better console setup
Affects | Status | Importance | Assigned to | Milestone | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
console-setup (Ubuntu) |
Confirmed
|
Wishlist
|
Unassigned | ||
console-tools (Ubuntu) |
Confirmed
|
Wishlist
|
Unassigned |
Bug Description
Binary package hint: console-tools
Hello! I'm using Ubuntu Gutsy, and for some times I've been hacking around parts of the boot process, and in particular the set-up of the text console.
There are a few improvements I've been able to make, and some of them I think should be included as default in the Ubuntu packages. I'd like however the input of others familiar with the packages (console-tools and console-setup) about the changes, and for committing the patches. So here are a few ideas:
(1) redundancy setting console font: as far as I can tell, the /etc/init.
(It would be great if it were possible to setup the font before the kernel prints anything, but that seems difficult.)
(2) redundancy setting keyboard layout: as far as I can tell, at least three of the scripts in /etc/init.d handle the keyboard layout. Ideally this should be set-up only once, very early in the boot process (ideally starting with grub, but init-top is OK too). I administrate my own system, and I'm used with dvorak; it's very annoying when something breaks and I have to use the layout on the keyboard, which isn't even normal qwerty since this is a French laptop. (This is an issue for anyone using a non-standard keyboard, like the localized variants, not only for dvorak.)
(3) a better default font: I'm using the Uni3 console fonts because they enable lots of diacritics. (I also happen to think it looks nicer.) I know many people don't usually need diacritics (ie, English natives), but with Unicode being almost everywhere these days, it's not uncommon to encounter filenames with such characters, even if one doesn't use them all the time. (Ubuntu does use UTF8 as the default encoding after all, right?)
Localized versions would certainly benefit from having a Unicode console font enabled by default. AFAIK, no-one would be hurt by defaulting to the Uni3 fonts, and people who need more (for Arabic or whatever isn't supported by Uni3) can just set-up their systems as before.
(4) a better default layout: related to the previous item, since Unicode is more common I've often felt the need to generate accented characters. I'm not talking only about my native-language files; sometimes I've had to transfer, eg, music files through a ssh connection, and this always leads to issues with songs from international artists.
Even though it won't cover everything (like Japanese), we could set-up by default the internationalized version of the US keyboard; it uses AltGr to generate some dead-keys; this doesn't annoy anyone who doesn't use them (altgr+tilde,a is not a common key combination), and it would help a lot some users.
I think the console-setup package is intended to use the same keymaps with X. It might be worthwhile to get rid of the other kind(s) in the default install, to minimize redundancy. I'd like to also add the possibility to modify or create custom layouts, at least by providing a nice man page explaining how things work.
On Wed, Sep 05, 2007 at 01:19:31PM -0000, Bogdan Butnaru wrote:
> Hello! I'm using Ubuntu Gutsy, and for some times I've been hacking
> around parts of the boot process, and in particular the set-up of the
> text console.
>
> There are a few improvements I've been able to make, and some of them I
> think should be included as default in the Ubuntu packages. I'd like
> however the input of others familiar with the packages (console-tools
> and console-setup) about the changes, and for committing the patches. So
> here are a few ideas:
Thanks for your comments. I'll address them point-by-point.
> (1) redundancy setting console font: as far as I can tell, the d/console- setup is setting up the console font quite late in initramfs- tools/scripts/ init-
> /etc/init.
> the boot process. However, /usr/share/
> top/console_setup does (or can do) the same thing much earlier. I think
> only the later part should be used, since it provides the "good" font
> longer during the boot process.
This is done intentionally in order that those people not using an d/console- setup if usplash is running, so in practice a
initramfs still get the console font set up for them; but the font isn't
set by /etc/init.
normal Ubuntu system will only set up the font once.
> (2) redundancy setting keyboard layout: as far as I can tell, at least
> three of the scripts in /etc/init.d handle the keyboard layout. Ideally
> this should be set-up only once, very early in the boot process (ideally
> starting with grub, but init-top is OK too). I administrate my own
> system, and I'm used with dvorak; it's very annoying when something
> breaks and I have to use the layout on the keyboard, which isn't even
> normal qwerty since this is a French laptop. (This is an issue for
> anyone using a non-standard keyboard, like the localized variants, not
> only for dvorak.)
In much the same way as the font, this is only set by d/keyboard- setup if usplash isn't running, and is normally set d/console- screen. sh, note that
/etc/init.
in the initramfs just about as early as possible. What's the third
script you're referring to? If /etc/init.
that does nothing if console-setup is installed.
It is true that there is a certain amount of cruft in the console
initialisation code, though. I'd be interested in patches to simplify
it, though note that some of the complexity *is* there for a good reason
so I might not take all of them. :-)
> (3) a better default font: I'm using the Uni3 console fonts because they
> enable lots of diacritics. (I also happen to think it looks nicer.) I
> know many people don't usually need diacritics (ie, English natives),
> but with Unicode being almost everywhere these days, it's not uncommon
> to encounter filenames with such characters, even if one doesn't use
> them all the time. (Ubuntu does use UTF8 as the default encoding after
> all, right?)
>
> Localized versions would certainly benefit from having a Unicode console
> font enabled by default. AFAIK, no-one would be hurt by defaulting to
> the Uni3 fonts, and people who need more (for Arabic or whatever isn't
> supported by Uni3) can just set-up their systems as before.
We always use Unicode, but the fundamental pr...