diff -Nru friendly-recovery-0.2.10/debian/changelog friendly-recovery-0.2.11/debian/changelog
--- friendly-recovery-0.2.10/debian/changelog	2010-04-06 14:45:33.000000000 +0200
+++ friendly-recovery-0.2.11/debian/changelog	2011-04-19 16:57:31.000000000 +0200
@@ -1,3 +1,11 @@
+friendly-recovery (0.2.11) UNRELEASED; urgency=low
+
+  * usr/share/recovery-mode/l10n.sh:
+    - blacklist certain locales where we don't have good console
+      fonts (LP: #573502)
+
+ -- Michael Vogt <michael.vogt@ubuntu.com>  Tue, 19 Apr 2011 16:56:44 +0200
+
 friendly-recovery (0.2.10) lucid; urgency=low
 
   * usr/share/recovery-mode/options/xfix renamed to failsafeX:
diff -Nru friendly-recovery-0.2.10/usr/share/recovery-mode/l10n.sh friendly-recovery-0.2.11/usr/share/recovery-mode/l10n.sh
--- friendly-recovery-0.2.10/usr/share/recovery-mode/l10n.sh	2010-04-06 14:45:33.000000000 +0200
+++ friendly-recovery-0.2.11/usr/share/recovery-mode/l10n.sh	2011-04-19 16:53:15.000000000 +0200
@@ -1,12 +1,31 @@
 
+
+# blacklist some languages that we don't have a good console fonts for
+# see bug #573502
+in_lang_blacklist() {
+    LANG_BLACKLIST="ar_ he_IL ja_JP ko_KR ru_RU sl_SI vi_VN zh_"
+    LANG=$1
+    for b in $LANG_BLACKLIST; do
+        # equal to lang.startswith(b)
+        if expr match "$LANG" ^"$b"; then
+            return 0
+        fi
+    done
+    return 1
+}
+
 # There is no environment set, as these steps are skipped, 
 # so we need to source the variables needed for localization ourselves
 if [ -r /etc/default/locale ]; then
  . /etc/default/locale
-export LANG LANGUAGE
+ if ! in_lang_blacklist "$LANG"; then
+     export LANG LANGUAGE
+ fi
 elif [ -r /etc/environment ]; then
  . /etc/environment
-export LANG LANGUAGE
+ if ! in_lang_blacklist "$LANG"; then
+     export LANG LANGUAGE
+ fi
 fi
 
 # default eval_gettext() to ensure that we do not fail