changing console fonts?

[Mike Reinehr]

On Friday 06 May 2005 11:04 am, Net Llama! wrote:
> On Fri, 6 May 2005, Mike Reinehr wrote:
> > On Thursday 05 May 2005 05:09 pm, Net Llama! wrote:
> > > On Thu, 5 May 2005, Mike Reinehr wrote:
> > > > On Thursday 05 May 2005 03:02 pm, Net Llama! wrote:
> > > > > Yea, i figured out that appending "vga=ask" to the entry in
> > > > > lilo.conf works at bootup, but I can't find any way to change this
> > > > > afterwards without rebooting.  That Wiki doesn't seem to cover it
> > > > > either.
> > > >
> > > > 	I don't remember where, but I do remember reading that you can not
> > > > change your selection without rebooting.
> > > >
> > > > 	By the way, my experience has been that the selections presented by
> > > > vga=ask, always look like crap, whereas using something like
> > > > vga=0x314 (800x600/16) or vga=0x317 (1024x768/16) look much better.
> > >
> > > Hrmmm, since you're using Debian, perhaps you know the secret.  This is
> > > for a customer bug, so i don't really care how crappy things look, i'm
> > > just trying to replicazte what they're reporting.  The thing is, with
> > > vga=ask, i'm choosing different options, and they work for a while, and
> > > then all of a sudden towards the end of the boot process, something is
> > > resetting it back to the default of 80x25.  So clearly, it is possible
> > > to change this post-boot, since Debian's initscripts are doing it, and
> > > i don't want it done.
> > >
> > > any ideas?
> >
> > I haven't experienced that, myself. None of the services being started on
> > my systems touches the console modes or fonts. Are they starting any
> > unusual services? Also, are they using a standard kernel or have they
> > rolled their own?
>
> This is on the Debian Sarge system that I installed, using Debian's 2.4.27
> kernel.  I don't see anything unusual in the process list.

Ok, here's what I think is happening. When you do a vga=ask, your requesting 
one of several hardware fonts that are built into the ROM of the video 
adapter. At some point during the boot process, a software font is being 
invoked by an init script.

I'm basing this speculation on an article in The Linux Gazette that I found:

Into the Mist: How Linux Console Fonts Work By En D Loozzr
http://linuxgazette.net/issue91/loozzr.html

Towards the end, in his QUERIES & ANSWERS is the questions:

>How do I enforce the ROM font in the console?

>    There might be a utility for that somewhere but it is not in the kbd 
package. Without such a utility, the only way to enforce the ROM font is to 
boot into the ROM font. Check your init scripts and make sure no soft font is 
loaded. If you fail, rename the directory where the soft fonts reside so it 
cannot be found at boot time.

The article goes into a lot more detail.

I've never tried to use the framebuffer in the X window system at the same 
time that I was selecting an alternate console font, but I wonder if X is 
configured to use the framebuffer in XF86Config and this is overriding your 
selection of the console font at boot time.

cmr
-- 
Debian 'Sarge': Registered Linux User #241964
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"More laws, less justice." -- Marcus Tullius Ciceroca, 42 BC
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