Sometimes when I simply type a valid command like 'find ...', or anything really, I get back the following, which is completely unexpected and confusing (... is command name I type):

sh: $'\302\211...': command not found

There is some corruption going on I think. I don't use color in my prompt, I am using the Bash shell in POSIX mode as sh (chsh to /bin/sh and so on - $SHELL is sh).

What is going on and why does this keep happening? Anything I can debug? I think this is more of an xterm issue than sh, or at least a combination of the two.

Files, for context:

My /etc/profile, as distributed with Arch Linux x86-64:

# /etc/profile

#Set our umask
umask 022

# Set our default path
PATH="/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin"
export PATH

# Load profiles from /etc/profile.d
if test -d /etc/profile.d/; then
        for profile in /etc/profile.d/*.sh; do
                test -r "$profile" && . "$profile"
        done
        unset profile
fi

# Source global bash config
if test "$PS1" && test "$BASH" && test -r /etc/bash.bashrc; then
        . /etc/bash.bashrc
fi

# Termcap is outdated, old, and crusty, kill it.
unset TERMCAP

# Man is much better than us at figuring this out
unset MANPATH

My /etc/shrc, which I created as a way to have sh parse some file on startup, when non-login shell. This is achieved using ENV variable set in /etc/environment with the line ENV=/etc/shrc:

PS1='\u@\H \w \$ '
alias ls='ls -F --color'
alias grep='grep -i --color'
[ -f ~/.shrc ] && . ~/.shrc

My ~/.profile, I am launching X when logging in through first virtual tty:

[[ -z $DISPLAY && $XDG_VTNR -eq 1 ]] && exec xinit -- -dpi 111

My ~/.xinitc, as you can see I am using the system as a Virtual Box guest:

xrdb -merge ~/.Xresources

VBoxClient-all

awesome &

exec xterm

And finally, my ~/.Xresources, no fancy stuff here I guess:

*faceName: Inconsolata
*faceSize: 10
xterm*VT100*translations: #override <Btn1Up>: select-end(PRIMARY, CLIPBOARD, CUT_BUFFER0)

xterm*colorBDMode: true
xterm*colorBD: #ff8000
xterm*cursorColor: S_red

Since ~/.profile references among other things /etc/bash.bashrc, here is its content:

#
# /etc/bash.bashrc
#

# If not running interactively, don't do anything
[[ $- != *i* ]] && return

PS1='[\u@\h \W]\$ '
PS2='> '
PS3='> '
PS4='+ '

case ${TERM} in
  xterm*|rxvt*|Eterm|aterm|kterm|gnome*)
    PROMPT_COMMAND=${PROMPT_COMMAND:+$PROMPT_COMMAND; }'printf "\033]0;%s@%s:%s\007" "${USER}" "${HOSTNAME%%.*}" "${PWD/#$HOME/~}"'

    ;;
  screen)
    PROMPT_COMMAND=${PROMPT_COMMAND:+$PROMPT_COMMAND; }'printf "\033_%s@%s:%s\033\\" "${USER}" "${HOSTNAME%%.*}" "${PWD/#$HOME/~}"'
    ;;
esac

[ -r /usr/share/bash-completion/bash_completion   ] && . /usr/share/bash-completion/bash_completion

I have no idea what that case statement does, by the way, it does look a bit suspicious though, but then again, who am I to know.