See if this recent thread offers any help.

The two take-away items from that thread are:

1. Read the "How come when I automate the passwd program to change passwords for me passwd dies before changing the password sometimes/every time?" question from the Expect.pm FAQ.
2. Assign the troublesome expect() call to an array and dump the array to help debug. Like this:

use Data::Dumper;
my @exp_stat;
@exp_stat = expect('-re', 'session:\n$');
print Dumper(\@exp_stat);
[download]

Of course, for item 2 to be useful, you'll have to break up your giant expect() call into individual ones. And the meaning of each array element is documented both in the Expect.pm docs and that recent thread.

Thanks!!!! I will check the info out. Hey is there a better way to code my "giant" Expect clause, I'd sure appreciate any suggestions. I was just following the example I was given by a person who introduced to me Expect.pm. Thanks - I appreciate the advise!

So I reviewed the other thread and looked at FAQ. I am using Data Dumper now, still no luck. I wrote a smaller program to ssh to another unix server and I get the same issue, right after i send the user password for login (that works ok, I get my login completed), I cannot send or expect anything else after that procedure completes. Right after the login procedure completes, i try to send a ls command and expect - all i get is timeout:

screen shot:
Sending ls command!

Starting EXPECT pattern matching...
 at /export/dmzsupp/perl5/5.14.2/lib/site_perl/5.14.2/Expect.pm line 5
+61
        Expect::expect('Expect=GLOB(0x65ca28)', 6, 'ARRAY(0x9b6460)', 
+'ARRAY(0x9b6328)', '-re', 'Regexp=REGEXP(0x9990d8)') called at ./fwlo
+gin.pl line 42
Error,Timeout while waiting 6 secs for ls command on [sol8server] user
+[user]. Error:1:TIMEOUT

Continuing

$VAR1 = [
          undef,
          '1:TIMEOUT',
          undef,
          '',
          undef,
          undef
        ];

The code:
print "\nSending ls command!\n\n";
$sshFW->send("ls\r");

@exp_stat = $sshFW->expect($expTimeOut,

    # Timeout trap
    [timeout =>
    sub {
        $expFWStatus = 1;
        $expFWmatchString = $sshFW->match;
        print "Error,Timeout while waiting $expTimeOut secs for ls com
+mand on [$FWHost] user[$usr]. Error:" . $sshFW->exp_error() . "\n";  
+  
    }
    ],
    # EOF trap
    [eof =>
    sub {
        $expFWStatus = 2;
        $expFWmatchString = $sshFW->match;
        print "Error,Premature EOF during ls command for [$FWHost] use
+r[$usr]. Error:" . $sshFW->exp_error() . "\n";
    }
    ],

    '-re', qr /% $/, 
    );        # End expect, got Unix prompt ok

print "\nContinuing\n\n";
print Dumper(\@exp_stat);#debug
# The above behaves just like the ls command was never sent!
[download]

Why are you terminating sends with "\r" and not "\n"?

#!/usr/bin/env perl
use 5.014;
use warnings;
use Expect;
my $exp = Expect->new;
$exp->spawn('ssh tak');
$exp->expect(10, '~$ '); # prompt. using ssh keys so no password
$exp->send("ls\n");
$exp->expect(10, '~$ ');
$exp->send("exit\n");
$exp->soft_close();
__END__
Output:
zengargoyle@tak:~$ ls
... ls output ...
zengargoyle@tak:~$ exit
logout
Connection to tak closed.
[download]

I would guess that the password input is accepting the "\r" as an input terminator (because login/password type input is wonky like that) but the proper input terminator for the type of session input and for general shell commands is "\n".

Just a guess, unless your Solaris is wonky or running some special shell (not csh/sh/etc) you should be using "\n". I've done a bunch of Expect stuff with Solaris, routers, switches, ... over ssh and never have I used "\r". I always use "\n" and have never had the sort of problem you seem to be having.