Console UTF-8 Greek accent characters

ksmanis · 2012-01-10 15:14:37

LOCALE="en_US.UTF-8"
DAEMON_LOCALE="no"
KEYMAP="gr"
CONSOLEFONT="iso07.14"
CONSOLEMAP="8859-7_to_uni"

Having this configuration I can view Greek characters (even accented), switch keyboard from English to Greek (using Alt+Shift) and write Greek characters (example: αβωδσφηξ) but not accented ones (example: άέήίύόώ ϊϋ ΰΐ). Accented characters are produced by first pressing a "dead" key (semi-colon/colon key in my case). I am always referring to console, everything's fine under X.

If I change my configuration to this:

LOCALE="en_US.iso88591"
DAEMON_LOCALE="no"
KEYMAP="gr"
CONSOLEFONT="iso07.14"
CONSOLEMAP=

I can even type accented characters in console but then other issues come up related to the locale not being UTF-8.
Isn't there a way to produce accented characters (multibyte UTF sequences they are) in a UTF-8 console?

I have gone through tons of documentation and sites and still haven't figured this out :-/ Is this a limitation of the kernel not supporting multibyte sequences? (http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/lfs/vie … nsole.html <- see bottom of page)

nexus7 · 2012-01-11 00:17:30

You need at least two things:

(1) a proper unicode console font containing these letters
(2) a framebuffer console

and in case the input of those accents does not work on your console yet, also
(3) a console capable input method

Regarding (2), I personally use fbterm for viewing CJK on console. Finally check fbterm with

fbterm 2>/dev/null

(you'll probably have to re-login or reboot for this) and if it does, add this e.g. to your user's shell config file (like ~/.bashrc) afterwards. Read more about fbterm here.

ntl you'll find some more interesting stuff at Arch's Other languages subforum as well, I guess.
Have fun!

Edit:
Ah yes, forgot the most important~

Welcome to Arch!

Last edited by nexus7 (2012-01-11 00:21:57)

nasosnik · 2012-01-11 13:26:48

ksmanis wrote:

Having this configuration I can view Greek characters (even accented), switch keyboard from English to Greek (using Alt+Shift) and write Greek characters (example: αβωδσφηξ) but not accented ones (example: άέήίύόώ ϊϋ ΰΐ). Accented characters are produced by first pressing a "dead" key (semi-colon/colon key in my case). I am always referring to console, everything's fine under X.

I have the following configuration and i can properly write accented characters to console (urxvt).

LOCALE="en_US.UTF-8"
DAEMON_LOCALE="yes"
KEYMAP="us"
CONSOLEFONT=                <= empty
CONSOLEMAP=                  <= empty

To properly write greek with alt+shift at keyboard i have this file named "10-keyboard.conf " in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/

Section "InputClass"
   Identifier  "Generic Keyboard"
   MatchIsKeyboard   "yes"
   Option      "CoreKeyboard"
   Option      "XkbRules"  "xorg"
   Option      "XkbModel"  "pc105"
   Option      "XkbLayout" "us,el"
   Option      "XkbOptions"   "grp:alt_shift_toggle,compose:menu,grp_led:scroll"
EndSection

I hope i helped you

nexus7 · 2012-01-11 13:43:57

nasosnik wrote:

I have the following configuration and i can properly write accented characters to console (urxvt).

Well, I understand the OP would like to know that for tty (plain text console), not for X terminals:

ksmanis wrote:

I am always referring to console, everything's fine under X.

But nvm.

((edit: typo correction)))

Last edited by nexus7 (2012-01-11 14:09:13)

ksmanis · 2012-01-12 01:47:32

What about if I have KMS enabled?

nexus7 · 2012-01-12 08:58:18

ksmanis wrote:

What about if I have KMS enabled?

Hm, don't know about that, never used it; I believe I can't because of hardware reasons and/or I'm using a propriety driver for my gfx card (nvidia).

If you do, does it work (seemingly it does, as you said you enabled it)? If not, did you read the wiki then? It says, framebuffer (drivers) must be disabled for KMS.

Well, since I don't have KMS, I specified a resolution in the command line of my bootloader (/boot/grub/menu.lst):

kernel ... vga=0x346 ...

Anyway, do you use a console font, that contains Greek characters?

ksmanis · 2012-01-12 12:28:13

I use a Terminus font (ter-v16v) which contains all Greek characters but I don't know if it's Unicode. Are there Unicode console fonts anyway?

karol · 2012-01-12 12:32:36

IIRC the console can display 512 glyphs so that's nowhere near the amount you need for a full Unicode support but you can use a console framebuffer http://code.google.com/p/fbterm/ that can even do CJK characters.

ksmanis · 2012-01-12 12:41:49

Yeah, that's what I thought. The problem is not to have a truly Unicode console font but to input some special Greek characters. So far a console input method along with a framebuffer seems the way to go

karol · 2012-01-12 13:24:44

I don't have a clue how to input anything using the dead keys or any other "fancy" method, but I've been able to input anything I want using the hex values in vim in fbterm.

ksmanis · 2012-01-12 16:31:19

FYI framebuffer is not disabled with KMS. On the contrary, it is set at your native resolution. So I used fbterm along with ibus as console input method and managed to write accented Greek characters.

There are some downsides though:

I couldn't make ibus switch language with Alt+Shift (it works fine under X, but freezes the whole system under fbterm) so I went for Ctrl+Space.
ibus-fbterm-launch should be launched every time you want to start fbterm with ibus as input method. I didn't bother finding a way to do this automatically for no-X ttys.
When switching from Greek to English two question marks appear which have to be erased every time. No clue why.

I don't use no-X consoles that much so I will just revert to the default configuration.

nexus7 · 2012-01-13 03:52:04

...wah, I didn't know ibus can do Greek, too, otherwise I would've mentioned it. But yeah, it's also true for me, that using ibus on console isn't that funny for Korean as well yet. I remember pressing space after each syllable and deleting ??s...

But if you are still interested in typing Greek texts on console, then emacs' leim should do the trick.

Arch Linux

#1 2012-01-10 15:14:37

Console UTF-8 Greek accent characters

#2 2012-01-11 00:17:30

Re: Console UTF-8 Greek accent characters

#3 2012-01-11 13:26:48

Re: Console UTF-8 Greek accent characters

#4 2012-01-11 13:43:57

Re: Console UTF-8 Greek accent characters

#5 2012-01-12 01:47:32

Re: Console UTF-8 Greek accent characters

#6 2012-01-12 08:58:18

Re: Console UTF-8 Greek accent characters

#7 2012-01-12 12:28:13

Re: Console UTF-8 Greek accent characters

#8 2012-01-12 12:32:36

Re: Console UTF-8 Greek accent characters

#9 2012-01-12 12:41:49

Re: Console UTF-8 Greek accent characters

#10 2012-01-12 13:24:44

Re: Console UTF-8 Greek accent characters

#11 2012-01-12 16:31:19

Re: Console UTF-8 Greek accent characters

#12 2012-01-13 03:52:04

Re: Console UTF-8 Greek accent characters

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