[syslinux] any plans for UTF8 in vesamenu.c32?

[Uwe Galle]

OK. UTF8 is not available in Syslinux. But I also miss some hints in the 
docs what psf fonts syslinux can load. It seems there were never such font 
files in the syslinux tree of kernel.org. I downloaded the last version of 
each main version (1.74, 2.13, 3.86 and 4.05) and searched for *.psf files 
but didn't find any.

I should note that I am a Windows user. I don't have a full-featured Linux 
installation where I can find these font files anywhere. I downloaded the 
first Installation DVD of Debian and the Ubuntu install CD but didn't find 
psf files there. Also in the internet it is far away from obvious where to 
find appropriate psf fonts for Syslinux.

For me it is a big advantage that I can use Pxelinux simply by copying 
pxelinux.0 and vesamenu.c32 from the Syslinux tree of kernel.org. (That's 
why I don't use Grub 2.) It would be nice if it is possible to do the same 
with the psf files without compiling Syslinux or even the whole kernel.

Please add a note in the docs (under FONT filename in this link: 
http://www.syslinux.org/wiki/index.php/SYSLINUX) where users without a Linux 
installation can find psf files with language specific characters. I need a 
psf console font with special german characters (Umlaute). Especially I need 
it for Pxelinux. There is hopefully no difference between Syslinux and 
Pxelinux in this regard.

Thanks.

Best regards,
Uwe Galle


-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht----- 
From: H. Peter Anvin
Sent: Monday, September 24, 2012 11:43 PM
To: For discussion of Syslinux and tftp-hpa
Subject: Re: [syslinux] any plans for UTF8 in vesamenu.c32?

On 09/23/2012 04:34 AM, Gene Cumm wrote:
> On Sun, Sep 23, 2012 at 12:30 AM, Uwe Galle <UweGalle at gmx.de> wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> UTF8 is a standard today. Nevertheless it seems to be impossible to 
>> display UTF8 characters in vesamenu.c32. Am I wrong?  There is nothing 
>> about that in the docs.
>
> I'm fairly certain that vesamenu.c32 carries the same restrictions as
> everything else in Syslinux and does not support anything but the OEM
> code pages.
>

Well, supporting UTF-8, the encoding scheme, is different from
supporting an arbitrary number of characters.  We already need Unicode
tables to support VFAT, so it wouldn't be *too* much worse to also
support UTF-8.

-hpa


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