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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<!DOCTYPE sect1 PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.5//EN"
"http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.5/docbookx.dtd" [
<!ENTITY % general-entities SYSTEM "../general.ent">
%general-entities;
]>
<sect1 id="ch-scripts-console">
<?dbhtml filename="console.html"?>
<title>Configuring the Linux Console</title>
<indexterm zone="ch-scripts-console">
<primary sortas="d-console">console</primary>
<secondary>configuring</secondary>
</indexterm>
<para>This section discusses how to configure the <command>console</command>
and <command>consolelog</command> bootscripts that set up the keyboard map,
console font and console kernel log level. If non-ASCII 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, much of this section can be skipped. Without
the configuration file, the <command>console</command> bootscript will do
nothing.</para>
<para>The <command>console</command> and <command>consolelog</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
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">/lib/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>LOGLEVEL</term>
<listitem>
<para>This variable specifies the log level for kernel messages sent
to the console as set by <command>dmesg</command>. Valid levels are
from "1" (no messages) to "8". The default level is "7".</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<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.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
<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 > /etc/sysconfig/console << "EOF"
<literal># Begin /etc/sysconfig/console
KEYMAP="pl2"
FONT="lat2a-16 -m 8859-2"
# End /etc/sysconfig/console</literal>
EOF</userinput></screen>
</listitem>
<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 > /etc/sysconfig/console << "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>
<listitem>
<para>The following is a Unicode-enabled example for Bulgarian, where a
stock UTF-8 keymap exists:</para>
<screen role="nodump"><userinput>cat > /etc/sysconfig/console << "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>
<screen role="nodump"><userinput>cat > /etc/sysconfig/console << "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>There is no pre-made UTF-8 Russian keyamp, therefore it has to be
produced by converting the existing KOI8-R keymap as illustrated
below:</para>
<screen role="nodump"><userinput>cat > /etc/sysconfig/console << "EOF"
<literal># Begin /etc/sysconfig/console
UNICODE="1"
KEYMAP="ru_ms"
LEGACY_CHARSET="koi8-r"
FONT="LatArCyrHeb-16"
# End /etc/sysconfig/console</literal>
EOF</userinput></screen>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Some keymaps have dead keys (i.e., keys that don't produce a
character by themselves, but put an accent on the character produced
by the next key) or define composition rules (such as: <quote>press
Ctrl+. A E to get Æ</quote> in the default keymap).
Linux-&linux-version; in UTF-8 keyboard mode assumes that accented
characters produced via dead keys or composing are in the Latin-1 range
of Unicode, and it is impossible to change this assumption. Thus,
accented characters needed for, e.g., the Czech language, can't be typed
on Linux console in UTF-8 mode (but files containing these characters can
be displayed correctly). The solution is either to avoid the use of
UTF-8, or to install the X window system that doesn't have this
limitation in its input handling.</para>
</listitem>
<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. In such situations, limitations mentioned
in the last two list items above do not apply.</para>
</note>
</sect1>
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