Debian and Unicode line drawing
Aleksander Kurczyk
I am using PuTTY, Maybe it's not a new software but it works properly with other distributions (CentOS/Fedora etc.) that uses Unicode by default.
I noticed that every frame in default Debian configuration in PuTTY is displayed as the rows of ppppppppppppp and qqqqqqqqqq instead of those frame ASCII characters. PuTTY and every of my Debian installation is set to use Unicode UTF-8 encoded characters so ncurses etc. should use those characters to display frames instead of this vt100 escape code and ppppppppp/qqqqqqqqqqq after it. PuTTY and KiTTY is expecting this and not those vt100 compatible characters. PuTTY/KiTTY can use those vt100 charasters without any problems but not in the Unicode mode. In this mode it expects normal UTF-8 characters.
I can make ncurses applications use Unicode characters with the variable "export NCURSES_NO_UTF8_ACS=1" set in my .bashrc. But not all applications uses ncurses. For example dpkg-reconfigure still uses those vt100 escape code and ppppppppppp/qqqqqqqqqqqqq characters. How can i make it Unicode compatible?
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Ron Leach
> Hello,
>
> I noticed that every frame in default Debian configuration in PuTTY
> is displayed as the rows of ppppppppppppp and qqqqqqqqqq instead of
> those frame ASCII characters. PuTTY and every of my Debian
> installation is set to use Unicode UTF-8 encoded characters so
> ncurses etc. should use those characters to display frames instead
> of this vt100 escape code and ppppppppp/qqqqqqqqqqq after it. PuTTY
> and KiTTY is expecting this and not those vt100 compatible
> characters. PuTTY/KiTTY can use those vt100 charasters without any
> problems but not in the Unicode mode. In this mode it expects
> normal UTF-8 characters.
differ a lot. I use mc, and the 'line drawing' around its panes
depends on using these settings, I've found:
PuTTY, Window, Translation:
Character set: UTF8
Handle line drawing: Use font in ANSI and OEM modes
and in mc, on Debian Wheezy in this example:
Display bits, Input display, code page: UTF8
gives a 'perfect' mc appearance in the PuTTY window.
>
> I can make ncurses applications use Unicode characters with the
> variable "export NCURSES_NO_UTF8_ACS=1" set in my .bashrc. But not
> all applications uses ncurses. For example dpkg-reconfigure still
> uses those vt100 escape code and ppppppppppp/qqqqqqqqqqqqq
> characters. How can i make it Unicode compatible?
an application is an ncurses application? Is mc such an application?
Maybe mc is ok because its codepage can be altered anyway, and maybe
your observation suggests that dpkg-reconfigure cannot be changed; I
see the problem, now.
Have you tried altering the ANSI/OEM setting in PuTTY, anyway?
regards, Ron
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Aleksander Kurczyk
Thanks for your replay. Unfortunately it doesn't work :(
Could you check these screenshots?
http://screencloud.net/v/jL6o
http://screencloud.net/v/kp3E
http://screencloud.net/v/1MR1
With and without the option you mentioned mc and other ncurses programs works fine but the dpkg-reconfigure is still just outputing pppppppp and qqqqqqqq rows.
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Aleksander Kurczyk
----------------------------------------
> Date: Tue, 1 Apr 2014 14:39:09 +0100
> From: ronl...@tesco.net
> To: debia...@lists.debian.org
> Subject: Re: Debian and Unicode line drawing
Archive: https://lists.debian.org/DUB128-W5977634AE...@phx.gbl
Stephen Powell
>
> Hello,
>
> I am using PuTTY, Maybe it's not a new software but it works properly
> with other distributions (CentOS/Fedora etc.) that uses Unicode by
> default.
>
> I noticed that every frame in default Debian configuration in PuTTY
> is displayed as the rows of ppppppppppppp and qqqqqqqqqq instead of
> those frame ASCII characters. PuTTY and every of my Debian
> installation is set to use Unicode UTF-8 encoded characters so ncurses
> etc. should use those characters to display frames instead of this
> vt100 escape code and ppppppppp/qqqqqqqqqqq after it.
