Recently my bash has often got into strange states I don't understand (debian squeeze system). For example, after starting a new xterm, Control-l prints "^L" on my screen instead of cleaning it. This happens with a "fresh" xterm, with bash as well as with dash (even xterm -e /bin/dash). Also, a reset did never help.
By contrast, after ssh'ing to another box, Control-l does what I expect.
Can somebody make an educated guess for the cause to this very odd behaviour to me (my Unix knowledge can't help out)?
Sorry, I found it out. set -o vi was the culprit, as for bash. As for dash, it's just normal behaviour... Been a hard one.