[syslinux] Display borked when loading FONT

[Ady]

> So to put things clearly: my system is UTF-8. My locale setup:
> 
> LANG=fr_FR.UTF-8
> LC_ALL=fr_FR.UTF-8
> 
 ...
> 
> So, ISO-8859-1 is definitely not the way to go, think CP!
> 
> menu.c32 and vesamenu.c32 are now OK. \o/
> 
> The French characters i now can display correctly:
> 
> éèêëùàçâäÉÇ - did not try all but CP850 can display every
> French character (as it is a codepage for West Europe).
> 
 
I'm glad you solved your problem. For future reference, just in case 
someone else finds this email thread in search for similar issues, 
I'd like to clarify a couple of details (and please forgive me if 
this is already clear and evident for you - it might not be so clear 
to others having similar issues).

According to previous posts (by HPA) in this Syslinux mailing list, 
Syslinux configuration files (and so-called DISPLAY or "message" 
files too) are parsed using codepage "865" (which is not exactly 100% 
the same as CP850). CP865 is almost the same as CP437, with the 
exception of 3 characters.

CP858, CP850, CP865 and CP437 (among others), (partially) support 
Western alphabets. All of them include most (if not all) French 
characters.

A font file might or might not be needed once the Syslinux entry is 
launched. A keyboard layout or a specific language selection might or 
might not be needed (or wanted) as part of the APPEND line. But I 
wasn't referring to such cases.

All I am saying is that, for the purpose of displaying French 
"accented" lowercase characters in a Syslinux "message" file or in a 
Syslinux menu, the "FONT" directive (which is part of Syslinux and is 
independent of any other code relevant to a specific OS) is not 
necessary in most Western systems.

If a Syslinux "message" or a Syslinux menu displays unexpected 
characters, the suggested procedure would be to use a simple text 
editor that is capable of opening, editing and saving files with the 
adequate encoding. If the (cfg or message) file is opened as CP865, 
then the needed characters (supported by CP865) are inserted and then 
the file is saved with the same CP865, then the expected result 
should be that Syslinux should display the same exact characters.

If the OS and/or editor tool where the files are being edited doesn't 
support CP865, I would suggest using CP437.

For characters not supported by CP865 (or by CP437), Syslinux needs 
an adequate font file and the FONT directive.

Of course, if Syslinux starts supporting UTF-8 (for "message" files 
and/or for cfg files) in the future, some of the above details might 
change.

Best Regards,
Ady.