> PuTTY and KiTTY is expecting this and not those vt100 compatible
> characters. PuTTY/KiTTY can use those vt100 charasters without any
> problems but not in the Unicode mode. In this mode it expects
> normal UTF-8 characters.
>
> I can make ncurses applications use Unicode characters with the
> variable "export NCURSES_NO_UTF8_ACS=1" set in my .bashrc.
> But not all applications uses ncurses. For example dpkg-reconfigure
> still uses those vt100 escape code and ppppppppppp/qqqqqqqqqqqqq
> characters. How can i make it Unicode compatible?
On the Debian side, use
dpkg-reconfigure locales
and
dpkg-reconfigure console-setup
Make sure the default locale is UTF-8. (For example, en_US.UTF-8.)
Make sure UTF-8 is selected as the character mapping in console-setup.
Then shutdown and reboot.
On the PuTTY side, make sure that PuTTY is expecting UTF-8 characters.
In the PuTTY configuration dialog, select
Window -> Translation
Then, in the drop-down box under "Remote character set", select UTF-8.
Also, make sure that the "Use Unicode line drawing code points" radio
button is selected on the same screen.
Assuming that you are running PuTTY under Windows, many Windows fonts
are incomplete. Most of the fixed-width fonts are missing some of the
characters that are used in manual pages. As a result, a hollow box
will appear in their place. On my Windows machine at work, the only
installed font that I could find that would display a hyphen correctly
is Consolas. An internet post I read also suggested DejaVu Sans Mono,
but I couldn't try it because it is not installed in my machine.
In PuTTY configuration, select
Window -> Appearance
Then change the font. Experiment with different fonts. Display a
man page that has hyphens, such as
man fstab
and see which fonts display a hyphen and which display a box. Go
with one which displays the hyphen correctly. Maybe this will help
your other problems.
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Aleksander Kurczyk
Thanks for your replay,
I always use Consolas because it is very similar to the Monaco Mac font which i just love :) The missing chars are sometimes displayed as an empty box but it is not a problem for me.
I have tried the dpkg-reconfigure locales and console-setup. The second package was not installed so I installed it and configured but it is still not working properly with some software. Mc, irssi, tmux and other works fine but dpkg-reconfgure displays pppppppppppp and qqqqqqqqqqqq.
I have also tried other options in PuTTY but it always display the pppppppppppp and qqqqqqqqqqqq rows.
--
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Aleksander Kurczyk
----------------------------------------
> Date: Tue, 1 Apr 2014 21:23:32 -0400
> From: zlin...@wowway.com
> To: debia...@lists.debian.org
> Subject: Re: Debian and Unicode line drawing
>
Archive: https://lists.debian.org/DUB128-W5461809AF...@phx.gbl
Stephen Powell
>
> ...
> The second package was not installed so I installed it and
> configured but it is still not working properly with some software.
> Mc, irssi, tmux and other works fine but dpkg-reconfgure displays
> pppppppppppp and qqqqqqqqqqqq.
>
> I have also tried other options in PuTTY but it always display
> the pppppppppppp and qqqqqqqqqqqq rows.
If console-setup was not installed to begin with, it's probably
because you are on an architecture which doesn't need it, such as
s390x. You should de-install it. On the other hand, if your
architecture is i386 or amd64, and console-setup was not installed
to begin with, then something is seriously wrong with your
installation. I'd reinstall if I were you, in that case.
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Aleksander Kurczyk
> From: zlin...@wowway.com
> To: debia...@lists.debian.org
> Subject: RE: Debian and Unicode line drawing
>
> Please don't top post.
>
Ok, sorry
> If console-setup was not installed to begin with, it's probably
> because you are on an architecture which doesn't need it, such as
> s390x. You should de-install it. On the other hand, if your
> architecture is i386 or amd64, and console-setup was not installed
> to begin with, then something is seriously wrong with your
> installation. I'd reinstall if I were you, in that case.
>
It's amd64 but it's also an OpenVZ VPS so everything is possible :D
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Stephen Powell
>
> Hello,
>
> I am using PuTTY, Maybe it's not a new software but it works properly
> with other distributions (CentOS/Fedora etc.) that uses Unicode by
> default.
