"dumb" terminal of daemon intefering with backspace/del keys

[Giorgos Keramidas <keramida@ceid.upatras.gr>]

Hi all,

I am trying to run an Emacs daemon process in the background, but it
breaks backspace / DEL key handling in amusing ways.  I start by
launching the daemon:

    gkeramidas:~$ echo $TERM
    xterm-256color

    gkeramidas:~$ utf-emacs --daemon
    ("/opt/emacs/bin/emacs")
    Ido mode disabled
    Loading vc...
    Loading vc...done
    Starting Emacs daemon.

But then in new text frames created by the daemon process TERM is set to
the "dumb" terminal type.

    gkeramidas:~$ emacsclient -e '(getenv "TERM")'
    "dumb"

This means that instead of `DEL' my laptop's backspace key generates
`C-d' in new text frames.  So instead of typing backspace to invoke
`delete-backward-char', I now get `delete-char' from the keyboard's
backspace key.

Is there any way to reconfigure the terminal type to "xterm-256color"
when new text frames are created?  More importantly, if this is not
possible, is there a way to avoid the dump vs. xterm differences when
using daemon mode?