1 | <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
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2 | <!DOCTYPE sect1 PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.5//EN"
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3 | "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.5/docbookx.dtd" [
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4 | <!ENTITY % general-entities SYSTEM "../../general.ent">
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5 | %general-entities;
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6 | ]>
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7 |
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8 | <sect1 id="postlfs-console-fonts" xreflabel="About Console Fonts">
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9 | <?dbhtml filename="console-fonts.html"?>
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10 |
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11 |
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12 | <title>About Console Fonts</title>
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13 |
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14 | <indexterm zone="postlfs-console-fonts">
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15 | <primary sortas="a-console-fonts">console-fonts</primary>
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16 | </indexterm>
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17 |
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18 | <para>
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19 | An LFS system can be used without a graphical desktop, and unless or until
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20 | you install <xref linkend="x-window-system"/> you will have to work in the
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21 | console. Most, if not all, PCs boot with an 8x16 font - whatever the actual
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22 | screen size. There are a few things you can do to alter the display on the
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23 | console. Most of them involve changing the font, but the first alters the
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24 | commandline used by grub.
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25 | </para>
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26 |
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27 | <sect2 id="grub-video">
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28 | <title>Setting a smaller screen size in grub</title>
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29 |
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30 | <indexterm zone="postlfs-console-fonts grub-video">
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31 | <primary sortas="e-boot-grub-grub-cfg">/boot/grub/grub.cfg</primary>
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32 | </indexterm>
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33 |
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34 | <para>
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35 | Modern screens often have a lot more pixels than the screens used in the
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36 | past. If your screen is 1600 pixels wide, an 8x16 font will give you 200
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37 | columns of text - unless your monitor is enormous, the text will be tiny.
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38 | One of the ways to work around this is to tell grub to use a smaller size,
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39 | such as 1024x768 or 800x600 or even 640x480. Even if your screen does not
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40 | have a 4:3 aspect ratio, this should work.
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41 | </para>
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42 |
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43 | <para>
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44 | To try this, you can reboot and edit grub's command-line to insert a
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45 | 'video=' parameter between the 'root=/dev/sdXn' and 'ro', for example
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46 | <literal>root=/dev/sda2 video=1024x768 ro</literal> based on the
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47 | example in LFS section 10.4.4 :
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48 | <ulink url="&lfs-root;/chapter10/grub.html"/>.
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49 | </para>
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50 |
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51 | <para>
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52 | If you decide that you wish to do this, you can then (as the
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53 | <systemitem class="username">root</systemitem> user) edit
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54 | <filename>/boot/grub/grub.cfg</filename>.
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55 | </para>
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56 |
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57 | </sect2>
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58 |
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59 | <sect2 id="psf-fonts">
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60 | <title>Using the standard psf fonts</title>
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61 |
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62 | <indexterm zone="postlfs-console-fonts psf-fonts">
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63 | <primary sortas="g-usr-share-consolefonts">/usr/share/consolefonts</primary>
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64 | </indexterm>
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65 |
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66 | <para>
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67 | In LFS the <application>kbd</application> package is used. The fonts it
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68 | provides are PC Screen Fonts, usually called PSF, and they were installed
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69 | into <filename class="directory">/usr/share/consolefonts</filename>. Where
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70 | these include a unicode mapping table, the file suffix is often changed to
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71 | <literal>.psfu</literal> although packages such as
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72 | <application>terminus-font</application> (see below) do not add the 'u'.
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73 | These fonts are usually compressed with gzip to save space, but that is
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74 | not essential.
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75 | </para>
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76 |
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77 | <para>
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78 | The initial PC text screens had 8 colours, or 16 colours if the bright
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79 | versions of the original 8 colours were used. A PSF font can include up
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80 | to 256 characters (technically, glyphs) while allowing 16 colours, or up
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81 | to 512 characters (in which case, the bright colours will not be
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82 | available). Clearly, these console fonts cannot be used to display CJK
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83 | text - that would need thousands of available glyphs.
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84 | </para>
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85 |
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86 | <para>
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87 | Some fonts in <application>kbd</application> can cover more than 512
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88 | codepoints ('characters'), with varying degrees of fidelity: unicode
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89 | contains several whitespace codepoints which can all be mapped to a space,
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90 | varieties of dashes can be mapped to a minus sign, smart quotes can map to
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91 | the regular ASCII quotes rather than to whatever is used for "codepoint
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92 | not present or invalid", and those cyrillic or greek letters which look
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93 | like latin letters can be mapped onto them, so 'A' can also do duty for
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94 | cyrillic A and greek Alpha, and 'P' can also do duty for cyrillic ER and
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95 | greek RHO. Unfortunately, where a font has been created from a BDF file
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96 | (the method in terminus and Debian's <ulink
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97 | url="https://packages.debian.org/stable/console-setup">console-setup
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98 | </ulink>) such mapping of additional codepoints onto an existing glyph is
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99 | not always done, although the terminus ter-vXXn fonts do this well.
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100 | </para>
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101 |
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102 | <para>
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103 | There are over 120 combinations of font and size in
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104 | <application>kbd</application>: often a font is provided at several
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105 | character sizes, and sometimes varieties cover different subsets of
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106 | unicode. Most are 8 pixels wide, in heights from 8 to 16 pixels, but there
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107 | are a few which are 9 pixels wide, some others which are 12x22, and even
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108 | one (<filename>latarcyrheb-sun32.psfu</filename>) which has been scaled up
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109 | to 16x32. Using a bigger font is another way of making text on a large
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110 | screen easier to read.
