The following topics are addressed:

   1) OUTPUT ON THE CONSOLE
   1.1) The font is broken after I switch to X and back to the console
   1.2) The screen size is wrong.  The bottom 2-3 lines are cut off
   1.3) How can I use large fonts sizes?
   1.4) How can I enlarge the image on my laptop display?
   1.5) Display is ugly in text mode on my LCD
   1.6) I can not use my boot splash screen program or SVGATextMode!

   2) INPUT ON THE CONSOLE
   2.1) I cannot type any non-ASCII character.  How do I fix the keymap?
   2.2) Toggling of three keyboard layouts misbehaves
   2.3) Where is the Dvorak keyboard layout?
   2.4) Why doesn't the Backspace key work properly?
   2.5) Why doesn't the Caps Lock LED turn on?


1) OUTPUT ON THE CONSOLE

1.1) The font is broken after I switch to X and back to the console

   Actually the boot-time font replaces the font from console-setup.
   In most cases this means that non-ASCII symbols are replaced by
   some other funny symbols.

   This can sometimes happen because the X video driver is unable to
   properly restore the state of the console when you switch from X to
   text-mode.  How severe the problem is depends on the combination
   of video card and X driver you use.

   Notice that all of this can happen only if the console is in text
   mode, or in other words, you are not using the framebuffer-based
   console driver.  If you add the kernel mode for framebuffer access
   to your video card to /etc/modules, you will be able to switch
   between X and the console whenever you want and the font will never
   be broken.

   Sometimes the problem doesn't exists at all.  It is rumored that
   some old video adapters (more than 10 years old) fall in this
   category, but I have never seen such a video card.

   In the most common case, it is that the state at the time the X
   server is started is remembered.  Try to setup the console before
   the X server is started; if the problem disappears, then you are in
   this category.  The problem will reappear if you change the console
   setup once X has already been started.  All video adapters I have
   owned are in this category.

   With some other cards and drivers, the console setup is never
   remembered.  In this case, you will have to use the framebuffer
   (try "modprobe vga16fb").  Another option is to run the "setupcon"
   utility whenever you need to restore the console setup and hope
   that the problem will be fixed in some future version of X Window.
   You may want to send a bug report to the X developers.

   Some chipsets might require specific video driver options in order
   to restore all console settings correctly. For example, if you
   selected any font size other than 16 for the console, you should
   add the following line into "Device" section of xorg.conf when
   using i810 driver with some integrated graphics controllers:

      Option "VBERestore" "true"

   Please read 'man i810' (or 'man <your driver name>') for additional
   information and, more importantly, for warnings on using the
   options.

 
1.2) The screen size is wrong.  The bottom 2-3 lines are cut off

   The cause and the fix of the problem are the same as in the
   previous question.  I suppose you use the X Window system and you
   chose a font for the console whose size is not the same as the size
   of the font that was active when X started.  Then the following
   happens:

      1. When X starts the X server remembers the active font (let
         this be font A).

      2. You use the Ctrl+Alt+F1 combination and then change the font
         on the console (let this be font B).  The X server doesn't
         know about this.

      3. You return to X (Alt+F7).

      4. Again Ctrl+Alt+F1.  The X server restores font A.  However
         the kernel doesn't know that B is no longer the active font.

      5. If, for example, font A has say 16 scan lines and font B has
         14 scan lines, the font on the screen will have 16 scan lines
         but the kernel doesn't know this and draws the screen as if
         the were only 14 scan lines.  As a result, the bottom lines
         are outside the screen.


1.3) How can I use large fonts sizes?

   First, "consolechars" cannot load big fonts.  Fortunately, most
   current systems use "setfont", and "setfont" can load big fonts.

   Second, the big fonts require framebuffer-based console.  This is
   due to hardware limitation.  The old 8514 videostandard had special
   text mode with 12x20 fonts, but I suppose this video mode is not
   supported by the kernel, and it is unlikely that you own such a
   video adapter anyway.

   Third, the big fonts cannot be used with some of the framebuffer
   drivers.  For example on my computer if I use matroxfb then all
   font sizes work.  However, if I use vga16fb instead of matroxfb,
   then all fonts load with no error messages but only the fonts with
   size 14, 16 or 32x16 are displayed correctly.


