Post #2245871
2026-05-07 20:23 UTC
@b0rk@social.jvns.ca 40 years ago, i was doing computer security research at a QNGO, and was reading the small manual for the VT-100 I'd received (with a network card, quite avant garde!).
I noticed that the Power On Self-Test could be invoked by an Escape Sequence.
https://vt100.net/docs/vt100-ug/chapter3.html#DECTST
Replies (1)
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@n1vux@mastodon.radio 2026-05-07 20:25
@b0rk@social.jvns.ca It didn't say if this only worked if the ESC [ 2 ; 1 y sequence was only honored from the keyboard or from the serial port or both; for factory testing, I guessed both. And it included "Repeat Tests until Failure" if the 8 bit was also set (␛[2;9y).