Setting the terminal to raw mode like this: tty.sg_flags |= RAW; tty.sg_flags &= ~CBREAK; in bsd style or tio.cc_lflag &= ~(ISIG|ICANON); in termios style should solve the problem. (to thorsten: oops, sent my answer to you instead to mint@a.a, so you will get it twice :-) Cheers, Kay.