1.4) How can I enlarge the image on my laptop display?

   Many laptops do not scale the screen when the resolution is less
   than the resolution of the display.  Since the resolution of the
   default text-mode is much lower than the resolution of the LCD of
   the laptop (text mode: 720x400, LCD: at least 1024x768), only the
   central part of the screen is used.

   There are two ways to fix this.  The first is to reconfigure the
   laptop to scale the image and use the whole screen.  For many
   laptops, there is a setting for this in the BIOS.

   The second way is to use some high resolution framebuffer mode in
   combination with some of the large fonts of console-setup.  The
   drawback is that the console output will be slow.


1.5) Display is ugly in text mode on my LCD

   The resolution of the default text-mode is much lower than the
   resolution of your LCD, and because of that, your LCD has to scale
   the image.  Unfortunately, many LCDs do not do this job well.

   How well your LCD performs in text mode doesn't depend much of its
   price but rather on the company that produced it.  Before you buy
   an LCD, you may want to check how it performs in text mode.

   In order to fix this problem, use a high-resolution framebuffer
   mode in combination with some of the large fonts of console-setup.
   This way, you will have a slow but crisp and impressive screen.


1.6) I can not use my boot splash screen program or SVGATextMode!

   Some programs that change the state of the console reload the
   console font.  If this happens after the execution of the
   console-setup boot script, then the font loaded by console-setup
   will be overwritten.  Add a new boot script that simply executes
   'setupcon' (with no parameters) after these programs load their own
   font.


2) INPUT ON THE CONSOLE

2.1) I cannot type any non-ASCII character.  How do I fix the keymap?

   In most cases, the keymap does not need to be fixed.

   Are you sure that your locale is set correctly?  For example, if
   you use ISO-8859-1 in Denmark, then the LANG environment variable
   should be set to "da_DK".  In some setups, you also have to set the
   LC_ALL environment variable.

   Type the command 'locale charmap'.  If you see "UTF-8", then you
   are using an Unicode locale.  Otherwise, you are using an 8-bit
   encoding.  Now look at the setting CHARMAP in the configuration
   file for console-setup (/etc/default/console-setup).  If you are
   using an Unicode locale, then this setting has to be CHARMAP=UTF-8.
   Otherwise it has to be something like CHARMAP=ISO-8859-15.

   Also, are you sure that your command interpreter accepts non-ASCII
   symbols?  Can you enter these characters in X in a terminal
   emulator?  If not, then try to make a file ~/.inputrc containing
   the following directives:

      set meta-flag on
      set convert-meta off
      set output-meta on


2.2) Toggling of three keyboard layouts misbehaves

   Unfortunately, it is impossible to implement true three-layout
   toggle on the console.  Because of this, console-setup toggles them
   in the following order: Layout 1->Layout 2->Layout 1->Layout 3.  If
   you prefer a different order, then use a four-layout configuration.
   For example, if you use XKBLAYOUT=rs,rs,us,rs and
   XKBVARIANT=latin,,, the layouts will be toggled in the following
   order:

       Serbian Latin -> Serbian Cyrillic -> US -> Serbian Cyrillic


2.3) Where is the Dvorak keyboard layout?

   The Dvorak layouts are variants of the national layouts.  For
   example if you want to use the Norwegian variant of the Dvorak
   layout, use 

      XKBLAYOUT="no"
      XKBVARIANT="dvorak"

   in /etc/default/console-setup.


2.4) Why doesn't the Backspace key work properly?

   If the console is in UTF-8 mode, the Backspace doesn't work
   properly for the non-ASCII symbols.  This is a bug in the kernel.
   If you want to make getty ignore the non-ASCII symbols, add an
   option -8 to it.  For example in /etc/inittab you can have a line
   like this:

        1:2345:respawn:/sbin/getty -8 38400 tty1


2.5) Why doesn't the Caps Lock LED turn on?

   This happens if your working encoding is UTF-8.  Unfortunately, due
   to bugs in the kernel and possibly in loadkeys, when the console is
   in Unicode mode, true Caps Lock doesn't work for non-ASCII letters.
   That is why it has been decided to use regular modifiers instead of
   Caps Lock.  Hopefully, in future the kernel developers will find a
   better solution of this problem.

   When the console is not in UTF-8 mode Caps Lock works as it should.
