kern/108442: UTF-8 support for console

[Michael B. Trausch]

>Number:         108442
>Category:       kern
>Synopsis:       UTF-8 support for console
>Confidential:   no
>Severity:       non-critical
>Priority:       low
>Responsible:    freebsd-bugs
>State:          open
>Quarter:        
>Keywords:       
>Date-Required:
>Class:          change-request
>Submitter-Id:   current-users
>Arrival-Date:   Sat Jan 27 18:30:20 GMT 2007
>Closed-Date:
>Last-Modified:
>Originator:     Michael B. Trausch
>Release:        6.2-RELEASE
>Organization:
N/A
>Environment:
FreeBSD testing.trausch.us 6.2-RELEASE FreeBSD 6.2-RELEASE #0: Fri Jan 12 10:40:27 UTC 2007     root at dessler.cse.buffalo.edu:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GENERIC  i386
>Description:
UTF-8 characters are not supported natively on the system console, but they are supported just fine in an xterm or another terminal that has UTF-8 support.  The console should support UTF-8 character display, as well, though this would probably mean that it would need to be a framebuffer of some sort.
>How-To-Repeat:
Create a file with the following contents:

=== Begin text file ===
This system is running FreeBSD which is Copyright © 1992-2007 The FreeBSD Project, and Copyright © 1979, 1980, 1983, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994 The Regents of the University of California.  All Rights Reserved.

Your system administrator is “Søren”.
=== End text file ===

“cat” this file to the display on the console of the box, and there are five characters that will not properly display.
>Fix:

>Release-Note:
>Audit-Trail:
>Unformatted: