Show underlying errors when tsshd or VPN fails to start

[lonnywong]

When tsshd fails to start, it outputs some error messages. It would be more helpful to show these error messages to the user instead of only displaying "Invalid server info: No valid JSON found in tsshd output." I encountered this issue because I configured tsshd to use a specific port, but that port was already occupied by a previously running tsshd process. The same improvement should be made for VPN startup errors.

[lonnywong]

When disconnecting the VPN in the widget, an exit signal is not sent to tsshd, which prevents the tsshd process from terminating properly. The port is found to be occupied the next time it is used.

BTW: When I type "ps aux |" followed by a space, the pipe symbol changes to a period. I'm not sure what causes this issue.

[kitknox]

Just fixed the exit signal issue. I had it already wired in but there was an order of operations issue that prevented it from actually working. I can’t duplicate the “ps aux |” issue. Is this iOS 18 on iPhone with virtual keyboard? Will look into expanding the error message still as well.

[lonnywong]

After upgrading to 1.0.2 (38), I can no longer reproduce the issue where typing ps aux | would change | into ..

However, when using WeChat Input Method in rootshell, pressing the space bar still modifies the command I type. This does not happen in Termius with the same input method. So I often have to switch to the iPhone’s built-in English keyboard when using rootshell. Unfortunately, iOS does not remember a preferred keyboard per app like macOS does.

It might help to disable some smart input features on the text view side:

textView.autocorrectionType = .no
textView.spellCheckingType = .no
textView.smartQuotesType = .no
textView.smartDashesType = .no
textView.smartInsertDeleteType = .no
textView.autocapitalizationType = .none
textView.keyboardType = .asciiCapable

These settings are not strictly mandatory. If you prefer to keep smart input features for a better user experience, that’s also perfectly fine. I don’t type much on the iPhone, so switching input methods is not a big issue for me.

[lonnywong]

The issue where | becomes . has become reproducible again when using the iPhone’s built-in English keyboard. I’m unable to find a stable condition to consistently reproduce it. The issue occurs when using standard SSH ( not tssh ). It seems that the probability of reproducing the issue is higher after reconnecting the session.

[lonnywong]

When tapping the Connect button in the VPN widget, it sometimes only opens the VPN control page. This often makes me think that something went wrong with the VPN, or that the VPN widget state is out of sync with rootshell.

Later I noticed that it may actually feel like I missed the Connect button, as if I tapped another area of the widget outside the button, although I am quite certain that I tapped the Connect button itself.

[lonnywong]

By tapping the Connect button in the widget, then swiping up to hide the VPN page, tapping Connect/Disconnect again, and swiping up to hide the VPN page again, and repeating this sequence several times, I can reproduce the issue where tapping Connect only opens the VPN page but does not actually start the VPN.

Also, the Recent Events list on the VPN page feels a bit long. I have to scroll up and down to check the current VPN status and view the latest events, so it might be better to reduce the number of displayed items or show the list in reverse chronological order.

[kitknox]

        var autocorrectionType: UITextAutocorrectionType = .no
        var autocapitalizationType: UITextAutocapitalizationType = .none
        var spellCheckingType: UITextSpellCheckingType = .no
        var smartQuotesType: UITextSmartQuotesType = .no
        var smartDashesType: UITextSmartDashesType = .no
        var smartInsertDeleteType: UITextSmartInsertDeleteType = .no
        var keyboardType: UIKeyboardType = .default

Is the current configuration I am applying to the main terminal surface area. I originally was setting the keyboard type to ASCII which forced an English keyboard on users. I do wonder if the fixes I made to ensure CMJ input worked with IME etc are linked to this regression. As far as the Termius comparison if I remember correctly CMJ input doesn’t work there until you manually enable it first.

I agree on the UI placement of the disconnect button. I will check out the state issues between the main app and widget. The widget is a separate process from the main app which is a separate process from the VPN widget. What could go wrong?

[lonnywong]

It might be that setting textView.keyboardType = .asciiCapable is the key. Termius can input non-ASCII characters, and I'm not sure how they configured it. Some documentation I found says that asciiCapable also supports inputting non-ASCII ( Unicode ) characters. When I'm using a non-English input method in other apps and switch to Termius, it is not automatically switched to the English input method. iOS doesn't do this; only macOS remembers the input method per app.

[kitknox]

Setting it to .asciiCapable seemed to have negative impact for other users is the thing. I can at least make this a toggle for now in order to get more data from users with their different preferences and use cases.

[kitknox]

I’ve added this toggle in the locale view.

[lonnywong]

I enabled the Force ASCII Keyboard, but the behavior remains exactly the same as before. With the English keyboard, pressing space changes | to .; with the WeChat input method, pressing space arbitrarily modifies all input. I am unsure of the reason. Additionally, after enabling Force ASCII Keyboard, I cannot switch to iOS's built-in non-English input methods, though I can switch to third-party input methods that can input non-ASCII characters. Termius, however, can switch to iOS's built-in non-English input methods, suggesting it does not use asciiCapable and might have implemented custom handling. These issues share a common pattern: they involve deleting one or more previously input characters in a batch, followed by new input and a space, rather than manual character-by-character deletion and input. Termius likely ignores such batch inputs. Even when pasting, it should only append characters in batch, without the deletion.

[lonnywong]

All inputs should be in the form of a byte array. If the length of a byte array is greater than 2, and the first character is \b while the last character is a space, the input should be completely ignored. It might be helpful to log all inputs during debugging, especially to examine the characteristics of the byte array when issues occur.

[kitknox]

I suspect that your keyboard is sending IME replacement text which rootshell honors. This is required for dictation directly into the terminal to be functional, and something that Termius fails to properly support. I'll take a look more tonight.

[kitknox]

Last night I installed the WeChat keyboard and I was not observing it replace characters when testing with things like pipe. If you can give me steps to try this will be a lot easier to fix if I can reproduce here on my own.

[lonnywong]

In the WeChat Input Method, there is a Chinese-English toggle key next to the Enter key. After switching to English mode, if you type "ps" followed by a space, it will be transformed into "ppps" followed by a space.

ScreenRecording_03-04-2026.00-25-49_1.mp4