diff --git a/scripts/core/sxmo_terminal.sh b/scripts/core/sxmo_terminal.sh
index 18e2212..076749a 100755
--- a/scripts/core/sxmo_terminal.sh
+++ b/scripts/core/sxmo_terminal.sh
@@ -11,4 +11,8 @@ else
 	set -- st "$@"
 fi
 
-exec "$@"
+if [ -z "$*" ]; then
+	echo "sxmo_terminal.sh called in TERMMODE without any arguments (returning, nothing to do)" >&2
+else
+	exec "$@"
+fi
diff --git a/scripts/modem/sxmo_modemtext.sh b/scripts/modem/sxmo_modemtext.sh
index 6271866..863494c 100755
--- a/scripts/modem/sxmo_modemtext.sh
+++ b/scripts/modem/sxmo_modemtext.sh
@@ -4,6 +4,8 @@
 # shellcheck source=scripts/core/sxmo_common.sh
 . "$(dirname "$0")/sxmo_common.sh"
 
+TERMMODE=$([ -n "$SSH_CLIENT" ] || [ -n "$SSH_TTY" ] && echo "true")
+
 err() {
 	echo "$1">&2
 	echo "$1" | dmenu -c -l 10