Bizarre terminal behavior

[Patton Echols]

On 12/07/2011 11:37 PM, Mark Widdicombe wrote:
>
> On 8 December 2011 10:37, Patton Echols <p.echols at comcast.net 
> <mailto:p.echols at comcast.net>> wrote:
>
>     Greetings all,
>
>     Tonight I opened a terminal session and used [ctrl]+r to search a
>     prior command. When I keyed the first letter, the terminal window
>     was filled with the characters below. I had to [ctrl]+c to return
>     to normal usage. Any thoughts?
>
>     Oh, 10.4, on an asus netbook
>
>     Here is the characters copied and pasted from the terminal window:
>
>     patton at mycroft:~$
>     (reverse-i-search)`a': �^P�<��(�̤�{9]��xmh�^Ni���Q^Q@}�
>     xxmh�^Ni���Q^Q@}� � xxmh�^Ni���Q^Q@}� xxmh�^Ni���Q^Q@}�
>     xxmh�^Ni���Q^Q@}� � xxmh�^Ni���Q^Q@}� xxmh�^Ni���Q^Q@}�
>     xxmh�^Ni���Q^Q@}� � xxmh�^Ni���Q^Q@}� xxmh�^Ni���Q^Q@}�
>     xxmh�^Ni���Q^Q@}� � xxmh�^Ni���Q^Q@}� xxmh�^Ni���Q^Q@}�
>     xxmh�^Ni���Q^Q@}� � 
>
> <snip>
> Was the last command to edit (with vi, say) a binary file?

I don't think so, but I don't remember.  This laptop had been 
hibernating, crashed when woke up and I had just opened the terminal 
with ctrl+alt+t.

Since posting, I opened alsamixer in that terminal window and the line 
drawing characters were replaced with letters, but it functioned.

I've closed that terminal and opened a new one but have been unable to 
replicate the problem.

I wonder whether it is something unlikely to repeat?  Like a mess left 
by that crash that, once cleaned up, will not be back?