Can't see what you type in PuTTY ??

You have executed some strange command that somebody told you to run, or you copied and pasted something you saw on the internet. Now your terminal window is acting weird. You are typing command but they don't show on your terminal but when you hit enter, the command runs fine. Also every time you hit enter, your prompt doesn't come on a new line. Is this what you are experiencing ?

Well, don't do it ever again. I mean type something you do not fully grasp what the command is supposed to do. Even though Linux can not get viruses, those commands you are typing might open your system's doors to, what so called, root kits, which are not something you want to have on your system.

Having said that, the solution to your problem is pretty easy. Just type


stty echo


in your terminal, even though you don't see what you are typing. Then hit enter. Order shall return.

Accidentally hit Ctrl-S on your terminal and froze ?

Well, if this is you, just hit Ctrl-Q and the order shall return.

The nitty gritty is, ctrl-s sequence will effectively send an XOFF signal to your terminal, pausing the flow-control, which means the terminal will still accept input but will not show what you typed. Hitting ctrl-q will send a XON signal which tells it to resume displaying. If you hit multiple return or ctrl-c in the process of hoping to restore your terminal, will display after you hit ctrl-q.

If you are a regular user of GNU screen utility, I am sure sooner or later you will, at least accidentally, find yourself looking for this solution.

Here ya go...