Arch Linux

dolby

Member

From: 1992

Registered: 2006-08-08

Posts: 1,581

Customising the linux console

Yesterday i realised something. Most of time i am only running apps inside a virtual terminal, even for web browsing, & that with the exception of firefox which i use mostly when visiting webpages that require from me to have cookies or even worst, nasty scripts, i dont use on a daily basis any other apps that requires an X server running to execute.
That being said, i thought id try running my screen sessions outside of the X server in the linux console. After all, and hopefully some of you will agree with me, it sucks less.
But not all things were perfect...
First anoyance was the font. In the 16 months ive been running arch, i had never bothered changing the default cause i really didnt have to. Luckily the font i use inside X , terminus , works great on the console as well, and with the help of tomkx, i set it to ter-p12n.
Second, i realised that my color & screen setups were built to work great only in X. my lovely dark theme was black in the console. i wish there was a way to set the background to a certain color and define black as a variation. I havent yet found a way of doing that.
Third, i knew all along about fbgrab a framebuffer screenshooter. I installed it but it doesnt work. it says it cant open /dev/fb0. does anyone know how to solve that? i am using the ARCH kernel.

Why am i telling u all this. Searching google for resources on the topic turn out to be not as easy as i had expected. It returns gazillion of unrelated results conserning virtual terminals.
I would appreciate it if someone answered the above questions or some tips & tricks about customising the console even further.

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There shouldn't be any reason to learn more editor types than emacs or vi -- mg (1)
[You learn that sarcasm does not often work well in international forums.  That is why we avoid it. -- ewaller (arch linux forum moderator)

Jerry

Member

From: Philippines

Registered: 2007-09-14

Posts: 126

Re: Customising the linux console

I have the same problem too, google didn't help much.  for urxvt, manpage was really a good source of documentation but I've only realized it days ago so I'm still learning how each command would react if its placed in the .Xdefault

As for the font, I found profont to my liking. It has all the proper spacing and solves a lot of amibiguity that other fonts suffers for letters like l and l. (I mean "L" and "I").  It looks very good both in X and linux console. Even in an event that your fonts are very small, they are readable.

Sorry if it wasn't much help, I guess you could say this is "impulsive replying". lol

dolby

Member

From: 1992

Registered: 2006-08-08

Posts: 1,581

Re: Customising the linux console

yes, it wasnt much help. youre totally offtopic. i wasnt talking about urxvt, but that thing u see before setting gdm/kdm/xdm/slim to login as your users to the X server. that thing u see when u log into arch for the first time. the one with a black backround and white letters. the terminal

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There shouldn't be any reason to learn more editor types than emacs or vi -- mg (1)
[You learn that sarcasm does not often work well in international forums.  That is why we avoid it. -- ewaller (arch linux forum moderator)

chimeric

Member

From: Munich, Germany

Registered: 2007-10-07

Posts: 254

Website

Re: Customising the linux console

I think you'll need framebuffer console support activated in your kernel config (I think it is activated in the arch kernel) and something like bootsplash or splashy along with a custom theme.

Last edited by chimeric (2007-11-21 20:37:03)

dolby

Member

From: 1992

Registered: 2006-08-08

Posts: 1,581

Re: Customising the linux console

and something like bootsplash or splashy along with a custom theme.

why would i need those?

Last edited by dolby (2007-11-21 23:11:32)

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There shouldn't be any reason to learn more editor types than emacs or vi -- mg (1)
[You learn that sarcasm does not often work well in international forums.  That is why we avoid it. -- ewaller (arch linux forum moderator)

bender02

Member

From: UK

Registered: 2007-02-04

Posts: 1,328

Re: Customising the linux console

Third, i knew all along about fbgrab a framebuffer screenshooter. I installed it but it doesnt work. it says it cant open /dev/fb0. does anyone know how to solve that? i am using the ARCH kernel.

Well http://www.sfires.net/fbshot/ works for me, but I didn't make the PKGBUILD...
/me being lazy

dolby

Member

From: 1992

Registered: 2006-08-08

Posts: 1,581

Re: Customising the linux console

my problem isnt exactly not being able to take a screenshot..

