[syslinux] Display borked when loading FONT

[Didier Spaier]

On 25/05/2013 18:37, Ady wrote:
> ... 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).

No, it was not clear and evident, at least for me.

So, thanks Ady for your clarifications.

> 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.

This is an important information I missed. I was wrongly assuming that the BIOS' default font was used.

Now I am going to reconsider including a FONT directive in isolinux.cfg and a CP437 font in /isolinux, as I did.

(For the records, I won't really miss "¢", '¥' or '»' in isolinux :-)

I will just edit isolinux.cfg message.txt and f*.txt in UTF-8 mode
and use "iconv" to convert it to CP865.

Now I have a request to a kind soul allowed to edit following wiki page:
http://www.syslinux.org/wiki/index.php/SYSLINUX

Please add there (or leswhere in the wiki as you see fit) that very useful information (mostly  "files are parsed using codepage 865").

Thanks in advance to any volunteer

> Of course, if Syslinux starts supporting UTF-8 (for "message" files
> and/or for cfg files) in the future...

I hope that will happen... Anybody working at it?

Didier