• Debian and fonts

    From Al@21:4/106.1 to All on Sunday, November 08, 2020 18:42:34
    Hello All,

    I've installed debian and been experimenting and it runs great. I've been able to build binkd/husky and Synchronet and they are running great.

    One issue I have is the console font. When I log into the BBS I see a lot of diamonds on the screen in the ansi menus. When I log into the BBS from my desktop (running slackware) the BBS looks just as it should/always has.

    I copied the default8x16.psfu.gz from my slackware box and loaded that font on my debian box and that looks much better but for some reason I see some "?" in some places. I can't seem to overcome this.

    So a question for debian folks, how do I get a better font in debian? I have run "dpkg-reconfigure console-setup" and tried some different fonts but I haven't been able to get passed this.

    What font are you having success with and how did you install and set it up?

    Ttyl :-),
    Al

    ... Luxuriantly hand-crafted from only the finest ASCII.
    --- SBBSecho 3.11-Linux
    * Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (21:4/106.1)
  • From Oli@21:3/102 to Al on Monday, November 09, 2020 11:52:05
    Al wrote (2020-11-08):

    Hello All,

    I've installed debian and been experimenting and it runs great. I've been able to build binkd/husky and Synchronet and they are running great.

    One issue I have is the console font. When I log into the BBS I see a lot of diamonds on the screen in the ansi menus. When I log into the BBS from my desktop (running slackware) the BBS looks just as it should/always has.

    are you sure this is related to the font? maybe a character set issue (LANG / LANGUAGE)? logging into which BBS and how?

    ---
    * Origin: (21:3/102)
  • From Bob Roberts@21:2/118 to Al on Monday, November 09, 2020 10:14:11
    One issue I have is the console font. When I log into the BBS I see a lot of diamonds on the screen in the ansi menus. When I log into the BBS from my desktop (running slackware) the BBS looks just as it should/always has.

    I don't know much about linux fonts, but I know Synchronet tries to set fonts based on what terminal you use to connect. Maybe check out
    http://wiki.synchro.net/config:fonts.ini

    I always connect to my local board with syncterm to avoid any issues.

    |01bobbobbobbob|09bob|03bob|11bob|03bob|09bob|01bobbobbob |01robrobrobrob|09rob|03rob|11rob|03rob|09rob|01robrobrob
    |07
    --- SBBSecho 3.11-Linux
    * Origin: Halls of Valhalla <> San Francisco <> hovalbbs.com (21:2/118)
  • From Al@21:4/106 to Oli on Monday, November 09, 2020 17:00:52
    Hello Oli,

    One issue I have is the console font. When I log into the BBS I
    see a lot of diamonds on the screen in the ansi menus. When I log
    into the BBS from my desktop (running slackware) the BBS looks
    just as it should/always has.

    are you sure this is related to the font?

    I think so but I am not entirely sure.

    maybe a character set issue (LANG / LANGUAGE)? logging into which BBS
    and how?

    I only have LANG=en_CA.UTF-8 set here as far as I can see.

    It happens with my own or any BBS I log into on my debian (ubuntu also) box. I can log into my own or any BBS from my slackware box and it looks fine. What I see in debian is fine generally, it's only a problem with the BBSs ansi menus.

    It's related I think to the high ascii used in those menus, but I'm not sure why.

    Ttyl :-),
    Al

    --- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20180707
    * Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (21:4/106)
  • From Al@21:4/106 to Bob Roberts on Monday, November 09, 2020 17:09:30
    Hello Bob,

    I don't know much about linux fonts, but I know Synchronet tries to
    set fonts based on what terminal you use to connect. Maybe check out http://wiki.synchro.net/config:fonts.ini

    That is true, Synchronet can change the look with fonts but I don't think that is the issue I am having here with my local display.

    I always connect to my local board with syncterm to avoid any issues.

    In most cases I just use telnet or ssh. I only use a terminal program if I need zmodem support. I get the same result either way.

    Ttyl :-),
    Al

    --- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20180707
    * Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (21:4/106)
  • From Oli@21:3/102 to Al on Tuesday, November 10, 2020 12:46:48
    Al wrote (2020-11-09):

    maybe a character set issue (LANG / LANGUAGE)? logging into which
    BBS and how?

    I only have LANG=en_CA.UTF-8 set here as far as I can see.

    It happens with my own or any BBS I log into on my debian (ubuntu also) box. I can log into my own or any BBS from my slackware box and it looks fine. What I see in debian is fine generally, it's only a problem with
    the BBSs ansi menus.

    It's related I think to the high ascii used in those menus, but I'm not sure why.

    because they are invalid codes in UTF-8? (if it's really high ascii and not CP437 chars in their unicode representation.)

    ---
    * Origin: (21:3/102)
  • From Al@21:4/106 to Oli on Tuesday, November 10, 2020 06:09:24
    Hello Oli,

    It's related I think to the high ascii used in those menus, but
    I'm not sure why.

    because they are invalid codes in UTF-8? (if it's really high ascii
    and not CP437 chars in their unicode representation.)

    I'm not at all sure why that is the case. I last ran debian 5 or 6 years ago and didn't have any issues. ATM I'm running slackware-current and all is well.

