Bug 1688332

Summary: Text interface on VT/kernel console broken for non-latin languages
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 Reporter: Martin Kolman <mkolman>
Component: anacondaAssignee: Anaconda Maintenance Team <anaconda-maint-list>
Status: CLOSED WONTFIX QA Contact: Release Test Team <release-test-team>
Severity: unspecified Docs Contact:
Priority: unspecified    
Version: 8.1CC: jstodola, lijli, vslavik
Target Milestone: rcKeywords: i18n
Target Release: 8.0   
Hardware: Unspecified   
OS: Unspecified   
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Last Closed: 2021-02-01 07:39:28 UTC Type: Bug
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Description Flags
Japanese characters shown as squares in the TUI on a VT. none

Description Martin Kolman 2019-03-13 14:50:54 UTC
Created attachment 1543685 [details]
Japanese characters shown as squares in the TUI on a VT.

Description of problem:
The Anaconda text interface is broken for some non-latin languages (such as Japanese) when running on a virtual terminal (kernel console). Serial consoles are apparently unaffected and can display at least Japanese just fine.

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
29.19.0.38-1

How reproducible:
always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. start the installation withe these boot options added:
inst.lang=ja_JP inst.text

Actual results:
The virtual terminal shows squares in place of Japanese characters. Serial console looks fine.

Expected results:
The virtual terminal falls back to English instead of showing squares. If serial console is used, fallback to English is not activated.

Additional info:
This was fixed in RHEL 7 in the past (bzg 1182562), but the fix has likely regressed since then.

Comment 3 RHEL Program Management 2021-02-01 07:39:28 UTC
After evaluating this issue, there are no plans to address it further or fix it in an upcoming release.  Therefore, it is being closed.  If plans change such that this issue will be fixed in an upcoming release, then the bug can be reopened.

Comment 4 Vladimír Slávik 2021-05-06 12:11:58 UTC
The reason for this is most probably that fonts are not (re)loaded. For actual technical details that would likely lead to a fix, see https://github.com/rhinstaller/anaconda/pull/3304#issuecomment-832070115 Note that loading fonts changes screen size, so it's not a straightforward fix.