>
> I noticed that every frame in default Debian configuration in PuTTY
> is displayed as the rows of ppppppppppppp and qqqqqqqqqq instead of
> those frame ASCII characters. PuTTY and every of my Debian
> installation is set to use Unicode UTF-8 encoded characters so ncurses
> etc. should use those characters to display frames instead of this
> vt100 escape code and ppppppppp/qqqqqqqqqqq after it.
> PuTTY and KiTTY is expecting this and not those vt100 compatible
> characters. PuTTY/KiTTY can use those vt100 charasters without any
> problems but not in the Unicode mode. In this mode it expects
> normal UTF-8 characters.
>
> I can make ncurses applications use Unicode characters with the
> variable "export NCURSES_NO_UTF8_ACS=1" set in my .bashrc.
> But not all applications uses ncurses. For example dpkg-reconfigure
> still uses those vt100 escape code and ppppppppppp/qqqqqqqqqqqqq
> characters. How can i make it Unicode compatible?
Here's another solution. Try it and see if it works any better for you.
In Putty configuration, make the following changes:
Window -> Translation -> Remote character set : UTF-8
Window -> Translation -> Handling of line-drawing characters: Use Unicode line-drawing code points
Connection -> Data -> Terminal type string : putty
With these settings, you don't need the environment variable
NCURSES_NO_UTF8_ACS=1
set. (By the way, /etc/profile.d/local.sh is a better place to put this,
if you're going to use it. This makes a system-wide change. But with the
PuTTY settings above, you don't need it.
I am unable to reproduce the problem you are having with dpkg-reconfigure.
Perhaps you would be so good as to give the name of a specific package that
you are trying to reconfigure in which you have the problem. I tried
reconfiguring locales, and the box-drawing characters seemed to be working
just fine.
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Stephen Powell
>
> I am unable to reproduce the problem you are having with dpkg-reconfigure.
> Perhaps you would be so good as to give the name of a specific package that
> you are trying to reconfigure in which you have the problem. I tried
> reconfiguring locales, and the box-drawing characters seemed to be working
> just fine.
jessie today on one of my servers. Early on in the upgrade, I got the following
full-screen panel:
-----
Package configuration
lqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqu Configuring libc6:s390x tqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqk
x Running services and programs that are using NSS need to be restarted, x
x otherwise they might not be able to do lookup or authentication any more x
x (for services such as ssh, this can affect your ability to login). x
x Please review the following space-separated list of init.d scripts for x
x services to be restarted now, and correct it if needed. x
x x
x Note: restarting sshd/telnetd should not affect any existing x
x connections. x
x x
x Services to restart for GNU libc library upgrade: x
x x
x vsftpd exim4 cron atd____________________________________________________ x
x x
x <Ok> x
x x
mqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqj
-----
(34-line screen). But then, later on in the upgrade, I got another full-screen
panel that looked like this:
-----
Package configuration
┌─────────────────────┤ Configuring libssl1.0.0:s390x ├─────────────────────┐
│ This release of OpenSSL fixes some security issues. Services will not │
│ use these fixes until they are restarted. Please note that restarting │
│ the SSH server (sshd) should not affect any existing connections. │
│ │
│ Please check the list of detected services that need to be restarted and │
│ correct it, if needed. The services names must be identical to the │
│ initialization script names in /etc/init.d and separated by spaces. No │
│ services will be restarted if the list is empty. │
│ │
│ Any service that later fails unexpectedly after this upgrade should be │
│ restarted. It is recommended to reboot this host to avoid any │
│ SSL-related trouble. │
│ │
│ Services to restart to make them use the new libraries: │
│ │
│ vsftpd ssh exim4_________________________________________________________ │
│ │
│ <Ok> │
│ │
└───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
-----
So, either this bug is intermittent (i.e. sometimes it manifests itself, and
sometimes it doesn't), or else the bug was fixed between the first panel and
the second panel by the update of one the packages. It will be interesting
to see if this bug ever shows up again on a server running jessie (or later).
Can you reproduce the problem on demand? If so, is the host running jessie,
or an earlier release? Can you reproduce the problem on a jessie system?
