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authorJeremy Huntwork <jhuntwork@linuxfromscratch.org>2006-01-06 01:59:08 +0000
committerJeremy Huntwork <jhuntwork@linuxfromscratch.org>2006-01-06 01:59:08 +0000
commitfa21b3dc894b9964620968dfae6685d69ce89fb9 (patch)
tree2353b9af8cae48156b98e651873d483e994e352a /chapter07/console.xml
parent60e34b52810dd47567ca18aa2c86fe4cd7c9fd01 (diff)
Initial support of UTF-8. Thanks Alexander Patrakov.
git-svn-id: http://svn.linuxfromscratch.org/LFS/trunk/BOOK@7245 4aa44e1e-78dd-0310-a6d2-fbcd4c07a689
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<para>This section discusses how to configure the <command>console</command>
bootscript that sets up the keyboard map and the console font. If non-ASCII
- characters (e.g., the British pound sign and Euro character) will not be used
- and the keyboard is a U.S. one, skip this section. Without the configuration
- file, the <command>console</command> bootscript will do nothing.</para>
+ characters (e.g., the copyright sign, the British pound sign and Euro symbol)
+ will not be used and the keyboard is a U.S. one, skip this section. Without
+ the configuration file, the <command>console</command> bootscript will do
+ nothing.</para>
<para>The <command>console</command> script reads the
<filename>/etc/sysconfig/console</filename> file for configuration information.
Decide which keymap and screen font will be used. Various language-specific
- HOWTO's can also help with this (see <ulink
- url="http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/HOWTO-INDEX/other-lang.html"/>. A pre-made
- <filename>/etc/sysconfig/console</filename> file with known settings for several
- countries was installed with the LFS-Bootscripts package, so the relevant
- section can be uncommented if the country is supported. If still in doubt, look
- in the <filename class="directory">/usr/share/kbd</filename> directory for valid
- keymaps and screen fonts. Read <filename>loadkeys(1)</filename> and
- <filename>setfont(8)</filename> to determine the correct arguments for
- these programs. Once decided, create the configuration file with the following
- command:</para>
-
-<screen><userinput>cat &gt;/etc/sysconfig/console &lt;&lt;"EOF"
-<literal>KEYMAP="<replaceable>[arguments for loadkeys]</replaceable>"
-FONT="<replaceable>[arguments for setfont]</replaceable>"</literal>
+ HOWTOs can also help with this, see <ulink
+ url="http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/HOWTO-INDEX/other-lang.html"/>. If still in
+ doubt, look in the <filename class="directory">/usr/share/kbd</filename>
+ directory for valid keymaps and screen fonts. Read
+ <filename>loadkeys(1)</filename> and <filename>setfont(8)</filename> manual
+ pages to determine the correct arguments for these programs.</para>
+
+ <para>The <filename>/etc/sysconfig/console</filename> file should contain lines
+ of the form: VARIABLE="value". The following variables are recognized:</para>
+
+ <variablelist>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>KEYMAP</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>This variable specifies the arguments for the
+ <command>loadkeys</command> program, typically, the name of keymap
+ to load, e.g., <quote>es</quote>. If this variable is not set, the
+ bootscript will not run the <command>loadkeys</command> program,
+ and the default kernel keymap will be used.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>KEYMAP_CORRECTIONS</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>This (rarely used) variable
+ specifies the arguments for the second call to the
+ <command>loadkeys</command> program. This is useful if the stock keymap
+ is not completely satisfactory and a small adjustment has to be made. E.g.,
+ to include the Euro sign into a keymap that normally doesn't have it,
+ set this variable to <quote>euro2</quote>.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>FONT</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>This variable specifies the arguments for the
+ <command>setfont</command> program. Typically, this includes the font
+ name, <quote>-m</quote>, and the name of the application character
+ map to load. E.g., in order to load the <quote>lat1-16</quote> font
+ together with the <quote>8859-1</quote> application character map
+ (as it is appropriate in the USA), <!-- because of the copyright sign -->
+ set this variable to <quote>lat1-16 -m 8859-1</quote>.
