console apps are not shown properly

aviad · 2006-01-19 22:04:16

Hi!

I'm a new Arch convert, and so far I have (only!) one problem, but It's about to drive me crazy. console apps such as - mc, mp3blaster, elinks, are not shown corectly. (just in case you haven't understood me - I'm talking here when X not working) For example, in MC the two panels are mixing one onto the other. I hope someone is understanding what the hell I'm talking about...

My first thought was it has something to do with the consolefont. So I swithced back to default8x16.

 setfont /usr/share/kbd/consolefont/default8x16.gz

it was my font on my old distro, gentoo, and there I didn't have any problems. It did not help.

I would love to try and google this, but due to my somewhat crappy English, I don't think it's possible. I simply don't know how to put this.

So, I hope someone in here will be able to help.

elasticdog · 2006-01-20 00:53:06

Do these applications work properly in a terminal window when X is running? Do you have a way of posting a screenshot of what it looks like or describing the problem in more detail?

aviad · 2006-01-20 10:15:57

they work fine in a terminal window. But I do a lot of work without X runing, so it really bugs me.

I don't think there is any way for me to post a screen shot. I don't have a digital camera.
I think I heard once that you can do something with /dev/fb and convert it to jpeg. Is it true? if so, will someone please tell me how, so I can share my problems with the world.

================
UPDATE: I just found out about fbgrab.
Here is how it looks when I start working. It's not so bad actually.
[URL=http://img11.imageshack.us/my.php?image=pic6ff.png] pic6ff.th.png [/URL]

But when I start to move around, things gets messy.
[URL=http://img14.imageshack.us/my.php?image=pic25dk.png] pic25dk.th.png [/URL]

It's not an fbsplash issue as well.
[URL=http://img4.imageshack.us/my.php?image=pic37iu.png] pic37iu.th.png [/URL]

Elinks menus.
[URL=http://img4.imageshack.us/my.php?image=pic41uc.png] pic41uc.th.png [/URL]

Any ideas?

Firmicus · 2006-03-04 23:44:58

I have encountered exactly the same problem with Midnight Commander in the console and it also vexed me (even though I might not use the console as extensively as you do ). Note that mc has similar problems on an X terminal, but they have to do with non-ascii characters messing up the screen (probably because I have a UTF-8 locale). These seem to be two separate issues, but ...

_Gandalf_ · 2006-03-05 08:15:56

I had the same issue as yours, i thinks it needs a bug

Lone_Wolf · 2006-03-19 12:30:55

I've done some searching and it seems MC has a problem with UTF8 fonts.

a workaround is to start mc like this :

mc -a

This uses +, |, - for line drawing and looks ugly, but it works.

Other suggestions i found : switch to an iso-8859-1 font (not sure how to do this).

There are patches from redhat and suse to fix UTF8 support for mc, and they will be included in mc 4.7, but there's no release date mentioned for that version yet.

This is the link for the suse patches : http://www.suse.de/~nadvornik/mc.html

They also need a patched version of slang.

I haven't tried the patches.

codemac · 2006-03-21 20:30:34

You aren't running a vesafb with some funky options are you?

aviad · 2006-03-21 21:02:51

as Lone_Wolf wrote above me, the problem is with UTF-8 locales. (although in my box it's not limitied only for mc)
what complicated things for me was the fact that I also need to use the iso08 (hebrew) font, which also has problems.

It goes like this:
ISO8859-X locale + default font = all is OK. (except I can't read hebrew)
ISO8859-8 + hebrew font= some problems, but still usable.
UTF-8 locale + any font = see the screenshots up.

When I wrote my first message, I was on UTF-8 locale. that's why changing to default font did not help.

For now, I switched to an ISO-based locale. And if I need to work with X in UTF8, I can always do so via gdm.

codemac · 2006-03-21 21:42:01

Oooook. Sorry, forgot this was an app specific thing. If you set your vesafb to ypan versus ywrap there are different character issues that can come up when using ncurses/scrolling apps, I was thinking that might be this, but clearly it is a UTF8 thing.

Gullible Jones · 2006-03-21 22:23:32

This happens to me exactly as you describe Aviad, only on the console... I first saw this with xorgcfg and alsamixer, and it still happens every time I use those apps when X is not running.

Judging from what I saw with xorgcfg, I think that part of the problem is that old stuff isn't cleared from the display before new stuff is shown, i.e. the display is not being updated properly. Alsamixer shows some similar stuff; however, its display is whacky enough that I don't think refresh problems are sufficient to explain it.

Romashka · 2006-03-22 11:49:09

Will those UTF-8 patches be applied to MC in Arch Linux?
All mainstream distros have them.
There are even patches to compile mc with slang2.
MC is depeloped very slowly, so I think it worth to patch it havily instead of waiting for 4.7.

Maybe we should start a thread or wiki page where console programs will be listed and UTF8 issues will be highlighted?

depi · 2006-03-23 21:13:13

Romashka wrote:

Will those UTF-8 patches be applied to MC in Arch Linux?
All mainstream distros have them.
There are even patches to compile mc with slang2.
MC is depeloped very slowly, so I think it worth to patch it havily instead of waiting for 4.7.
Maybe we should start a thread or wiki page where console programs will be listed and UTF8 issues will be highlighted?

Yes this is a good idea. I have also this problem, and the MC really looks ugly and messy

Mikos · 2006-04-09 11:56:49

I have exactly same problem. It is really pissing me off, because Arch Linux seems to be the only distribution with broken UTF8 support I have tried :-( Even old Red Hat 9 had working UTF8 support.

And btw. I have looked to mc PKGBUILD and there _are_ UTF8 related patches. Also ncurses is compiled with UTF8 support. So this is really strange and I don't know what to do :-(

Mikos · 2006-04-09 12:14:55

I have filled bug report, you can look here: http://bugs.archlinux.org/task/4418

cheer · 2006-08-02 20:23:45

Hello. Recently I've downloaded and installed archlinux 0.7.2 x86_64, this issue isn't fixed. So, is there any way to stay on UTF-8 (fix ncurses apps)?

cheer · 2006-08-16 06:21:51

No, I have this version too. As I mentioned there we can patch mc. This works for both x86 and x86_64.

Arch Linux

#1 2006-01-19 22:04:16

console apps are not shown properly

#2 2006-01-20 00:53:06

Re: console apps are not shown properly

#3 2006-01-20 10:15:57

Re: console apps are not shown properly

#4 2006-03-04 23:44:58

Re: console apps are not shown properly

#5 2006-03-05 08:15:56

Re: console apps are not shown properly

#6 2006-03-19 12:30:55

Re: console apps are not shown properly

#7 2006-03-21 20:30:34

Re: console apps are not shown properly

#8 2006-03-21 21:02:51

Re: console apps are not shown properly

#9 2006-03-21 21:42:01

Re: console apps are not shown properly

#10 2006-03-21 22:23:32

Re: console apps are not shown properly

#11 2006-03-22 11:49:09

Re: console apps are not shown properly

#12 2006-03-23 21:13:13

Re: console apps are not shown properly

#13 2006-04-09 11:56:49

Re: console apps are not shown properly

#14 2006-04-09 12:14:55

Re: console apps are not shown properly

#15 2006-08-02 20:23:45

Re: console apps are not shown properly

#16 2006-08-16 06:21:51

Re: console apps are not shown properly

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