Possible virus??? I have gibberish all over the screen. My keystrokes contain gibberish and what is returned after my commands is also gibberish

MLH wrote:

> Thanks. Both you and Tauno set me straight.
>
> I posted the following to Tauno as a follow-up...
>
> Suppose I was uncertain whether
> /etc/ssh/sshd_config was a binary file.
> Maybe I think its a text file and want to
> look at it to see what's in it. But - now I
> am afraid to run the cat command on it
> or any other file that may be a binary file.
> What do I do to first make sure a file is
> text before running cat on it?
man file

----- Original Message -----
Am running Gentoo. Must add that I have very little experience.
Having said that...


I thought what I was doing was harmless. I changed to /usr/bin
then typed cat less & pressed Enter.

Its been gibberish ever since. What did I do wrong. Can I just
type shutdown and make all this go away on subsequent boot?

What was wrong with my invoking cat less. In the DOS world,
I can run the following...

type command.com

from the command prompt without worry of an incident. I think
what I've done here is essentially comparable to "TYPEing" an
executable file in DOS. I have a real world problem to deal with
now. That's for sure. I can't verify it (since my screen is gibberish)
but I do not think I was logged in as the su when I made this
mistake. Comments appreciated.

MLH wrote:
> ----- Original Message -----
> Am running Gentoo. Must add that I have very little experience.
> Having said that...
>
>
> I thought what I was doing was harmless. I changed to /usr/bin
> then typed cat less & pressed Enter.
>
> Its been gibberish ever since. What did I do wrong. Can I just
> type shutdown and make all this go away on subsequent boot?
>
> What was wrong with my invoking cat less. In the DOS world,
> I can run the following...
>
> type command.com
>
> from the command prompt without worry of an incident. I think
> what I've done here is essentially comparable to "TYPEing" an
> executable file in DOS. I have a real world problem to deal with
> now. That's for sure. I can't verify it (since my screen is gibberish)
> but I do not think I was logged in as the su when I made this
> mistake. Comments appreciated.

Break the gibberish output with a control-C.

Type

stty sane

I you like to see printable text in an executable (or other
binary file, use strings, see man strings.

HTH

--

Tauno Voipio
tauno voipio (at) iki fi

On Tue, 22 Mar 2005 14:26:32 -0500, MLH mumbled something like this:

> I thought what I was doing was harmless. I changed to /usr/bin then typed
> cat less & pressed Enter.
>
> Its been gibberish ever since. What did I do wrong. Can I just type
> shutdown and make all this go away on subsequent boot?

You have, as you indicated, tried to 'cat' an executable binary. THis has
caused control characters to be sent to the display, thus corrupting it.

You /can/ if you wish reboot, but you can also simply log out and back in
again, or if you can manage to type blind:

setterm -reset

you should get back a readable display
--
Rinso
/\
/ \
/wizz\
~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rincewind <rinso@unseen.edu> wrote:

> You have, as you indicated, tried to 'cat' an executable binary. THis has
> caused control characters to be sent to the display, thus corrupting it.
>
> You /can/ if you wish reboot, but you can also simply log out and back in
> again, or if you can manage to type blind:
>
> setterm -reset
>
> you should get back a readable display

"reset" will also do the trick, on most systems.

--
Cheers,
Rick Moen Frater Magnus vos spectat.
rick@linuxmafia.com

Thank-you. I was able to recover.
Not as serious as I though.

My problem arose from not knowing
the file was a binary file. My first instinct
was to cat it and see for myself. Well,
you can imagine my surprise.

Suppose I was uncertain whether
/etc/ssh/sshd_config was a binary file.
Maybe I think its a text file and want to
look at it to see what's in it. But - now I
am afraid to run the cat command on it
or any other file that may be a binary file.
What do I do to first make sure a file is
text before running cat on it?

Thanks. Both you and Tauno set me straight.

I posted the following to Tauno as a follow-up...

Suppose I was uncertain whether
/etc/ssh/sshd_config was a binary file.
Maybe I think its a text file and want to
look at it to see what's in it. But - now I
am afraid to run the cat command on it
or any other file that may be a binary file.
What do I do to first make sure a file is
text before running cat on it?

On Tue, 22 Mar 2005 15:22:18 -0500, MLH wrote:
>
> Suppose I was uncertain whether
> /etc/ssh/sshd_config was a binary file.
> Maybe I think its a text file and want to
> look at it to see what's in it. But - now I
> am afraid to run the cat command on it

Use less instead of cat. Then there is the commnad _file_, Examples:

file /sbin/hdparm
file /usr/bin/less

On Tue, 22 Mar 2005 15:24:14 -0500, MLH mumbled something like this:

> Thanks. Both you and Tauno set me straight.
>
> I posted the following to Tauno as a follow-up...
>
> Suppose I was uncertain whether
> /etc/ssh/sshd_config was a binary file. Maybe I think its a text file and
> want to look at it to see what's in it. But - now I am afraid to run the
> cat command on it or any other file that may be a binary file. What do I
> do to first make sure a file is text before running cat on it?

Glad you're sorted! Bit Twister gave you the answer to your follow-up
question:

file /etc/ssh/sshd_config

--
Rinso
/\
/ \
/wizz\
~~~~~~~~~~~~

Your Name wrote:

> MLH wrote:
>
>> Thanks. Both you and Tauno set me straight.
>>
>> I posted the following to Tauno as a follow-up...
>>
>> Suppose I was uncertain whether
>> /etc/ssh/sshd_config was a binary file.
>> Maybe I think its a text file and want to
>> look at it to see what's in it. But - now I
>> am afraid to run the cat command on it
>> or any other file that may be a binary file.
>> What do I do to first make sure a file is
>> text before running cat on it?
> man file

or...
cat -v filename
....or...
strings filename

C.