diff --git a/cmd/auth.go b/cmd/auth.go
index 613a74a..80b639c 100644
--- a/cmd/auth.go
+++ b/cmd/auth.go
@@ -116,7 +116,13 @@ func runLogin(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) error {
 	fmt.Println("Copy the link out of the email. Don't open it in your browser first:")
 	fmt.Println("the link works once, and the browser would spend it.")
 	fmt.Printf("It also expires %s after it is sent — an email that turns up late\n", auth.LinkValidity)
-	fmt.Println("turns up dead, so if it has not arrived, run this command again.")
+	// Saying "run this command again" and stopping there sent people at a
+	// blocking prompt looking for a way out of it. The empty line they reach
+	// for is the one exit that is not one: it comes back as `nothing pasted`
+	// and exit 1, which reads like the login failed rather than like they
+	// left it.
+	fmt.Println("turns up dead. If it has not arrived, leave with ctrl-c and run")
+	fmt.Println("this command again.")
 	fmt.Println()
 
 	fmt.Print("Paste the link: ")
diff --git a/internal/tui/config_test.go b/internal/tui/config_test.go
index 1133727..1879c7a 100644
--- a/internal/tui/config_test.go
+++ b/internal/tui/config_test.go
@@ -1765,6 +1765,12 @@ func TestHomeDropsTheGuideWhenSetupIsDone(t *testing.T) {
 // green and wrong at the same time.
 func TestSigningInHappensInsideThePanel(t *testing.T) {
 	m := setupModel(t, &session.Session{})
+	// Said out loud, because View wraps to it and truncates to it. Left to
+	// the zero value this asserted against whatever the default happened to
+	// be: at 60 columns the renderer breaks the sentence as "expires 15 /
+	// minutes" and at 80x20 the truncation eats it, so the test failed for a
+	// screen that was right.
+	m.lay = newLayout(90, 30)
 
 	if m.loginStage != loginOff {
 		t.Fatal("the panel opens mid-login")
@@ -1790,8 +1796,13 @@ func TestSigningInHappensInsideThePanel(t *testing.T) {
 		t.Fatal("an accepted request does not move on to the link")
 	}
 	out = m.View()
+	// Against the screen with its line breaks collapsed: whether "15 minutes"
+	// survives as two words on one line is the renderer's business and
+	// changes with one more word in the message. What this is here to catch
+	// is the sentence going missing.
+	flat := strings.Join(strings.Fields(out), " ")
 	for _, want := range []string{"Let's confirm it with the magic link", "Paste the link", "15 minutes"} {
-		if !strings.Contains(out, want) {
+		if !strings.Contains(flat, want) {
 			t.Errorf("the second step does not ask for the link:\n%s", out)
 		}
 	}