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There shouldn't be any reason to learn more editor types than emacs or vi -- mg (1)
[You learn that sarcasm does not often work well in international forums.  That is why we avoid it. -- ewaller (arch linux forum moderator)

chimeric

Member

From: Munich, Germany

Registered: 2007-10-07

Posts: 254

Website

Re: Customising the linux console

and something like bootsplash or splashy along with a custom theme.

why would i need those?

Well, this is the only way I know to get a themed framebuffer console - that of course doesn't mean there aren't any others .

lloeki

Member

From: France

Registered: 2007-02-20

Posts: 456

Website

Re: Customising the linux console

no you don't need bootsplash or splashy. you need fbcondecor. as stated on spock's page (fbsplash & fbcondecor author) they have close to nothing in common.

Last edited by lloeki (2007-11-22 10:29:39)

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To know recursion, you must first know recursion.

bender02

Member

From: UK

Registered: 2007-02-04

Posts: 1,328

Re: Customising the linux console

my problem isnt exactly not being able to take a screenshot..

I know you strive to keep on topic, but what was your third problem then if not this?

dolby

Member

From: 1992

Registered: 2006-08-08

Posts: 1,581

Re: Customising the linux console

my problem isnt exactly not being able to take a screenshot..

I know you strive to keep on topic, but what was your third problem then if not this?

ERROR:Can't open /dev/fb0 .
afaik framebuffer support is enabled in the ARCH kernel

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There shouldn't be any reason to learn more editor types than emacs or vi -- mg (1)
[You learn that sarcasm does not often work well in international forums.  That is why we avoid it. -- ewaller (arch linux forum moderator)

dolby

Member

From: 1992

Registered: 2006-08-08

Posts: 1,581

Re: Customising the linux console

no you don't need bootsplash or splashy. you need fbcondecor. as stated on spock's page (fbsplash & fbcondecor author) they have close to nothing in common.

no, i dont think i need this either. i dont need eye candy and pictures as backrounds. also i am not willing to patch a kernel just for this.

im gonna try rephrasing by giving an example:

in my .Xdefaults i can set the terminal backround to #000000 (plain black) and set colour0 to a different colour, one that will differ from the backround. i have tried achieving that in console without success until this point. eg. if i set colour0 to #000000 and colour8 to #22222. the result of both is black (#000000).
all my dotfiles, as well as app configuration files take advantage of the .Xdefaults settings described above. but in console the result is too dark.
even though i doubt it, hope the above make the point i am trying to make more clear

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There shouldn't be any reason to learn more editor types than emacs or vi -- mg (1)
[You learn that sarcasm does not often work well in international forums.  That is why we avoid it. -- ewaller (arch linux forum moderator)

smurnjiff

Member

Registered: 2007-06-25

Posts: 211

Re: Customising the linux console

Take a look at this.
http://phraktured.net/linux-console-colors.html

tomk

Forum Fellow

From: Ireland

Registered: 2004-07-21

Posts: 9,839

Re: Customising the linux console

...fbgrab...says it cant open /dev/fb0

fb* devices are in the video group, if that helps. Just tried it here, and it worked as expected.

dr_te_z

Member

From: Zoetermeer, the Netherlands

Registered: 2006-12-06

Posts: 154

Re: Customising the linux console

Nice topic! Back in the previous century, when I installed SuSE6.3 on my celeron, you got tons of fonts to choose from. Nowadays, in this century, the scope seems to be gone.

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Somewhere between "too small" and "too large" lies the size that is just right.
- Scott Hayes

dolby

Member

From: 1992

Registered: 2006-08-08

Posts: 1,581

Re: Customising the linux console

Take a look at this.
http://phraktured.net/linux-console-colors.html

thanks for trying but this doesnt solve the color issue.

fb* devices are in the video group, if that helps. Just tried it here, and it worked as expected.

im im not in video group. that'll probably be it

Nice topic! Back in the previous century, when I installed SuSE6.3 on my celeron, you got tons of fonts to choose from. Nowadays, in this century, the scope seems to be gone.

doubt it. its still the case today

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There shouldn't be any reason to learn more editor types than emacs or vi -- mg (1)
[You learn that sarcasm does not often work well in international forums.  That is why we avoid it. -- ewaller (arch linux forum moderator)

lloeki

Member

From: France

Registered: 2007-02-20

Posts: 456

Website

Re: Customising the linux console

no, i dont think i need this either.

agreed. my point was more about correcting the statements WRT splash stuff.

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To know recursion, you must first know recursion.