[systemd-devel] systemd-vconsole-setup: /usr/bin/setfont failed with error code 71

[Yegor Gemba]

Hello,
I am testing systemd on Arch Linux and I get following errors:

<30>systemd-vconsole-setup[59]: putfont: KDFONTOP: Invalid argument
<28>systemd-vconsole-setup[59]: /usr/bin/setfont failed with error code 71.

/etc/vconsole.conf is:
KEYMAP=de-latin1-nodeadkeys
FONT=ter-v20n # this font is actually installed

systemd fails to set the desired console font and I get the default one.
I am able to overcome the problem by changing the
systemd-vconsole-setup.service from
#
After=systemd-readahead-collect.service systemd-readahead-replay.service
Before=sysinit.target shutdown.target
#
to
#
After=sysinit.target
Before=shutdown.target
#
the only explanation I find is that /usr/bin/setfont can only set fonts on
framebuffer consoles and if it's run before udev (which, in my case, brings up
radeon module, which, in its turn, brings up fb console) it can not set font
on non-fb console.
systemd-vconsole-setup.service should probably take this into account.

–– Yegor

[Lennart Poettering]

Post by Yegor Gemba
Hello,
<30>systemd-vconsole-setup[59]: putfont: KDFONTOP: Invalid argument
<28>systemd-vconsole-setup[59]: /usr/bin/setfont failed with error code 71.
KEYMAP=de-latin1-nodeadkeys
FONT=ter-v20n # this font is actually installed
systemd fails to set the desired console font and I get the default one.
I am able to overcome the problem by changing the
systemd-vconsole-setup.service from
#
After=systemd-readahead-collect.service systemd-readahead-replay.service
Before=sysinit.target shutdown.target
#
to
#
After=sysinit.target
Before=shutdown.target
#
the only explanation I find is that /usr/bin/setfont can only set fonts on
framebuffer consoles and if it's run before udev (which, in my case, brings up
radeon module, which, in its turn, brings up fb console) it can not set font
on non-fb console.
systemd-vconsole-setup.service should probably take this into account.

Hmm, no clue really, haven't seen this before. But setting fonts on vga
consoles should work too. If you change to a different font (like the
lat0 boring stuff), does it work then?

Lennart

[Yegor Gemba]

Post by Lennart Poettering
Hmm, no clue really, haven't seen this before. But setting fonts on vga
consoles should work too. If you change to a different font (like the
lat0 boring stuff), does it work then?

Strange behaviour:
# lat0-{08,10,12,14,16} works always (both on VGA and FB console)
# ter-v16n works on VGA console, but when kernel switches to FB console during
boot up the font changes back to the default one.
# ter-v20n works only on FB console, that means fonts with height greater than
16 pixels don't work on VGA console at all

-- Yegor