lfs-book/chapter07/console.xml

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<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>
  bootscript that sets up the keyboard map and the console font. 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, 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
  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>

    <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># 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 and defines no dead keys or composition rules:</para>

<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>

<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

UNICODE="1"
KEYMAP="de-latin1"
KEYMAP_CORRECTIONS="euro2"
LEGACY_CHARSET="iso-8859-15"
BROKEN_COMPOSE="0"
FONT="LatArCyrHeb-16 -m 8859-15"

# End /etc/sysconfig/console</literal>
EOF</userinput></screen>
    </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.</para>
  </note>

</sect1>