/dev/tty2 looks garbled after executing script

Cyberman · 03-31-2009, 12:44 AM

If I'm logged into the terminal, it doesn't look garbled. However, if I am not logged into tty2 and execute the script from tty1, tty2 will show a misaligned output. That's not to say it won't display the information. However, the alignment of the information is very off and sometimes goes off the screen. I'm not sure what the issue is.

Has anyone had an issue similar to this?
I'm using Debian Sid.

wje_lq · 03-31-2009, 07:19 AM

I can think of two things.

Run the script so that the output, instead of going to any tty, goes to a file. Then dump the file in hex. Do you see any escape characters in the output? If you do, see what's going on in your program.
Is your system configured so that you could log into tty2 if you wanted to? If so, is there something that's normally displayed on tty2 when it's not logged in?

I run Slackware, not Debian, so your mileage may vary, but on Slackware the file that contains what would be output to tty2 when it's not logged in is in file /etc/issue. Find that file, wherever it is for Debian, and dump it in hex and see what you get. Again, look for escape characters.