Currently the Linux text console does support UTF-8 but only only supports fonts with up to 512 glyphs. I.e. you can use the native UTF-8 support of the Linux console for European languages but not for CJK.
To be able to use CJK on the Linux console you need additional
programs which support bigger fonts and double width characters. For
example the frame buffer console terminal emulator fbiterm
(see
section 9.2).
To switch the Linux console to Unicode mode you can use the script
/usr/bin/unicode_start
, to get back to 8-bit mode there is the
script /usr/bin/unicode_stop
.
In order to have the Linux consoles automatically initialized into UTF-8 mode or 8-bit mode by default install the update for the ``kbd'' package for SuSE Linux 8.2 available here:
ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/people/mfabian/8.2-i586/kbd-1.06-236.i586.rpm
ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/people/mfabian/8.2-src/kbd-1.06-236.src.rpm
The new /etc/init.d/kbd
script from that package will
check whether the system wide default settings according to
/etc/sysconfig/language
result in a effective default
value of LC_CTYPE
using UTF-8 or not and set up
the console appropriately.
You also should update to the ``sysvinit'' packages available here:
ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/people/mfabian/8.2-i586/sysvinit-2.82-287.i586.rpm
ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/people/mfabian/8.2-src/sysvinit-2.82-287.src.rpm
There was a bug in the mingetty program in that package which caused a switch to 8-bit mode each time one did log in to the first Linux console.
2005-03-09