[gentoo-dev] Re: Gentoo l18n - russian

[gentoo-dev] Re: Gentoo l18n - russian

[Alexander V Svadkovsky]

Hello, you wrote:
> Hi there. I plan to use GentooLinux (I using Linux since 2.0, FreeBSD 
> since 4.2) 
> coz it have ports-like system, it's just grate! But I should know how I be
> able type and see russian chars(koi8-r) in console?
> What tool is used(kbd?). What doc I should read? Or russification of 
> Gentoo is the same as other distros(Slackware for example)?
> 
> Thanks.

That's how I do it: (The toolkit for console/keyboard manipulations in Gentooo 
is kbd)
In /etc/rc.conf, you should set
KEYMAP, CONSOLEFONT and CONSOLETRANSLATION.

For keymap, there are several choices. Personally, I use a version of "ru-ms" changed so that
my backspace key sends "Delete" (the line that does it is commented in the original ru-ms.map)
Or you can use one of the ru*.map's you like best.

The console fonts for KOI8-R included in kbd are inevitably ugly, so if you don't like them, 
you can load the Cyr_a8x16 font and, as it's for cp866, load the koi2alt translation.
The distros like RedHat use a font called 'cyr-sun16' which looks very nice, so you could
as well take it from a RedHat package and use it. (Then you'll need the 'koi8r' unimap)

As for l18n, I created a /etc/env.d/91locale file:
--
LANG=ru_RU.KOI8-R
--

--
With best regards, Alexander V. Svadkovsky