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https://github.com/Zeckmathederg/glfs.git
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50836740d2
There was some consistency issues in URLs to LFS. For example, in systemd revision the URL to LFS "General Network Configuration" points to the sysv book, this can be really troubling to new readers. Instead of fixing them one by one, merge conditional XML developed by Pierre from LFS.
245 lines
9.5 KiB
XML
245 lines
9.5 KiB
XML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
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<!DOCTYPE sect1 PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.5//EN"
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"http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.5/docbookx.dtd" [
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<!ENTITY % general-entities SYSTEM "../../general.ent">
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%general-entities;
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]>
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<sect1 id="postlfs-console-fonts" xreflabel="About Console Fonts">
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<?dbhtml filename="console-fonts.html"?>
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<sect1info>
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<date>$Date$</date>
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</sect1info>
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<title>About Console Fonts</title>
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<indexterm zone="postlfs-console-fonts">
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<primary sortas="a-console-fonts">console-fonts</primary>
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</indexterm>
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<para>
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An LFS system can be used without a graphical desktop, and unless or until
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you install <xref linkend="x-window-system"/> you will have to work in the
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console. Most, if not all, PCs boot with an 8x16 font - whatever the actual
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screen size. There are a few things you can do to alter the display on the
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console. Most of them involve changing the font, but the first alters the
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commandline used by grub.
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</para>
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<para condition="html" role="usernotes">User Notes:
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<ulink url="&blfs-wiki;/aboutconsolefonts"/></para>
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<sect2 id="grub-video">
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<title>Setting a smaller screen size in grub</title>
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<indexterm zone="postlfs-console-fonts grub-video">
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<primary sortas="e-boot-grub-grub-cfg">/boot/grub/grub.cfg</primary>
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</indexterm>
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<para>
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Modern screens often have a lot more pixels then the screens used in the
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past. If your screen is 1600 pixels wide, an 8x16 font will give you 200
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columns of text - unless your monitor is enormous, the text will be tiny.
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One of the ways to work around this is to tell grub to use a smaller size,
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such as 1024x768 or 800x600 or even 640x480. Even if your screen does not
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have a 4:3 aspect ratio, this should work.
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</para>
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<para>
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To try this, you can reboot and edit grub's command-line to insert a
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'video=' parameter between the 'root=/dev/sdXn' and 'ro', for example
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<literal>root=/dev/sda2 video=1024x768 ro</literal> based on the
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example in LFS section 10.4.4 :
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<ulink url="&lfs-root;/chapter10/grub.html"/>.
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</para>
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<para>
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If you decide that you wish to do this, you can then (as the
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<systemitem class="username">root</systemitem> user) edit
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<filename>/boot/grub/grub.cfg</filename>.
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</para>
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</sect2>
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<sect2 id="psf-fonts">
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<title>Using the standard psf fonts</title>
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<indexterm zone="postlfs-console-fonts psf-fonts">
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<primary sortas="g-usr-share-consolefonts">/usr/share/consolefonts</primary>
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</indexterm>
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<para>
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In LFS the <application>kbd</application> package is used. The fonts it
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provides are PC Screen Fonts, usually called PSF, and they were installed
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into <filename class="directory">/usr/share/consolefonts</filename>. Where
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these include a unicode mapping table, the file suffix is often changed to
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<literal>.psfu</literal> although packages such as
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<application>terminus-font</application> (see below) do not add the 'u'.
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These fonts are usually compressed with gzip to save space, but that is
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not essential.
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</para>
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<para>
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The initial PC text screens had 8 colours, or 16 colours if the bright
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versions of the original 8 colours were used. A PSF font can include up
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to 256 characters (technically, glyphs) while allowing 16 colours, or up
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to 512 characters (in which case, the bright colours will not be
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available). Clearly, these console fonts cannot be used to display CJK
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text - that would need thousands of available glyphs.
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</para>
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<para>
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Some fonts in <application>kbd</application> can cover more than 512
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codepoints ('characters'), with varying degrees of fidelity: unicode
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contains several whitespace codepoints which can all be mapped to a space,
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varieties of dashes can be mapped to a minus sign, smart quotes can map to
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the regular ASCII quotes rather than to whatever is used for "codepoint
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not present or invalid", and those cyrillic or greek letters which look
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like latin letters can be mapped onto them, so 'A' can also do duty for
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cyrillic A and greek Alpha, and 'P' can also do duty for cyrillic ER and
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greek RHO. Unfortunately, where a font has been created from a BDF file
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(the method in terminus and debian's <ulink
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url="https://packages.debian.org/jessie/utils/console-setup">console-setup
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</ulink>) such mapping of additional codepoints onto an existing glyph is
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not always done, although the terminus ter-vXXn fonts do this well.
