HowTo: Console Font Tweaking (Gentoo)

[gruven]

So, when you boot up, your console font kinda looks horrible on most distributions. I am here to help you fix it on Gentoo based distros. This will work on Gentoo, Funtoo, Sabayon, and any distro based on Gentoo linux. You should also be able to adapt this to your distro of choice with a little trial and error.

First, you will want to install the terminus-font package:

emerge -av terminus-font

That will put all of the terminus fonts in /usr/share/consolefonts. Now, to test out each font, you can use this:

setfont (whatever font you wish to set here)

That will set the font temporarily to the font you selected. If you need to set it back to default, just type

setfont

to set it back to the default.

When you find the font you like, set it in /etc/conf.d/consolefont and add the consolefont script to the runlevel of your choosing.

eselect rc add consolefont default

That should get you a nice looking console font when you boot up.

For reference, the ter-*n.psf.gz fonts look great! I myself use ter-112n.psf.gz for my console font.
Remember, when you put the font in /etc/conf.d/consolefont, do not add the .psf.gz to the font name. Just specify the name itself. Also, the font has to be in /usr/share/consolefonts directory for /etc/conf.d/consolefont to find it.

[gruven]

Since it won't let me edit the article, I will add a revision here.

Make sure you have a framebuffer set up before you attempt this, as it won't work without it. I have tested it with uvesafb, vesafb, and in kernel KMS. Most distros have a framebuffer setup, but a lot do not (such as debian and gentoo) so I may end up writing a howto for that as well, but that is another matter entirely.

Another issue is the proprietary drivers for ati cards, as the framebuffer doesn't like them much. I have used the nvidia binary drivers successfully though with uvesafb.

I am also working on getting Plymouth setup on my box for a nice animated splash while you boot up. More on that later.