[SOLVED] How are people getting Unicode in the virtual console?

jwodder · 2026-05-15 17:10:55

The READMEs of some programs like lemurs and tuigreet — which are intended (as far as I understand it) to run on the kernel virtual console before the GUI has launched — show screenshots of nice-looking output with Unicode box-drawing characters all linking up nicely. However, when I try running these programs in an Arch Linux system installed inside VirtualBox, the box-drawing characters are briefly rendered as question marks before being replaced by ASCII characters that don't link up, with the corners even turning into plus signs. Just what kind of packages & configurations are necessary to get box drawing characters and other Unicode goodies to show up in the virtual console?

For the record, my console font is currently set to iso01.16, and setting it to the default font mostly just results in even worse-looking vertical bars. I also found the program KMSCON, which seems promising (aside from problems displaying bold text and other ANSI effects, plus some weirdness with output sometimes not showing up immediately), except that I have no idea what font to pick. Is KMSCON how people usually achieve Unicode in the console? What fonts with decent Unicode coverage are generally recommended?

Last edited by jwodder (2026-05-15 21:26:05)

seth · 2026-05-15 20:15:42

That's probably (hopefully) not utf8, https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Linux_console#Fonts / https://adeverteuil.github.io/linux-con … reenshots/
Box drawing chars have been with us for a very long time, most likely your locale is or $TERM off

Does midnight commander render proper frames or also question marks?

echo $TERM
locale
locale -a
localectl

jwodder · 2026-05-15 20:57:05

`mc` renders with ASCII boxes; the corners are plus signs, and the lines don't join up. This is unlike the appearance I get when I run `mc` on my host machine.

Output from requested commands:

+ echo linux
linux
+ locale
LANG=C.UTF-8
LC_CTYPE="C.UTF-8"
LC_NUMERIC="C.UTF-8"
LC_TIME="C.UTF-8"
LC_COLLATE="C.UTF-8"
LC_MONETARY="C.UTF-8"
LC_MESSAGES="C.UTF-8"
LC_PAPER="C.UTF-8"
LC_NAME="C.UTF-8"
LC_ADDRESS="C.UTF-8"
LC_TELEPHONE="C.UTF-8"
LC_MEASUREMENT="C.UTF-8"
LC_IDENTIFICATION="C.UTF-8"
LC_ALL=C.UTF-8
+ locale -a
C
C.utf8
POSIX
en_US.utf8
+ localectl
System Locale: LANG=C.UTF-8
    VC Keymap: (unset)
   X11 Layout: (unset)

seth · 2026-05-15 21:14:32

The environment is fine.
https://adeverteuil.github.io/linux-con … s/#iso0116 doesn't have most box drawing glyphs - how does lat0-16 perform? Or terminus?

jwodder · 2026-05-15 21:25:35

`setfont lat0-16` and `setfont Lat2-Terminus16` both cause box-drawing characters to show up in `mc` and in `tuigreet`.

Arch Linux

#1 2026-05-15 17:10:55

[SOLVED] How are people getting Unicode in the virtual console?

#2 2026-05-15 20:15:42

Re: [SOLVED] How are people getting Unicode in the virtual console?

#3 2026-05-15 20:57:05

Re: [SOLVED] How are people getting Unicode in the virtual console?

#4 2026-05-15 21:14:32

Re: [SOLVED] How are people getting Unicode in the virtual console?

#5 2026-05-15 21:25:35

Re: [SOLVED] How are people getting Unicode in the virtual console?

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