Do you see a prompt at least? If not, it sounds like one of the modules is encountering an error while starting up. Also, try the "pwd" command. Maybe you're having a problem with invoking external commands... What OS and Emacs version are you using? John

Well, pwd and ls are implemented in Lisp. 'w' is an external command, as would be 'ps'. It sounds like Eshell is unable to invoke start-process the way it wants to. I have run into this problem before. M-: (start-process "test" (current-buffer) "/usr/bin/w") RET See if that generates any output, or if it fails. John

Georg Nikodym writes: I achieve similar results with a bunch of bash functions which alias certain commands to "gnuclient" invocations. This allows all kinds of tricks. E.g. I type "mail" in a tshell buffer and my VM frame pops up. "Make" turns into "(compile)". Best of all, if you do a "setenv" or "export" in the shell window, it actually sets the environment variable in the parent XEmacs process as well as in the child shell. Ditto for "cd". "igrep" and "set-variable" become available as shell commands. Etc, etc, etc. I know it's only a hack, but I like it. I'm posting my ".bashrc.tshell" here in case it is of interest to anybody else. To make this work, set gnuserv-frame to: (lambda (f) (eq f (quote x))) and put some code in your .bashrc to source .bashrc.tshell iff TERM==eterm Here's my .bashrc.tshell: ------------------------.bashrc.tshell------------------- PS1="\h:\W\\\$ " export PS1 alias less=cat alias more=cat qeval() { fn=$1 shift args="" for arg in $*; do args="$args "\"$arg\"; done gnuclient -batch -q -eval "(save-excursion \ (split-window-vertically) \ (other-window 1 nil) \ (condition-case err \ ($fn $args) \ (t (delete-window))))" } man () { qeval manual-entry $1 } info () { qeval info $1 } make () { gnuclient -batch -eval "(compile \"make $*\")" } edit () { gnuclient "$1" ; } open () { qeval find-file-other-frame $1 } view () { gnuclient -v "$1" ; } igrep () { pat=$1 shift args="" for arg in $*; do args="$args "\"$arg\"; done gnuclient -eval "(igrep nil \"$pat\" '($args))" } cd () { builtin cd "${1:-~}"; gnuclient -batch -eval "(cd \"`pwd`\")" ; } mail () { gnuclient -q -eval "(vm)" ; } unalias ls alias ls="ls --color -B -w 100" rename-buffer () { gnuclient -eval "(rename-buffer \"$1\")" } set-variable () { gnuclient -eval "(set-variable \"$1\" \"$2\")" } export () { varname=`echo $1|sed 's/=.*//'` value=`echo $1|sed 's/.*=//'` builtin export $1=$2; gnuclient -eval "(setenv \"$varname\" \"$value\")" ; } setenv () { builtin export $1=$2 ; gnuclient -eval "(setenv \"$1\" \"$2\")" ; } getenv () { gnuclient -batch -eval "(message (getenv \"$1\"))" ; } gdb () { gnuclient -eval "(gdbsrc \"$1\" \"$2\")"; } ---------------end of .bashrc.tshell-----------------------

There is also "bridge.el". Have you seen it?