Arch Linux

LudwigJ

Member

Registered: 2021-02-25

Posts: 26

[SOLVED] Font woes

I don't use a graphical login, I boot into a tty shell.
Following instructions found on https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Linux_console,  I edited the file /etc/vconsole.conf in order to set the default console font:

FONT=default8x16

This worked as expected until some time ago, when it suddenly stopped working for some reason.
Now, at the end of the boot process I get a bigger "default" font, as if /etc/vconsole.conf was ignored.
If I type setfont -v, the correct font is loaded with this message:

setfont: INFO setfont.c:162 try_loadfont: Loading 256-char 8x16 font from file /usr/share/kbd/consolefonts/default8x16.psfu.gz
setfont: INFO setfont.c:259 do_loadtable: Loading Unicode mapping table...

Disconcerting facts:
- this happens most of the times but not always. Once in maybe 10 times the correct font is loaded
- if I turn the computer off and then on again, it always loads the correct font

Last edited by LudwigJ (2025-07-05 23:23:22)

ewaller

Administrator

From: Pasadena, CA

Registered: 2009-07-13

Posts: 20,413

Re: [SOLVED] Font woes

It sounds like a race condition.  You might locate the journal of a boot where it works and compare it to a journal of when it does not boot.

You will want to be using the -b switch of journactl  (-b means current boot, -b-1 means the previous boot, -b-3 means three boots ago)

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LudwigJ

Member

Registered: 2021-02-25

Posts: 26

Re: [SOLVED] Font woes

Thanks for your suggestion. I run this command:

journalctl -b | grep setfont

and I found something funny: when the correct font is not loaded, the command runs silently,
but when the font is loaded, it returns this:

systemd-vconsole-setup[771]: setfont: ERROR kdfontop.c:212 put_font_kdfontop: No se puede cargar ese tipo de letra con esa versión de kernel
systemd-vconsole-setup[753]: /usr/bin/setfont failed with a "system error" (EX_OSERR), ignoring.

The message in Spanish is equivalent to "Unable to load such font with such kernel version".

seth

Member

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 65,548

Re: [SOLVED] Font woes

This is gonna boil down to whether you get kms, can you please post either journal?

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LudwigJ

Member

Registered: 2021-02-25

Posts: 26

Re: [SOLVED] Font woes

https://pastebin.com/cPugLBVs

seth

Member

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 65,548

Re: [SOLVED] Font woes

"fbcon=rotate:3 fbcon=font:8x16" - why is that there (notably the font, the rotation I kinda get - *might* pose an issue)

jul 01 16:48:21 acme9 kernel: fbcon: Taking over console
…
jul 01 16:48:21 acme9 systemd[1]: Finished Remount Root and Kernel File Systems.
…
jul 01 16:48:21 acme9 kernel: NVRM: loading NVIDIA UNIX Open Kernel Module for x86_64  575.64  Release Build  (root@)  
…
jul 01 16:48:21 acme9 systemd-vconsole-setup[778]: setfont: ERROR kdfontop.c:212 put_font_kdfontop: No se puede cargar ese tipo de letra con esa versión de kernel
jul 01 16:48:21 acme9 systemd-vconsole-setup[766]: /usr/bin/setfont failed with a "system error" (EX_OSERR), ignoring.
…
jul 01 16:48:21 acme9 kernel: [drm] [nvidia-drm] [GPU ID 0x00000100] Loading driver
…
jul 01 16:48:22 acme9 kernel: [drm] Initialized nvidia-drm 0.0.0 for 0000:01:00.0 on minor 0
…
jul 01 16:48:21 acme9 kernel: fbcon: Taking over console
jul 01 16:48:22 acme9 kernel: fbcon: nvidia-drmdrmfb (fb0) is primary device

1. I'm not complaining but why does the simpledrm device not show up? You don't set nvidia_drm.modeset=1 and there's also no hint that it will not be probed. Custom kernel?
2. Try to add the nvidia modules to the initramfs for https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Kernel … _KMS_start
3. remove the "fbcon=font:8x16" parameter

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

LudwigJ

Member

Registered: 2021-02-25

Posts: 26

Re: [SOLVED] Font woes

...
2. Try to add the nvidia modules to the initramfs for https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Kernel … _KMS_start
...

This *seems* to have done the trick. Searching the web for the error messages, I found a page also suggesting this, as well as adding setfont to the BINARIES list.
I did both things, regenerated initramfs, and now it seems to work.

Since this was a somewhat random problem, I'll wait a couple of days before adding the SOLVED tag.

Thanks for your hints.

seth

Member

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 65,548

Re: [SOLVED] Font woes

There's still

why does the simpledrm device not show up … Custom kernel?

(That's ok, we just should understand the situation)

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

LudwigJ

Member

Registered: 2021-02-25

Posts: 26

Re: [SOLVED] Font woes

Custom kernel? No, it's the stock Arch kernel. I haven't compiled my own kernel since I migrated to Arch a few years ago.

uname -r
6.15.4-arch2-1

Now I see this:

journalctl -b | grep simpledrm
Jul 04 11:22:37 acme9 kernel: [drm] Initialized simpledrm 1.0.0 for simple-framebuffer.0 on minor 0
Jul 04 11:22:37 acme9 kernel: simple-framebuffer simple-framebuffer.0: [drm] fb0: simpledrmdrmfb frame buffer device

LudwigJ

Member

Registered: 2021-02-25

Posts: 26

Re: [SOLVED] Font woes

Following seth's suggestion, I added the nvidia drivers to the initramfs.
I edited the MODULES section in /etc/mkinitcpio.conf:

MODULES=(nvidia nvidia_modeset nvidia_uvm nvidia_drm)

I also added setfont to the BINARIES section (not sure if this is necessary or not):

BINARIES=(setfont)

Then I regenerated the initramfs:

mkinitcpio -p linux

and rebooted. It has been working all right since then.