The less(1) program is a pager, based on more(1). Please see the man page.
Your description of the output is very strange. I can think of three possibilities:
- Your $TERM is not correct. Unlikely, since you mention using vi.
- Some sort of PEBKAC, such as a typo while entering the command string.
- Your new case and it's connection is returning zero bytes to I/O requests. Perhaps there are I/O errors you are missing from the console. Review /var/log/messages for the timeframe of the dd, or run an xconsole(1) window or run # tail -f /var/log/messages & while doing it again.
You requested 63 512-byte sectors, and got nothing back. Here is an example of just the first sector, sector #0, which is an MBR and the primary partition table (sector #0) from my netbook's hard drive:
Code:
# dd if=/dev/rsd0c count=1 | hexdump -C
1+0 records in
1+0 records out
512 bytes transferred in 0.062 secs (8193 bytes/sec)
00000000 fc 33 c0 8e d8 8e c0 be 00 7c bf 00 06 b9 00 01 |ü3À.Ø.À¾.|¿..¹..|
00000010 f3 a5 ea 2e 06 00 00 47 41 47 3a 20 90 01 10 00 |ó¥ê....GAG: ....|
00000020 01 00 00 7c 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 bf 17 |...|..........¿.|
00000030 06 b4 0e bb 07 00 8a 05 3c 90 74 07 57 cd 10 5f |.´.»....<.t.WÍ._|
00000040 47 eb ee bf 1d 06 80 3d 00 75 65 b4 02 cd 16 a9 |Gëî¿...=.ue´.Í.©|
00000050 0f 00 74 5c 33 c0 8e d8 8e c0 be be 7d b9 04 00 |..t\3À.Ø.À¾¾}¹..|
00000060 80 3c 80 74 0a 83 c6 10 e2 f6 b0 32 e9 cd 00 b2 |.<.t..Æ.âö°2éÍ.²|
00000070 80 b4 41 bb aa 55 cd 13 72 67 81 fb 55 aa 75 61 |.´A»ªUÍ.rg.ûUªua|
00000080 bf 26 06 8b 4c 08 89 0d 8b 4c 0a 89 4d 02 b4 42 |¿&..L....L..M.´B|
00000090 be 1e 06 bb 03 00 50 56 53 b2 80 cd 13 73 3c 33 |¾..»..PVS².Í.s<3|
000000a0 c0 b2 80 cd 13 5b 5e 58 4b 75 eb b0 31 e9 8c 00 |À².Í.[^XKuë°1é..|
000000b0 bb 7f 01 b8 00 10 8e d8 8e c0 b9 03 00 51 ba 80 |»..¸...Ø.À¹..Qº.|
000000c0 00 b9 02 00 b4 02 b0 3d 90 cd 13 73 52 33 c0 b2 |.¹..´.°=.Í.sR3À²|
000000d0 80 cd 13 59 e2 e7 b0 31 eb 62 90 5b 5e 58 eb 2d |.Í.Yâç°1ëb.[^Xë-|
000000e0 90 b2 80 8a 74 01 8b 4c 02 bb 03 00 53 51 52 bb |.²..t..L.»..SQR»|
000000f0 00 7c b8 01 02 cd 13 73 11 33 c0 b2 80 cd 13 5a |.|¸..Í.s.3À².Í.Z|
00000100 59 5b 4b 75 e7 b0 31 eb 33 90 5a 59 5b 81 3e fe |Y[Kuç°1ë3.ZY[.>þ|
00000110 7d 55 aa 74 05 b0 34 eb 23 90 ea 00 7c 00 00 b8 |}Uªt.°4ë#.ê.|..¸|
00000120 00 10 8e c0 26 81 3e fc 02 47 41 75 0d 26 83 3e |...À&.>ü.GAu.&.>|
00000130 fe 02 47 75 05 ea 00 03 00 10 b0 33 bb 07 00 b4 |þ.Gu.ê....°3»..´|
00000140 0e cd 10 eb fe 56 e8 2d 07 c6 06 ea 5f 00 c6 06 |.Í.ëþVè-.Æ.ê_.Æ.|
00000150 eb 5f 00 c6 06 db 5f 5f 52 be 23 35 bb 48 00 b8 |ë_.Æ.Û__R¾#5»H.¸|
00000160 38 00 e8 5c f4 5a 5e b6 0a bb 10 12 e8 42 02 bf |8.è\ôZ^¶.»..èB.¿|
00000170 db 5f b7 00 e8 4c 00 53 e8 a0 04 5b 3c 0d 75 09 |Û_·.èL.Sè .[<.u.|
00000180 c6 05 20 c6 06 ea 5f 00 c3 3c 08 75 11 80 ff 00 |Æ. Æ.ê_.Ã<.u..ÿ.|
00000190 74 e5 c6 05 20 4f fe cf c6 05 5f eb 21 90 3c 20 |tåÆ. OþÏÆ._ë!.< |
000001a0 72 d5 80 3e 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |rÕ.>............|
000001b0 00 00 00 00 00 00 4f 78 ca ac ca ac 00 00 00 01 |......Oxʬʬ....|
000001c0 01 00 07 fe ff ff 3f 00 00 00 a9 c3 4a 09 00 00 |...þÿÿ?...©ÃJ...|
000001d0 c1 ff 0c fe ff ff fe eb 03 12 fe 64 9c 00 00 00 |Áÿ.þÿÿþë..þd....|
000001e0 c1 ff ef fe ff ff fc 50 a0 12 c5 39 01 00 80 00 |ÁÿïþÿÿüP .Å9....|
000001f0 c1 ff a6 fe ff ff e8 c3 4a 09 16 28 b9 08 55 aa |Áÿ¦þÿÿèÃJ..(¹.Uª|
00000200
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