3 Bulgarian fonts and keymaps

3.1 Cyrillic CP1251 fonts for the FreeBSD virtual console

To be able to view files and webpages containing Cyrillic characters in the CP1251 (or windows-1251) character set, you need to configure your console to use the appropriate display font. Fortunately, FreeBSD comes with a CP1251 console font in the usual three sizes - 8-by-8 for 50x43 text modes, 8-by-14 for EGA normal text modes and 8-by-16 for the VGA normal text modes. These three screen fonts are located in the /usr/share/syscons/fonts/ directory under the names of cp1251-8x8.fnt, cp1251-8x14.fnt, and cp1251-8x16.fnt respectively.

Letting a FreeBSD system use these fonts is done either manually, using the vidcontrol(1) utility, or automatically, using /etc/rc.conf to customize the system startup procedure.

The vidcontrol(1) utility should be used either when you want to test-drive the new font to see if it fits your needs, or when you simply do not want to reboot the system. To set the cp1251-8x16.fnt font for the current console, use the following command:

    % vidcontrol -f 8x16 cp1251-8x16

Note that in the vidcontrol(1) invocation you do not need to specify the full font file name - the .fnt extension may be omitted.

However, you do not really need to use vidcontrol(1), unless you really really do not want to reboot your computer. The easiest way to set up your FreeBSD system so that you can see Cyrillic characters on the console is to add the following line to /etc/rc.conf:

    font8x16="cp1251-8x16"

Of course, you may substitute 8x16 with your preferred font size. You may also define all three font sizes, just in case - it never hurts, and the only one that will actually take effect is, well, the correct one.

3.2 Cyrillic fonts for the X Window System

A short description of the fonts available (Cronyx; any more?) and the setup procedures.

3.3 Bulgarian keymaps for the FreeBSD virtual console

To be able to enter Cyrillic characters in the CP1251 (or windows-1251) character set, you need to configure your console to use the appropriate keyboard map. Fortunately, FreeBSD comes with keyboard maps for the two common Bulgarian keyboard layouts - ``BDS'' and ``Phonetic''. These two keymaps are located in the /usr/share/syscons/keymaps/ directory under the names of bg.bds.ctrlcaps.kbd and bg.phonetic.ctrlcaps.kbd respectively.

Letting a FreeBSD system use these keymaps is done either manually, using the kbdcontrol(1) utility, or automatically, using /etc/rc.conf to customize the system startup procedure.

The kbdcontrol(1) utility should be used either when you want to test-drive the new keymap to see if it fits your needs, or when you simply do not want to reboot the system. To set the bg.phonetic.ctrlcaps.kbd keyboard map, use the following command:

    % kbdcontrol -l bg.phonetic.ctrlcaps

Note that in the kbdcontrol(1) invocation you do not need to specify the full keymap file name - the .kbd extension may be omitted.

However, you do not really need to use kbdcontrol(1), unless you really really do not want to reboot your computer. The easiest way to set up your FreeBSD system so that you can enter Cyrillic characters on the console is to add the following line to /etc/rc.conf:

    keymap="bg.phonetic.ctrlcaps"

Of course, you may substitute bg.phonetic.ctrlcaps with your preferred keymap name.