Sorry to answer my own post, but I figured out a solution to the problem:
Put the following script in some directory such as /usr/bin and while you
are at the messed up terminal, type
cat /usr/bin/fixvt.sh
if /usr/bin is the path to the file and fixvt.sh is its name. That should
clear things up.
***************Start of script fixvt.sh**************************
#!/bin/sh
# fixvt 1.00
# Fixes console corruption from vt bombs and the like
# (c) 1994 Brian Stoler -- [EMAIL PROTECTED]
# Freely redistributable under the GPL 2
# Mail me any changes/fixes/etc
# Send flames to /dev/null -- I'm no scripter
if [ -r /etc/?getty ]; then
DAG=/etc/?getty
elif [ -r /sbin/?getty ]; then
DAG=/sbin/?getty
elif [ -r /sbin/?getty ]; then
DAG=/sbin/getty_ps
elif [ -r /sbin/?getty ]; then
DAG=/sbin/getty_ps
elif [ -r $1 ]; then
DAG=$1
else
echo NO GETTY FOUND -- PUT GETTY ON CMD LINE
exit 1
fi
cat $DAG
echo c
clear
echo Display restored.
********************End of script fixvt.sh***********************
I found this on http://www.lsl.com/forum/fixvt.html some time ago and used
it to clear a terminal that got messed up by catting a binary file.
On Thu, 6 Nov 1997, G. Kapetanios wrote:
>
> I had the same problem some time ago. It would happen when I used less.
> As time went by more and moreof my consoles would suffer that. It stopped
> on its own after upgrading to a new kernel (at the time I was using 2.0.0
> ) and I guess I must have upgraded less at some point.
>
> I know this isn't much help but try upgrading relevant packges and see
> what happens.
> George
>
>
>
> On Thu, 6 Nov 1997, James Dietrich wrote:
>
> >
> > Several times I have had it happen that after running (and quitting) top
> > on one of my virtual terminals, the terminal then uses only the bottom
> > line of the screen. Everything seems to work all right, because I can
> > type commands and login and logout just fine except for the fact that all
> > output is restricted to the bottom line. When the terminal is in this
> > state, top will run and use the entire screen, but it redraws in a strange
> > way--quite a bit of flickering and blinking at the top of the screen
> > during each redraw/update.
> >
> > FWIW, this only seems to happen after my computer has been up for a
> > while--a day or two. I am running Debian 1.3 and kernel 2.0.30. And I
> > have tried killing all the process on the offending tty, but the problem
> > still persists.
> >
> > Anyone else seen this quirk? Any ideas on how to fix it? I would like to
> > be able to fix it without rebooting ( it must be possible :-) )
> >
> > Thanks for your help.
> >
> > James
> >
> >
> > --
> > TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word "unsubscribe" to
> > [EMAIL PROTECTED] .
> > Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .
> >
> >
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> George Kapetanios
> Churchill College
> Cambridge, CB3 0DS E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> U.K. WWW: http://garfield.chu.cam.ac.uk/~gk205/work_info.html
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
>
> --
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>
>
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