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Aleksander Kurczyk
I'm still getting this error. And I haven't received the last message - outlook.com is bouncing e-mails from the list :-(
According to this: https://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2014/04/msg01516.html
For me that's are the default settings of PuTTY after I set the "Remote character set" in "Translation" to UTF-8. And the line drawing in some programs works fine with it but with some like apt no :-( Some programs still sends the ppp's and qqq's rows after the special VT100 escape char.
I've tried removing the "NCURSES_NO_UTF8_ACS=1" var but I'm still getting the same effect.
http://screeny.olo-web.eu/2014-04-30__11:45:43.png
According to this: https://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2014/04/msg01556.html
I'm using the testing release. I have just upgraded it after your e-mail - sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get -y distupgrade && sudo apt-get -y upgrade && sudo apt-get -y autoremove && sudo reboot - and unfortunately, apt sill outputs ppp's and qqq's :-( Do you know which packages has been upgraded at yout server? Mine is a Parallels Virtuozzo VPS and the Debian image may not contain some packages.
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Stephen Powell
>
> I'm still getting this error. And I haven't received the last message -
CC-ing you due to your stated e-mail problem above.
> According to this:
>
> https://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2014/04/msg01516.html
>
> For me that's are the default settings of PuTTY after I set the
> "Remote character set" in "Translation" to UTF-8.
the latest release. In this version, the default value for the terminal
type string is xterm. At least it is for me. I have to explicitly change
it to putty, even after setting the remote character set to UTF-8. Make
sure the terminal type string is all lower case. Terminal type strings
are case sensitive. They have to match the terminal type definition in
ncurses. The putty terminal type definition in ncurses can be found in
/usr/share/terminfo/p. You can also try a terminal type string of
xterm-utf8. This terminal type definition in ncurses is found in
/usr/share/terminfo/x. The latest version of PuTTY can be downloaded
here:
http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty
> And the line drawing in some programs works fine with it but with some
> "NCURSES_NO_UTF8_ACS=1" var but I'm still getting the same effect.
>
> http://screeny.olo-web.eu/2014-04-30__11:45:43.png
dpkg-reconfigure locales
looks like, when executed as root, on your system. Even on a wheezy
system, before upgrading to jessie, this works fine for me.
> I'm using the testing release. I have just upgraded it after your e-mail.
> sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get -y distupgrade && \
> sudo apt-get -y upgrade && sudo apt-get -y autoremove && sudo reboot
>
First of all, the proper upgrade procedure for an upgrade from wheezy
to jessie goes like this. First, become root. Then, edit /etc/apt/apt.conf
and remove any "default-release" specification that may exist. Save the
file and exit the editor. Then edit /etc/apt/sources.list and remove
any releases defined except wheezy. Then change wheezy to jessie.
Then, comment out the jessie-updates site and the security site, since these
should not be used with the current testing release. Save file file and exit
the editor. Then issue the following series of commands:
apt-get update
apt-get upgrade
apt-get dist-upgrade
I do not recommend the use of the -y option. This, of course, assumes that
you are starting out with an up-to-date wheezy release to begin with, no
packages are on hold, all packages that have been removed but not purged
have been purged, no packages are in a funky state, all obsolete packages
have been purged, etc.
But ...
Your use of sudo leads me to believe that you may be using a Debian
derivative, such as Ubuntu, rather than native Debian. I cannot give
you upgrade advice for anything other than native Debian. That's what
I use, and that's what I know. Consult your distribution's documentation
for the proper procedure to upgrade from one release to another.
> Do you know which packages has been upgraded at yout server?
> Mine is a Parallels Virtuozzo VPS and the Debian image may not contain
> some packages.
a few, the majority of which were updated in the upgrade from wheezy to
jessie. It is not practical for me to list them all here.
By the way, thank you for not top-posting. But it would also be helpful
if you would try to limit the length of all your lines to less than 80
characters. I have reformatted your message to conform to these guidelines.
