Red Hat Bugzilla – Bug 140935
Manual: add some words about 512-glyph font side effects
Last modified: 2007-11-30 17:10:55 EST
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
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.
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.