Re: Problems in fonts in console appear again (and rant on /etc/default)

[Joel Roth <joelz@pobox.com>]

On Sat, Apr 07, 2012 at 12:48:35AM +0100, Brian wrote:
> On Fri 06 Apr 2012 at 16:29:54 -0500, Indulekha wrote:
> 
> > James Brown, try this in /etc/default/console-setup 
> > and see what happens:
> > 
> > CHARMAP="UTF-8"
> > CODESET="Uni2"
> > FONTFACE="TerminusBold"
> > FONTSIZE="32x16"
> 
> And run 'setupcon' after making the changes?

This works for me. :-)  

I never had thought about configuring the console before.

My issue had been 80-character fonts for GRUB, then tiny
fonts (132 columns?) after boot.  

32x16 is a good size for me, however Terminus is squarish,
uglier than the default font IMO.

OT RANT: Debian's use of /etc/default drives me nuts!

I like the Unix philosphy that config files are in
/etc/something, sometimes in $HOME/.something.

And now it is also necessary to check
/etc/default/something. Why does Debian console-setup
need to place config files in /etc/default?

Maybe I shouldn't bother, since my current system 
has only 65 entries in /etc/default.

But then here is /etc/default/exim4, with options I never
knew where to look for! 

Probably people get used to this, but for me it seems
scattered.  

I know the reason is that upgraded packages need to rewrite
their /etc/something config files without clobbering local
admin settings.

So that /etc/default seems to really mean /etc/not-default
or /etc/default-until-changed, or  
/etc/settings-never-over-written-by-package-upgrade.

If I had been around for that part of that discussion, I would have advocated
a single-file solution, for example a two-part file with 
distinct sections:

#########################################################################
##### THE FOLLOWING SECTION MAY BE REWRITTEN DURING PACKAGE UPGRADE #####
#########################################################################

It works for GRUB!

Not that I expect Debian to change direction. Just my
opinion. 

Cheers,

-- 
Joel Roth