save the file and apply the changes by running the following command:

# Bash
source ~/.bashrc
# Zsh
source ~/.zshrc