+ If this variable is not set, the bootscript will not run the
+ <command>setfont</command> program, and the default VGA font will be
+ used together with the default application character map.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>UNICODE</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Set this variable to <quote>1</quote>, <quote>yes</quote> or
+ <quote>true</quote> in order to put the
+ console into UTF-8 mode. This is useful in UTF-8 based locales and
+ harmful otherwise.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>LEGACY_CHARSET</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>For many keyboard layouts, there is no stock Unicode keymap in
+ the Kbd package. The <command>console</command> bootscript will
+ convert an available keymap to UTF-8 on the fly if this variable is
+ set to the encoding of the available non-UTF-8 keymap. Note, however,
+ that dead keys (i.e., keys that don't produce a character by
+ themselves, but put an accent onto a character procuced by the next
+ key; there are no dead keys on the standard US keyboard) and composing
+ (i.e., pressing Ctrl+. A E in order to produce the &AElig; character)
+ will not work in UTF-8 mode without the special kernel patch.
+ This variable is useful only in UTF-8 mode.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>BROKEN_COMPOSE</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Set this to <quote>0</quote> if you are going to apply the kernel patch in
+ Chapter 8. Note that you also have to add the character set expected
+ by composition rules in your keymap to the FONT variable after the
+ <quote>-m</quote> switch. This variable is useful only in UTF-8 mode.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ </variablelist>
+
+ <para>Support for compiling the keymap directly into the kernel has been
+ removed because there were reports that it leads to incorrect results.</para>
+
+ <para>Some examples:</para>
+
+ <itemizedlist>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>For a non-Unicode setup, only the KEYMAP and FONT variables are
+ generally needed. E.g., for a Polish setup, one would use:</para>
+
+<screen role="nodump"><userinput>cat &gt; /etc/sysconfig/console &lt;&lt; "EOF"
+<literal># Begin /etc/sysconfig/console
+
+KEYMAP="pl2"
+FONT="lat2a-16 -m 8859-2"
+
+# End /etc/sysconfig/console</literal>
EOF</userinput></screen>
+ </listitem>
- <para>For example, for Spanish users who also want to use the Euro
- character (accessible by pressing AltGr+E), the following settings are
- correct:</para>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>As mentioned above, it is sometimes necessary to adjust a
+ stock keymap slightly. The following example adds the Euro symbol to the
+ German keymap:</para>
-<screen role="nodump"><userinput>cat &gt;/etc/sysconfig/console &lt;&lt;"EOF"
-<literal>KEYMAP="es euro2"
-FONT="lat9-16 -u iso01"</literal>
+<screen role="nodump"><userinput>cat &gt; /etc/sysconfig/console &lt;&lt; "EOF"
+<literal># Begin /etc/sysconfig/console
+
+KEYMAP="de-latin1"
+KEYMAP_CORRECTIONS="euro2"
+FONT="lat0-16 -m 8859-15"
+
+# End /etc/sysconfig/console</literal>
EOF</userinput></screen>
+ </listitem>
- <note>
- <para>The <envar>FONT</envar> line above is correct only for the ISO 8859-15
- character set. If using ISO 8859-1 and, therefore, a pound sign
- instead of Euro, the correct <envar>FONT</envar> line would be:</para>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>The following is a Unicode-enabled example for Bulgarian, where a stock
+ UTF-8 keymap exists and defines no dead keys or composition rules:</para>
-<screen role="nodump"><userinput>FONT="lat1-16"</userinput></screen>
- </note>
+<screen role="nodump"><userinput>cat &gt; /etc/sysconfig/console &lt;&lt; "EOF"
+<literal># Begin /etc/sysconfig/console
+
+UNICODE="1"
+KEYMAP="bg_bds-utf8"
+FONT="LatArCyrHeb-16"
+
+# End /etc/sysconfig/console</literal>
+EOF</userinput></screen>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Due to the use of a 512-glyph LatArCyrHeb-16 font in the previous
+ example, bright colors are no longer available on the Linux console unless
+ a framebuffer is used. If one wants to have bright colors without
+ framebuffer and can live without characters not belonging to his language,