    If you happen to use mc you may be able to see for yourself what I mean.

    In mc press F9, then go to options, then appearance. If you select featured do you see nice clean double lines or diamonds?

    In slackware I see nice clean lines and in debian I see diamonds.

    Ttyl :-),
    Al

    --- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20180707
    * Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (21:4/106)
  • From Al@21:4/106 to Oli on Tuesday, November 10, 2020 06:54:26
    Hello Oli,

    because they are invalid codes in UTF-8? (if it's really high
    ascii and not CP437 chars in their unicode representation.)

    I'm not at all sure why that is the case. I last ran debian 5 or 6
    years ago and didn't have any issues. ATM I'm running
    slackware-current and all is well.

    Thinking a little more I think it is CP437 characters. I wasn't using a UTF-8 terminal in those days. I think the font in debian is missing some CP437 -> UTF-8 translations.

    Ttyl :-),
    Al

    --- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20180707
    * Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (21:4/106)
  • From Oli@21:3/102 to Al on Tuesday, November 10, 2020 17:31:04
    Al wrote (2020-11-10):

    Hello Oli,

    It's related I think to the high ascii used in those menus, but
    I'm not sure why.

    because they are invalid codes in UTF-8? (if it's really high ascii
    and not CP437 chars in their unicode representation.)

    I'm not at all sure why that is the case. I last ran debian 5 or 6 years ago and didn't have any issues. ATM I'm running slackware-current and all is well.

    If you happen to use mc you may be able to see for yourself what I mean.

    In mc press F9, then go to options, then appearance. If you select
    featured do you see nice clean double lines or diamonds?

    I see clean single lines or double lines if I choose the double-lines skin. Works fiine in the console, LXTerminal or XTerm (all three use different fonts). A UTF-8 font without the line-drawing (or box-drawing) symbols from CP437 would be weird, but it really sounds like a font issue. I'm on Debian 10 LXDE (Raspbian). Strange ...

    ---
    * Origin: (21:3/102)
  • From Xenos@21:4/147 to Al on Saturday, November 14, 2020 14:40:45
    RE: Debian and fonts
    BY: Al (21:4/106.1)

    On Sunday, November 08, 2020 at 17:42, Al (21:4/106.1) wrote:


    I've installed debian and been experimenting and it runs great. I've been ab

    One issue I have is the console font. When I log into the BBS I see a lot of

    I copied the default8x16.psfu.gz from my slackware box and loaded that font

    So a question for debian folks, how do I get a better font in debian? I have

    What font are you having success with and how did you install and set it up?

    You have to run "unicode_stop" and maybe also "setfont -m cp437 -f default8x16" so the diamonds turn into the high-bit ASCII characters that old DOS BBSes used.

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  • From Al@21:4/106.1 to Xenos on Saturday, November 14, 2020 05:22:02
    Re: Re: Debian and fonts
    By: Xenos to Al on Sat Nov 14 2020 02:40 pm

    You have to run "unicode_stop" and maybe also "setfont -m cp437 -f default8x16" so the diamonds turn into the high-bit ASCII characters that old DOS BBSes used.

    This is the command I used in debian to load the default8x16 font and it is much better (for BBSing) than the default font in debian. It gives me something better than 90% support for the characters needed for BBSing. I just see the odd question marks but it's not so bad.

    Slackware uses the default8x16 font by default and I have no issues with any characters on the screen. Here on my slackware box I just ran that command and again I see the odd question mark on my <Alt>F3 terminal again and I can't seem to get that to go away. I wonder if I need a character map or translation table to go along with it?

    I never had that issue on debian before but I didn't have a utf8 terminal at the time. I'd sure like to find a way to get the same clean look I get on slackware on debian also and I think this setfont command is probably what is needed but something is still missing.

    I'm trying to figure out slackware's default console setup and see if I can figure out the missing bits here.

    Ttyl :-),
    Al

    ... I'm working on my 2nd $million... Gave up on the 1st.
    --- SBBSecho 3.11-Linux
    * Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (21:4/106.1)
  • From Xenos@21:4/147 to Al on Saturday, November 14, 2020 22:49:15
    RE: Re: Debian and fonts
    BY: Al (21:4/106.1)

    On Saturday, November 14, 2020 at 04:22, Al (21:4/106.1) wrote:

    Re: Re: Debian and fonts
    By: Xenos to Al on Sat Nov 14 2020 02:40 pm

    You have to run "unicode_stop" and maybe also "setfont -m cp437 -f default8x16" so the diamonds turn into the high-bit ASCII characters th old DOS BBSes used.

    This is the command I used in debian to load the default8x16 font and it is
    it's not so bad.

    Slackware uses the default8x16 font by default and I have no issues with any A>way. I wonder if I need a character map or translation table to go along wit

    I never had that issue on debian before but I didn't have a utf8 terminal at A>ill missing.

    I'm trying to figure out slackware's default console setup and see if I can

    Not having touched Slackware in decades, I don't remember where you'd have to start looking. Like you, I've been looking for ways to see the high-bit characters on Linux the way we used to in DOS days. With X Terminals, it's not too difficult. Console charsets are a different story.

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