Arch Linux

wkchu

Member

Registered: 2013-09-09

Posts: 4

[SOLVED] Console font - wrong default unimap

Ok, I give up. It's been 1 year since I've encountered this problem and I've already spent several hours documenting myself on the topic.
I'd like to work on Arch without an X server, using tmux and vim it works fine. The thing is, the wrong unimap file is loaded by the kernel upon start-up. Things are a bit confusing but I've understood that a unicode mapping table (provided either in a separate file or in the psfu font) has to be loaded in order for the console to display characters properly. When splitting a window in tmux, the window separator (which should be a straight line) is drawn with funny characters (like ========...). The problem is solved when I reload the default font using setfont. It seems to me that the console driver uses a default unimap that isn't the same as the one included in the font (which works fine). The consequence is that I have to type the following command each time I boot into Arch:

setfont /usr/share/kbd/consolefonts/Lat2-Terminus16

I've tried to automate the process by specifying the unimap in /etc/vconsole.conf but to no avail. To do so, I've executed the command written above to load the correct unimap and exported the current unimap with "setfont -ou ~/unimap.current". When I got to another console (for example, with alt+f2), the default unimap is wrong as usual. Executing the command "setfont -u ~/unimap.current" in that console solves the problem. I then added my unimap.current file to /usr/share/kbd/unimaps and added the line "FONT_UNIMAP=unimap.current" to my /etc/vconsole.conf file. That doesn't solve my problem when I boot although it seems to load the mapping correctly according to journalctl (there's no error). I did all of this because I can't find what the name of the unimap file that works for me is.

I also tried invoking setfont upon login by putting the setfont command inside /etc/profile but although it works, it complains about not being able to get a file descriptor to the console.

Here's my /etc/vconsole.map:

KEYMAP=fr_CH-latin1
FONT=Lat2-Terminus16
FONT_UNIMAP=unimap.current

There's maybe something I didn't get right in the beginner's guide as I can hardly find anyone complaining about this behavior by googling.

Any help will be appreciated :).

Last edited by wkchu (2014-04-08 11:58:46)

Head_on_a_Stick

Member

From: London

Registered: 2014-02-20

Posts: 7,732

Website

Re: [SOLVED] Console font - wrong default unimap

Have you tried loading the graphics driver earlier in the boot process?
See here for details ("Early KMS Start")

---

Are you infected with Wetiko?

wkchu

Member

Registered: 2013-09-09

Posts: 4

Re: [SOLVED] Console font - wrong default unimap

Ok, that made it. Thanks a lot.

Head_on_a_Stick

Member

From: London

Registered: 2014-02-20

Posts: 7,732

Website

Re: [SOLVED] Console font - wrong default unimap

You're welcome, glad to hear it worked

---

Are you infected with Wetiko?