Arch Linux

loadlover

Member

Registered: 2017-05-10

Posts: 103

How to find current console font name? And default font name

Hi all,

Is there a way to find the name of the currently used console font?

Also, what is the default console font's name (as used during installation)?

Surprisingly, I couldn't find this information in the ArchWiki.

Thanks,

Loady

Slithery

Administrator

From: Norfolk, UK

Registered: 2013-12-01

Posts: 5,776

Re: How to find current console font name? And default font name

By default, the virtual console uses the kernel built-in font with a CP437 character set

I've had a quick search but I couldn't find out what this is, diving into Arch's kernel config may help but I'm not sure what I'm looking for. The following seems to suggest that no fonts are set...

slithery@red:~$ zgrep FONT /proc/config.gz 
CONFIG_FONT_SUPPORT=y
CONFIG_FONTS=y
# CONFIG_FONT_8x8 is not set
CONFIG_FONT_8x16=y
# CONFIG_FONT_6x11 is not set
# CONFIG_FONT_7x14 is not set
# CONFIG_FONT_PEARL_8x8 is not set
# CONFIG_FONT_ACORN_8x8 is not set
# CONFIG_FONT_MINI_4x6 is not set
# CONFIG_FONT_6x10 is not set
# CONFIG_FONT_10x18 is not set
# CONFIG_FONT_SUN8x16 is not set
# CONFIG_FONT_SUN12x22 is not set
CONFIG_FONT_AUTOSELECT=y

I don't think it's possible to find out what the currently used font is, see the first answer here...
https://superuser.com/questions/452366/ … n-in-linux

Edit - It may be possible to use setfont to dump the current font to a file, and then compare with the available fonts in /usr/share/kbd/consolefonts/.

Last edited by Slithery (2017-11-29 12:03:48)

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No, it didn't "fix" anything. It just shifted the brokeness one space to the right. - jasonwryan
Closing -- for deletion; Banning -- for muppetry. - jasonwryan

aur - dotfiles

loadlover

Member

Registered: 2017-05-10

Posts: 103

Re: How to find current console font name? And default font name

By default, the virtual console uses the kernel built-in font with a CP437 character set

I've had a quick search but I couldn't find out what this is, diving into Arch's kernel config may help but I'm not sure what I'm looking for. The following seems to suggest that no fonts are set...

slithery@red:~$ zgrep FONT /proc/config.gz 
CONFIG_FONT_SUPPORT=y
CONFIG_FONTS=y
# CONFIG_FONT_8x8 is not set
CONFIG_FONT_8x16=y
# CONFIG_FONT_6x11 is not set
# CONFIG_FONT_7x14 is not set
# CONFIG_FONT_PEARL_8x8 is not set
# CONFIG_FONT_ACORN_8x8 is not set
# CONFIG_FONT_MINI_4x6 is not set
# CONFIG_FONT_6x10 is not set
# CONFIG_FONT_10x18 is not set
# CONFIG_FONT_SUN8x16 is not set
# CONFIG_FONT_SUN12x22 is not set
CONFIG_FONT_AUTOSELECT=y

CONFIG_FONT_8x16=y <--- surely it is set?

Thanks for your reply, slithery. Yes, it's odd that I can setfont to change to another font, but there's no obvious way back. Curious..

And yeah, dumping the font's glyphs and doing a manual comparison.. golly. Work

- Loady

Slithery

Administrator

From: Norfolk, UK

Registered: 2013-12-01

Posts: 5,776

Re: How to find current console font name? And default font name

And yeah, dumping the font's glyphs and doing a manual comparison.. golly. Work

I didn't mean to compare them manually, I was thinking more along the lines of diff.

---

No, it didn't "fix" anything. It just shifted the brokeness one space to the right. - jasonwryan
Closing -- for deletion; Banning -- for muppetry. - jasonwryan

aur - dotfiles

look997

Member

Registered: 2017-03-18

Posts: 9

Re: How to find current console font name? And default font name

@loadlover Tell me if you solved the problem? 
Write what the default font is on Arch Linux.  I need this name.

Head_on_a_Stick

Member

From: The Wirral

Registered: 2014-02-20

Posts: 9,003

Website

Re: How to find current console font name? And default font name

I think the stock "8x16" console font is the one provided by the video card itself, also known as the "VGA" font.

https://unix.stackexchange.com/question … onsole-tty

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Jin, Jîyan, Azadî

look997

Member

Registered: 2017-03-18

Posts: 9

Re: How to find current console font name? And default font name

@Head_on_a_Stick And now a dream to come true:

The same font, but with Polish characters?
With character map iso-8859-2?

seth

Member

From: Won't reply 2 private help req

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 75,989

Re: How to find current console font name? And default font name

https://adeverteuil.github.io/linux-con … reenshots/
Some lat2 variant.

Also please don't necrobump.

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How to upload text · How to boot w/o GUI · Disable Windows Fast-Start! · Fix your xinitrc

Head_on_a_Stick

Member

From: The Wirral

Registered: 2014-02-20

Posts: 9,003

Website

Re: How to find current console font name? And default font name

To complete this old thread:

it's odd that I can setfont to change to another font, but there's no obvious way back

To load the default video card font use

setfont default8x16

The clue is in the name

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Jin, Jîyan, Azadî

stars-hiker

Member

Registered: 2024-05-25

Posts: 1

Re: How to find current console font name? And default font name

To find out what settings are in effect, use:

fc-match --verbose

family: "DejaVu Sans"(s)
hintstyle: 3(i)(s)
hinting: True(s)
...
more info here :
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/font_configuration
2.13 Query the current settings

seth

Member

From: Won't reply 2 private help req

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 75,989

Re: How to find current console font name? And default font name

This thread from 2017 was about the console font, not what fontconfig would ultimately fall back to.

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How to upload text · How to boot w/o GUI · Disable Windows Fast-Start! · Fix your xinitrc