[NTLUG:Discuss] Screen scramble trying to cat /etc/skel/.less

[Steve Baker]

Richard Geoffrion wrote:
> 
> Ok.  So I tried to cat it and now one of my consoles is scrambled.  Is there
> some sort of command that will set it to rights?  Maybe something like the
> DOS  mode 80?

Linux consoles have VT100 emulation (or something like that) - and there is a
character sequence that can flip into an alternative character set that has
all manner of weird characters in it.

If you 'cat' a binary file, it'll have all manner of random-looking binary
crap in it - an in your case, it evidently included the magic escape sequence
to flip the console into the garbage character set.

> I'd hate to have to reboot to clear it.

Yes - I know what you mean...however - that's what I've always done in the
past.  Probably you could figure out which escape sequence a VT100 needs to
flip it back into ASCII and type that (blindly) into the console.

Personally, I use X and then a scrambled Xterm can just be closed down and
re-opened.  Dunno what resets a console term though.

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