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111 | </para>
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112 |
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113 | </sect2>
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114 |
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115 | <sect2 id="testing-fonts">
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116 | <title>Testing different fonts</title>
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117 |
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118 | <para>
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119 | You can test fonts as a normal user. If you have a font which has not been
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120 | installed, you can load it with :
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121 | </para>
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122 |
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123 | <screen><userinput>setfont /path/to/yourfont.ext</userinput></screen>
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124 |
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125 | <para>
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126 | For the fonts already installed you only need the name, so using
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127 | <filename>gr737a-9x16.psfu.gz</filename> as an example:
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128 | </para>
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129 |
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130 | <screen><userinput>setfont gr737a-9x16</userinput></screen>
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131 |
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132 | <para>
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133 | To see the glyphs in the font, use:
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134 | </para>
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135 |
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136 | <screen><userinput>showconsolefont</userinput></screen>
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137 |
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138 | <para>
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139 | If the font looks as if it might be useful, you can then go on to test it
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140 | more thoroughly.
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141 | </para>
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142 |
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143 | <para>
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144 | When you find a font which you wish to use, as the
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145 | <systemitem class="username">root</systemitem> user) edit
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146 | <phrase revision="sysv">
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147 | <filename>/etc/sysconfig/console</filename> as described in
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148 | LFS section 9.6.5
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149 | <ulink url="&lfs-root;/chapter09/usage.html"/>.</phrase>
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150 | <phrase revision="systemd">
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151 | <filename>/etc/vconsole.conf</filename> as described in
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152 | LFS section 9.6
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153 | <ulink url="&lfs-root;/chapter09/console.html"/>.</phrase>.
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154 | </para>
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155 |
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156 | <para>
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157 | For fonts not supplied with the <application>kbd</application> package
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158 | you will need to optionally compress it / them with
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159 | <command>gzip</command> and then install it / them as the
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160 | <systemitem class="username">root</systemitem> user.
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161 | </para>
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162 |
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163 | </sect2>
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164 |
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165 | <!-- after that, psf-tools -->
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166 |
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167 | <sect2 id="psf-tools">
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168 | <title>Editing fonts using psf-tools</title>
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169 |
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170 | <indexterm zone="postlfs-console-fonts psf-tools">
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171 | <primary sortas="a-psftools">psftools</primary>
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172 | </indexterm>
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173 |
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174 | <para>
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175 | Although some console fonts are created from BDF files, which is a text
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176 | format with hex values for the pixels in each row of the character, there
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177 | are more-modern tools available for editing psf fonts. The
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178 | <ulink url="https://www.seasip.info/Unix/PSF/">psftools</ulink> package
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179 | allows you to dump a font to a text representation with a dash for a
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180 | pixel which is off (black) and a hash for a pixel which is on (white).
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181 | You can then edit the text file to add more characters, or reshape them,
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182 | or map extra codepoints onto them, and then create a new psf font with
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183 | your changes.
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184 | </para>
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185 |
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186 | </sect2>
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187 |
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188 | <!-- finally, link to terminus and link to it from above -->
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189 | <sect2 id="terminus-font">
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190 | <title>Using fonts from Terminus-font</title>
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191 |
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192 | <indexterm zone="postlfs-console-fonts terminus-font">
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193 | <primary sortas="a-terminus-font">terminus-font</primary>
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194 | </indexterm>
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195 |
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196 | <para>
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197 | The <ulink
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198 | url="https://terminus-font.sourceforge.net/">Terminus Font</ulink> package
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199 | provides fixed-width bitmap fonts designed for long (8 hours and more per
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200 | day) work with computers. Under 'Character variants' on that page is a
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201 | list of patches (in the <filename class="directory">alt/</filename>
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202 | directory). If you are using a graphical browser to look at that page, you
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203 | can see what the patches do, e.g. 'll2' makes 'l' more visibly different
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204 | from 'i' and '1'.
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205 | </para>
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206 |
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207 | <para>
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208 | By default <application>terminus-fonts</application> will try to create
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209 | several types of font, and it will fail if <command>bdftopcf</command>
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210 | from <xref linkend="xorg7-app"/> has not been installed. The configure
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211 | script is only really useful if you go on to install
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212 | <emphasis>all</emphasis> the fonts (console and X11 bitmap) to the
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213 | correct directories, as in a distro. To build only the PSF fonts and
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214 | their dependencies, run:
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215 | </para>
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216 |
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217 | <screen><userinput>make psf</userinput></screen>
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218 |
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219 | <para>
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220 | This will create more than 240 ter-*.psf fonts. The 'b' suffix indicates
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221 | bright, 'n' indicates normal. You can then test them to see if any fit
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222 | your requirements. Unless you are creating a distro, there seems little
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223 | point in installing them all.
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224 | </para>
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225 |
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226 | <para>
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227 | As an example, to install the last of these fonts, you can gzip it and
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228 | then as the
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229 | <systemitem class="username">root</systemitem> user:
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230 | </para>
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231 |
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232 | <screen><userinput>install -v -m644 ter-v32n.psf.gz /usr/share/consolefonts</userinput></screen>
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233 |
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234 | </sect2>
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235 |
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236 |
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237 | <!-- then svn up, add changelog, do the propsets, create wiki page -->
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238 | </sect1>
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