1 | <?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
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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="ch-scripts-console">
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9 | <?dbhtml filename="console.html"?>
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10 |
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11 | <title>Configuring the Linux Console</title>
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12 |
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13 | <indexterm zone="ch-scripts-console">
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14 | <primary sortas="d-console">console</primary>
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15 | <secondary>configuring</secondary>
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16 | </indexterm>
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17 |
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18 | <para>This section discusses how to configure the <command>console</command>
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19 | bootscript that sets up the keyboard map, console font and console kernel log
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20 | level. If non-ASCII characters (e.g., the copyright sign, the British pound
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21 | sign and Euro symbol) will not be used and the keyboard is a U.S. one, much
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22 | of this section can be skipped. Without the configuration file, (or
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23 | equivalent settings in <filename>rc.site</filename>), the
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24 | <command>console</command> bootscript will do nothing.</para>
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25 |
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26 | <para>The <command>console</command> script reads the
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27 | <filename>/etc/sysconfig/console</filename> file for configuration
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28 | information. Decide which keymap and screen font will be used. Various
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29 | language-specific HOWTOs can also help with this, see <ulink
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30 | url="http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/HOWTO-INDEX/other-lang.html"/>. If still in
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31 | doubt, look in the <filename class="directory">/lib/kbd</filename> directory
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32 | for valid keymaps and screen fonts. Read <filename>loadkeys(1)</filename> and
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33 | <filename>setfont(8)</filename> manual pages to determine the correct
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34 | arguments for these programs.</para>
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35 |
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36 | <para>The <filename>/etc/sysconfig/console</filename> file should contain lines
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37 | of the form: VARIABLE="value". The following variables are recognized:</para>
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38 |
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39 | <variablelist>
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40 |
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41 | <varlistentry>
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42 | <term>LOGLEVEL</term>
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43 | <listitem>
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44 | <para>This variable specifies the log level for kernel messages sent
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45 | to the console as set by <command>dmesg</command>. Valid levels are
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46 | from "1" (no messages) to "8". The default level is "7".</para>
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47 | </listitem>
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48 | </varlistentry>
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49 |
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50 | <varlistentry>
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51 | <term>KEYMAP</term>
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52 | <listitem>
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53 | <para>This variable specifies the arguments for the
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54 | <command>loadkeys</command> program, typically, the name of keymap
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55 | to load, e.g., <quote>es</quote>. If this variable is not set, the
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56 | bootscript will not run the <command>loadkeys</command> program,
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57 | and the default kernel keymap will be used.</para>
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58 | </listitem>
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59 | </varlistentry>
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60 |
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61 | <varlistentry>
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62 | <term>KEYMAP_CORRECTIONS</term>
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63 | <listitem>
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64 | <para>This (rarely used) variable
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65 | specifies the arguments for the second call to the
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66 | <command>loadkeys</command> program. This is useful if the stock keymap
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67 | is not completely satisfactory and a small adjustment has to be made. E.g.,
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68 | to include the Euro sign into a keymap that normally doesn't have it,
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69 | set this variable to <quote>euro2</quote>.</para>
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70 | </listitem>
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71 | </varlistentry>
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72 |
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73 | <varlistentry>
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74 | <term>FONT</term>
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75 | <listitem>
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76 | <para>This variable specifies the arguments for the
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77 | <command>setfont</command> program. Typically, this includes the font
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78 | name, <quote>-m</quote>, and the name of the application character
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79 | map to load. E.g., in order to load the <quote>lat1-16</quote> font
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80 | together with the <quote>8859-1</quote> application character map
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81 | (as it is appropriate in the USA),
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82 | <!-- because of the copyright sign -->
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83 | set this variable to <quote>lat1-16 -m 8859-1</quote>.