+ it is still possible to use a language-specific 256-glyph font, as
+ illustrated below.</para>
- <para>If the <envar>KEYMAP</envar> or <envar>FONT</envar> variable is not set,
- the <command>console</command> initscript will not run the corresponding
- program.</para>
-
- <para>In some keymaps, the Backspace and Delete keys send characters different
- from ones in the default keymap built into the kernel. This confuses some
- applications. For example, Emacs displays its help (instead of erasing the
- character before the cursor) when Backspace is pressed. To check if the keymap
- in use is affected (this works only for i386 keymaps):</para>
-
-<screen role="nodump"><userinput>zgrep '\W14\W' <replaceable>[/path/to/your/keymap]</replaceable></userinput></screen>
-
- <para>If the keycode 14 is Backspace instead of Delete, create the
- following keymap snippet to fix this issue:</para>
-
-<screen role="nodump"><userinput>mkdir -pv /etc/kbd &amp;&amp; cat &gt; /etc/kbd/bs-sends-del &lt;&lt;"EOF"
-<literal> keycode 14 = Delete Delete Delete Delete
- alt keycode 14 = Meta_Delete
- altgr alt keycode 14 = Meta_Delete
- keycode 111 = Remove
- altgr control keycode 111 = Boot
- control alt keycode 111 = Boot
-altgr control alt keycode 111 = Boot</literal>
+<screen role="nodump"><userinput>cat &gt; /etc/sysconfig/console &lt;&lt; "EOF"
+<literal># Begin /etc/sysconfig/console
+
+UNICODE="1"
+KEYMAP="bg_bds-utf8"
+FONT="cyr-sun16"
+
+# End /etc/sysconfig/console</literal>
EOF</userinput></screen>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>The following example illustrates keymap autoconversion from
+ ISO-8859-15 to UTF-8 and enabling dead keys in Unicode mode:</para>
+
+<screen role="nodump"><userinput>cat &gt; /etc/sysconfig/console &lt;&lt; "EOF"
+<literal># Begin /etc/sysconfig/console
- <para>Tell the <command>console</command> script to load this
- snippet after the main keymap:</para>
+UNICODE="1"
+KEYMAP="de-latin1"
+KEYMAP_CORRECTIONS="euro2"
+LEGACY_CHARSET="iso-8859-15"
+BROKEN_COMPOSE="0"
+FONT="LatArCyrHeb-16 -m 8859-15"
-<screen role="nodump"><userinput>cat &gt;&gt;/etc/sysconfig/console &lt;&lt;"EOF"
-<literal>KEYMAP_CORRECTIONS="/etc/kbd/bs-sends-del"</literal>
+# End /etc/sysconfig/console</literal>
EOF</userinput></screen>
+ </listitem>
- <para>To compile the keymap directly into the kernel instead of
- setting it every time from the <command>console</command> bootscript,
- follow the instructions given in <xref linkend="ch-bootable-kernel" role="."/>
- Doing this ensures that the keyboard will always work as expected,
- even when booting into maintenance mode (by passing
- <parameter>init=/bin/sh</parameter> to the kernel), because the
- <command>console</command> bootscript will not be run in that
- situation. Additionally, the kernel will not set the screen font
- automatically. This should not pose many problems because ASCII characters
- will be handled correctly, and it is unlikely that a user would need
- to rely on non-ASCII characters while in maintenance mode.</para>
-
- <para>Since the kernel will set up the keymap, it is possible to omit
- the <envar>KEYMAP</envar> variable from the
- <filename>/etc/sysconfig/console</filename> configuration file. It can
- also be left in place, if desired, without consequence. Keeping it
- could be beneficial if running several different kernels where it is
- difficult to ensure that the keymap is compiled into every one of
- them.</para>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>For Chinese, Japanese, Korean and some other languages, the Linux
+ console cannot be configured to display the needed characters. Users
+ who need such languages should install the X Window System, fonts that
+ cover the necessary character ranges, and the proper input method (e.g.,
+ SCIM, it supports a wide variety of languages).</para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ </itemizedlist>
+
+ <!-- Added because folks keep posting their console file with X questions
+ to blfs-support list -->
+ <note>
+ <para>The <filename>/etc/sysconfig/console</filename> file only controls the
+ Linux text console localization. It has nothing to do with setting the proper
+ keyboard layout and terminal fonts in the X Window System, with ssh sessions
+ or with a serial console.</para>
+ </note>
</sect1>