Bug 140935

Summary: Manual: add some words about 512-glyph font side effects
Product: [Fedora] Fedora Reporter: Dmitry Butskoy <dmitry>
Component: kbdAssignee: Miloslav Trmač <mitr>
Status: CLOSED RAWHIDE QA Contact:
Severity: medium Docs Contact:
Priority: medium    
Version: rawhideKeywords: EasyFix, FutureFeature, Patch
Target Milestone: ---   
Target Release: ---   
Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version: 1.12-4 Doc Type: Enhancement
Doc Text:
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Clone Of: Environment:
Last Closed: 2005-02-19 22:42:26 UTC Type: ---
Regression: --- Mount Type: ---
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Verified Versions: Category: ---
oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
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Description Flags
Patch for setfont.8 manual none

Description Dmitry Butskoy 2004-11-26 16:57:18 UTC
From Bugzilla Helper:
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.7.3)
Gecko/20040923

Description of problem:

  On the Linux console we can use fonts with more than 256 glyphs
("512-glyph mode"). But such "big" fonts cause some restrictions. Due
to VGA hardware limitation, it is impossible to use "intensity" bit
when 512-glyph font is used. In other words, instead of two groups of
colors (0-7 and 8-15), we have only one (0-7).
  As a result, console colors are spoiled. First of all, yellow color
completely disappears! Besides there is no possibility to choose two
kinds of intensity.

  Currently, I couls not find a mention of this feature anywhere in
the   distribution. Therefore it would be quite good to add some
words, for example, to setfont.8



Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
kbd-1.12-2

How reproducible:
Always

Steps to Reproduce:
 To see the color difference under 256/512-glyph fonts:

1. Load some 512-glyph font, for example:
"setfont latarcyrheb-sun16"
2. Run "ntsysv", "mc" or some another console (curses/slang) applications.

Actual Results:  In "ntsysv", service names are reddish (or
red-brown) instead of pure yellow.
 In "mc", the same is for panel headers. Additionally, subdirectory
are not highlighted (but should be).

Expected Results:  Expected results may be seen just after loading
of any 256-glyph fonts:
"setfont default8x16"
Now "ntsysv" and "mc" has yellow, subdirectory in "mc" are highlighted.

  More evident test is possible:
Run "mc" on one virtual console, then switch to another and load
256/512 fonts on it. After loading, switch back, type Ctrl-L (to
redraw MC, because consoles are damaged immediately after "setfont")
and see the difference.

Additional info:


 This issue is actual for RedHat, because since RedHat-9, the
512-glyph font "latarcyrheb-sun16" is used for initial installed systems.

 I have spent some hours to understand who has eaten yellow color on
my just bought computer. Some UNIX users whom I wanted to transfer on
RedHat, have told that "Midnight Commander at your Linux looks
worse!". Etc.
 The advanced users can faster cope with this issue if there will be a
mention of it in the documentation.

 I have made a small patch for setfont.8

Comment 1 Dmitry Butskoy 2004-11-26 16:59:26 UTC
Created attachment 107487 [details]
Patch for setfont.8 manual

Add some words to the setfont.8 manual about side effects on 512-glyph font
usage.

Comment 2 Miloslav Trmač 2005-02-19 22:42:26 UTC
Thanks for the patch!
As you might have already noticed, I have forwarded it upstream;
in rawhide it should appear in kbd-1.12-4.