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

[Uwe Galle]

Thank you all very much for your help. I want to mention that I followed 
inter alia the link to the MosNis page on the Syslinux page 
http://www.syslinux.org/wiki/index.php/UseCases ("MosNis - the 
Multioperatingsystem Networkinstallationserver, a project usefull for 
Systembuilders ..."). This is a project in german language and makes on one 
page the statement that Umlaute are not possible for technical reasons ("Aus 
technischen Gründen ist eine direkte Adressierung der Tasten F11 und F12 
leider nicht möglich genausowenig wie Umlaute", 
http://www.mosnis.de/de/content/3-integration-der-betriebsysteme-und-wartungstools-den-mosnis). 
The same statement is on the mirror page 
http://www.linupedia.org/opensuse/MosNis-Wikibook/Installation/Betriebssystemintegration/Grundstruktur.

Furthermore I saw that the author avoided the german Umlaute in the example 
configuration files in the MENU LABEL statements although the text in these
statements is obviously in german (the first 2 MENU LABEL statements in 
2.2 - "VESA-Menusystem Auswahl" instead of "VESA-Menüsystem Auswahl" and
"SIMPLE-Menusystem Auswahl" instead of "SIMPLE-Menüsystem Auswahl" - and the 
first MENU LABEL statement in 3.3).

I also found a question about Umlaute in Syslinux in 
http://forum.effizienzgurus.de/f32/syslinux-t8712.html and in 
http://board.gulli.com/thread/1651171-syslinux-und-umlaute. The question in 
the first thread was not answered and the solution offered in the second 
thread was to append "lang=de". But a boot loader doesn't have a possibility 
at all to add such an option anywhere because no configuration file can 
describe how an initial boot file is loaded (exept perhaps by the DHCP 
server).

Finally there is no hint in the Syslinux Wiki how language specific 
characters work and that Syslinux uses the BIOS standard code page 437.

All together made me think that UTF8 is necessary in order to display german 
Umlaute in Syslinux. Now I see that the simplest solution is to use PSPad 
and save the configuration file with OEM selected in the Format menu.

So I don't need UTF8 in Syslinux. But the documentation can be improved a 
litte bit (e.g. under FONT filename or under KBDMAP keymap in this link: 
http://www.syslinux.org/wiki/index.php/SYSLINUX).

Best regards,
Uwe Galle


-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht----- 
From: Ady
Sent: Tuesday, October 02, 2012 5:38 PM
To: syslinux at zytor.com
Subject: Re: [syslinux] any plans for UTF8 in vesamenu.c32?


Date sent:      Tue, 2 Oct 2012 08:47:38 -0500
From:           dave madsen <dcmdcm at gmail.com>
To:             For discussion of Syslinux and tftp-hpa
<syslinux at zytor.com>
Subject:        Re: [syslinux] any plans for UTF8 in vesamenu.c32?
Send reply to:  For discussion of Syslinux and tftp-hpa
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> I don't know whether or not this is germane or not, but under Windows, the
> Alt key may be used to enter character codes (
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alt_code), but the code page affects what you
> see.
>
> On Tue, Oct 2, 2012 at 6:32 AM, Ady <ady-sf at hotmail.com> wrote:
>

The alt key method works (specially useful when you already know the
codes), but in most cases it is not necessary.

First, if the user already has the relevant characters in the
keyboard, there is no need for "alt codes".

If the keyboard does not include the relevant characters, then (under
Windows):

1_ Open Notepad;
2_ In Notepad, Format -> font -> Terminal (first take note of the
font that was previously used);
3_ Open Windows Character Map;
4_ In Character Map, Font -> Terminal (first take note of the font
that was previously used);
5_ In Character Map, "Select" the relevant characters, then "Copy";
6_ Back in Notepad, Paste;
7_ In Notepad, Edit and Save the cfg file and close Notepad.
8_ Optionally, Open Notepad again (with an empty "Untitled" file) so
to change back the default font for text files. The same for
Character Map.

Hopefully this explains one simple-enough possibility to add those
non-English
characters to a cfg file under Windows while using standard tools.
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