Hi Peter, I am trying to be the new maintainer for Eterm package, so I am working to try to fix some bugs. Your bug is related to an old version of Eterm (0.9.5-2) and in Debian is available a new version, 0.9.6, so maybe your problem is now fixed. At least I am not experimenting this problem. I would appreciate you if you could check whether this problem still persists in the last version available.
Sincerely, José A.