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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>
- <indexterm zone="ch-scripts-console">
- <primary sortas="d-consolelog">consolelog</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 keymap, 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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