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</para>
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<para>
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There are over 120 combinations of font and size in
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<application>kbd</application>: often a font is provided at several
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character sizes, and sometimes varieties cover different subsets of
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unicode. Most are 8 pixels wide, in heights from 8 to 16 pixels, but there
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are a few which are 9 pixels wide, some others which are 12x22, and even
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one (<filename>latarcyrheb-sun32.psfu</filename>) which has been scaled up
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to 16x32. Using a bigger font is another way of making text on a large
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screen easier to read.
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</para>
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</sect2>
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<sect2 id="testing-fonts">
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<title>Testing different fonts</title>
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<para>
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You can test fonts as a normal user. If you have a font which has not been
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installed, you can load it with :
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</para>
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<screen><userinput>setfont /path/to/yourfont.ext</userinput></screen>
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<para>
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For the fonts already installed you only need the name, so using
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<filename>gr737a-9x16.psfu.gz</filename> as an example:
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</para>
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<screen><userinput>setfont gr737a-9x16</userinput></screen>
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<para>
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To see the glyphs in the font, use:
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</para>
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<screen><userinput>showconsolefont</userinput></screen>
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<para>
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If the font looks as if it might be useful, you can then go on to test it
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more thoroughly.
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</para>
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<para>
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When you find a font which you wish to use, as the
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<systemitem class="username">root</systemitem> user) edit
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<phrase revision="sysv">
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<filename>/etc/sysconfig/console</filename> as described in
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LFS section 9.6.5
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<ulink url="&lfs-root;/chapter09/usage.html"/>.</phrase>
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<phrase revision="systemd">
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<filename>/etc/vconsole.conf</filename> as described in
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LFS section 9.6
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<ulink url="&lfs-root;/chapter09/console.html"/>.</phrase>.
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</para>
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<para>
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For fonts not supplied with the <application>kbd</application> package
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you will need to optionally compress it / them with
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<command>gzip</command> and then install it / them as the
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<systemitem class="username">root</systemitem> user.
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</para>
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</sect2>
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<!-- after that, psf-tools -->
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<sect2 id="psf-tools">
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<title>Editing fonts using psf-tools</title>
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<indexterm zone="postlfs-console-fonts psf-tools">
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<primary sortas="a-psftools">psftools</primary>
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</indexterm>
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<para>
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Although some console fonts are created from BDF files, which is a text
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format with hex values for the pixels in each row of the character, there
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are more-modern tools available for editing psf fonts. The
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<ulink url="http://www.seasip.info/Unix/PSF/">psftools</ulink> package
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allows you to dump a font to a text representation with a dash for a
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pixel which is off (black) and a hash for a pixel which is on (white).
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You can then edit the text file to add more characters, or reshape them,
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or map extra codepoints onto them, and then create a new psf font with
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your changes.
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</para>
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</sect2>
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<!-- finally, link to terminus and link to it from above -->
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<sect2 id="terminus-font">
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<title>Using fonts from Terminus-font</title>
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<indexterm zone="postlfs-console-fonts terminus-font">
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<primary sortas="a-terminus-font">terminus-font</primary>
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</indexterm>
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<para>
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The <ulink
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url="http://terminus-font.sourceforge.net/">Terminus Font</ulink> package
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provides fixed-width bitmap fonts designed for long (8 hours and more per
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day) work with computers. Under 'Character variants' on that page is a
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list of patches (in the <filename class="directory">alt/</filename>
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directory). If you are using a graphical browser to look at that page, you
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can see what the patches do, e.g. 'll2' makes 'l' more visibly different
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from 'i' and '1'.
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</para>
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<para>
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By default <application>terminus-fonts</application> will try to create
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several types of font, and it will fail if <command>bdftopcf</command>
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from <xref linkend="xorg7-app"/> has not been installed. The configure
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script is only really useful if you go on to install
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<emphasis>all</emphasis> the fonts (console and X11 bitmap) to the
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correct directories, as in a distro. To build only the PSF fonts and
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their dependencies, run:
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</para>
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<screen><userinput>make psf</userinput></screen>
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<para>
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This will create more than 240 ter-*.psf fonts. The 'b' suffix indicates
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bright, 'n' indicates normal. You can then test them to see if any fit
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your requirements. Unless you are creating a distro, there seems little
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point in installing them all.
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</para>
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<para>
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As an example, to install the last of these fonts, you can gzip it and
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then as the
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<systemitem class="username">root</systemitem> user:
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</para>
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<screen><userinput>install -v -m644 ter-v32n.psf.gz /usr/share/consolefonts</userinput></screen>
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</sect2>
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<!-- then svn up, add changelog, do the propsets, create wiki page -->
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</sect1>
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