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84 | In UTF-8 mode, the kernel uses the application character map for
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85 | conversion of composed 8-bit key codes in the keymap to UTF-8, and thus
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86 | the argument of the "-m" parameter should be set to the encoding of the
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87 | composed key codes in the keymap.</para>
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88 |
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89 | </listitem>
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90 | </varlistentry>
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91 |
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92 | <varlistentry>
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93 | <term>UNICODE</term>
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94 | <listitem>
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95 | <para>Set this variable to <quote>1</quote>, <quote>yes</quote> or
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96 | <quote>true</quote> in order to put the
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97 | console into UTF-8 mode. This is useful in UTF-8 based locales and
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98 | harmful otherwise.</para>
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99 | </listitem>
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100 | </varlistentry>
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101 |
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102 | <varlistentry>
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103 | <term>LEGACY_CHARSET</term>
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104 | <listitem>
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105 | <para>For many keyboard layouts, there is no stock Unicode keymap in
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106 | the Kbd package. The <command>console</command> bootscript will
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107 | convert an available keymap to UTF-8 on the fly if this variable is
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108 | set to the encoding of the available non-UTF-8 keymap.</para>
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109 | </listitem>
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110 | </varlistentry>
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111 |
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112 | </variablelist>
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113 |
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114 | <para>Some examples:</para>
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115 |
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116 | <itemizedlist>
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117 |
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118 | <listitem>
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119 | <para>For a non-Unicode setup, only the KEYMAP and FONT variables are
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120 | generally needed. E.g., for a Polish setup, one would use:</para>
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121 |
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122 | <screen role="nodump"><userinput>cat > /etc/sysconfig/console << "EOF"
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123 | <literal># Begin /etc/sysconfig/console
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124 |
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125 | KEYMAP="pl2"
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126 | FONT="lat2a-16 -m 8859-2"
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127 |
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128 | # End /etc/sysconfig/console</literal>
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129 | EOF</userinput></screen>
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130 | </listitem>
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131 |
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132 | <listitem>
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133 | <para>As mentioned above, it is sometimes necessary to adjust a
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134 | stock keymap slightly. The following example adds the Euro symbol to the
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135 | German keymap:</para>
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136 |
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137 | <screen role="nodump"><userinput>cat > /etc/sysconfig/console << "EOF"
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138 | <literal># Begin /etc/sysconfig/console
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139 |
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140 | KEYMAP="de-latin1"
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141 | KEYMAP_CORRECTIONS="euro2"
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142 | FONT="lat0-16 -m 8859-15"
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143 |
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144 | # End /etc/sysconfig/console</literal>
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145 | EOF</userinput></screen>
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146 | </listitem>
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147 |
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148 | <listitem>
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149 | <para>The following is a Unicode-enabled example for Bulgarian, where a
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150 | stock UTF-8 keymap exists:</para>
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151 |
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152 | <screen role="nodump"><userinput>cat > /etc/sysconfig/console << "EOF"
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153 | <literal># Begin /etc/sysconfig/console
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154 |
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155 | UNICODE="1"
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156 | KEYMAP="bg_bds-utf8"
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157 | FONT="LatArCyrHeb-16"
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158 |
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159 | # End /etc/sysconfig/console</literal>
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160 | EOF</userinput></screen>
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161 | </listitem>
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162 |
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163 | <listitem>
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164 | <para>Due to the use of a 512-glyph LatArCyrHeb-16 font in the previous
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165 | example, bright colors are no longer available on the Linux console unless
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166 | a framebuffer is used. If one wants to have bright colors without
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167 | framebuffer and can live without characters not belonging to his language,
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168 | it is still possible to use a language-specific 256-glyph font, as
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169 | illustrated below:</para>
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170 |
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171 | <screen role="nodump"><userinput>cat > /etc/sysconfig/console << "EOF"
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172 | <literal># Begin /etc/sysconfig/console
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173 |
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174 | UNICODE="1"
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175 | KEYMAP="bg_bds-utf8"
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176 | FONT="cyr-sun16"
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177 |
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178 | # End /etc/sysconfig/console</literal>
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179 | EOF</userinput></screen>
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180 | </listitem>
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181 |
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182 | <listitem>
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183 | <para>The following example illustrates keymap autoconversion from
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184 | ISO-8859-15 to UTF-8 and enabling dead keys in Unicode mode:</para>
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185 |
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186 | <screen role="nodump"><userinput>cat > /etc/sysconfig/console << "EOF"
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187 | <literal># Begin /etc/sysconfig/console
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188 |
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189 | UNICODE="1"
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190 | KEYMAP="de-latin1"
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191 | KEYMAP_CORRECTIONS="euro2"
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192 | LEGACY_CHARSET="iso-8859-15"
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193 | FONT="LatArCyrHeb-16 -m 8859-15"
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194 |
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195 | # End /etc/sysconfig/console</literal>
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196 | EOF</userinput></screen>
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197 | </listitem>
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198 |
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199 | <listitem>
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200 | <para>Some keymaps have dead keys (i.e., keys that don't produce a
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201 | character by themselves, but put an accent on the character produced
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202 | by the next key) or define composition rules (such as: <quote>press
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203 | Ctrl+. A E to get Æ</quote> in the default keymap).
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204 | Linux-&linux-version; interprets dead keys and composition rules in the
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205 | keymap correctly only when the source characters to be composed together
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206 | are not multibyte. This deficiency doesn't affect keymaps for European
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207 | languages, because there accents are added to unaccented ASCII
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208 | characters, or two ASCII characters are composed together. However, in
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209 | UTF-8 mode it is a problem, e.g., for the Greek language, where one
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210 | sometimes needs to put an accent on the letter <quote>alpha</quote>.
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211 | The solution is either to avoid the use of UTF-8, or to install the
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212 | X window system that doesn't have this limitation in its input
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213 | handling.</para>
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214 | </listitem>
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215 |
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216 | <listitem>
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217 | <para>For Chinese, Japanese, Korean and some other languages, the Linux
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218 | console cannot be configured to display the needed characters. Users
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219 | who need such languages should install the X Window System, fonts that
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220 | cover the necessary character ranges, and the proper input method (e.g.,
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221 | SCIM, it supports a wide variety of languages).</para>
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222 | </listitem>
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223 |
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224 | </itemizedlist>
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225 |
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226 | <!-- Added because folks keep posting their console file with X questions
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227 | to blfs-support list -->
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228 | <note>
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229 | <para>The <filename>/etc/sysconfig/console</filename> file only controls the Linux text console localization. It has nothing to do with setting the
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230 | proper keyboard layout and terminal fonts in the X Window System, with ssh
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231 | sessions or with a serial console. In such situations, limitations mentioned
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232 | in the last two list items above do not apply.</para>
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233 | </note>
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234 |
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235 | </sect1>
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