If you don't want the bundled terminfo then don't symlink it into $HOME.

Terminfo straight from Debian:
 - screen*
 - xterm (same as xterm-debian)
 - xterm-color

I created xterm-simple. This is a simpler profile with less advertised
features. It's based on xterm-color, which is based on xterm-r6. It has ^? for
backspace and ^[[3~ for delete

The following terminfo properties were added: hs, tsl, fsl, dsl. These are for
the terminal status line, in this case the xterm titlebar.


How should you use these?

First, copy the .terminfo directory to every machine you log in to.

If you're running xterm, urxvt, konsole or any other compliant terminal you
should set TERM=xterm and ensure that backspace/delete send ^? and ^[[3~
respectively. TERM must be set in your console preferences, NOT in bashrc, etc

If you have problems only on a specific machine, older OSes in particular, try
using TERM=xterm-simple on that machine.
Eg, cp ~/.terminfo/x/xterm-simple ~/.terminfo/x/xterm