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Aleksander Kurczyk
> Date: Wed, 30 Apr 2014 21:27:50 -0400
> From: zlin...@wowway.com
> To: debia...@lists.debian.org
> CC: akur...@outlook.com
> Subject: RE: Debian and Unicode line drawing
>
>
> What release of PuTTY are you using? I'm using PuTTY 0.63, which is
> the latest release. In this version, the default value for the terminal
> type string is xterm. At least it is for me. I have to explicitly change
> it to putty, even after setting the remote character set to UTF-8. Make
> sure the terminal type string is all lower case. Terminal type strings
> are case sensitive. They have to match the terminal type definition in
> ncurses. The putty terminal type definition in ncurses can be found in
> /usr/share/terminfo/p. You can also try a terminal type string of
> xterm-utf8. This terminal type definition in ncurses is found in
> /usr/share/terminfo/x. The latest version of PuTTY can be downloaded
> here:
>
> http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty
I forgot to change the last value... IT WORKS NOW!!!
http://screeny.olo-web.eu/2014-05-01__12:08:10.png
Sorry and thank you :-)
It's the latest version - 0.63.
> I assume that this is what the output of
>
> dpkg-reconfigure locales
Yes it's "dpkg-reconfigure locales".
> First of all, the proper upgrade procedure for an upgrade from wheezy
> to jessie goes like this. First, become root. Then, edit /etc/apt/apt.conf
This file is and was empty.
> and remove any "default-release" specification that may exist. Save the
> file and exit the editor. Then edit /etc/apt/sources.list and remove
> any releases defined except wheezy. Then change wheezy to jessie.
> Then, comment out the jessie-updates site and the security site, since these
> should not be used with the current testing release. Save file file and exit
So now it should look like this:
deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian jessie main contrib non-free
#deb http://security.debian.org jessie/updates main contrib non-free
?
> [...]
>
> Your use of sudo leads me to believe that you may be using a Debian
> derivative, such as Ubuntu, rather than native Debian. I cannot give
> you upgrade advice for anything other than native Debian. That's what
> I use, and that's what I know. Consult your distribution's documentation
> for the proper procedure to upgrade from one release to another.
It's Debian. I have configured sudo myself.
> [...]
>
> By the way, thank you for not top-posting. But it would also be helpful
> if you would try to limit the length of all your lines to less than 80
> characters. I have reformatted your message to conform to these guidelines.
Ok, thanks, I will remember :-)
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Stephen Powell
> On Wed, 30 Apr 2014 21:27:50 -0400, Stephen Powell wrote:
>>
>> ...
>> character set to UTF-8.
> I forgot to change the last value... IT WORKS NOW!!!
>
> http://screeny.olo-web.eu/2014-05-01__12:08:10.png
>
> Sorry and thank you :-)
font. That screen shot above doesn't look like Consolas to me. Consolas
is the only font that I've found in Windows which is reasonably complete
for UTF-8 characters. Man pages are a good test. See if you are seeing
true hyphens at the end of the line instead of box characters. Author's
names in man pages are another good test. Even if you are looking at
English man pages, author's names, if they come from a non-English-speaking
country, often contain "funny" characters, such as accented characters,
reverse accented characters, umlauted characters, etc. These often don't
display correctly in other fonts.
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Aleksander Kurczyk
> Date: Thu, 1 May 2014 07:53:08 -0400> Subject: [SOLVED] Debian and Unicode line drawing
>
> [..]
>
> You're welcome. Also, please double check that you are using the Consolas
> font. That screen shot above doesn't look like Consolas to me. Consolas
> is the only font that I've found in Windows which is reasonably complete
> for UTF-8 characters. Man pages are a good test. See if you are seeing
> true hyphens at the end of the line instead of box characters. Author's
> names in man pages are another good test. Even if you are looking at
> English man pages, author's names, if they come from a non-English-speaking
> country, often contain "funny" characters, such as accented characters,
> reverse accented characters, umlauted characters, etc. These often don't
> display correctly in other fonts.
It's Consolas 14-px.
Thanks one more time :-)
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Aleksander Kurczyk
> Date: Sat, 3 May 2014 22:14:28 +0000
> From: Lucius...@Lucius.XxX
> To: zlin...@wowway.com
> CC: debia...@lists.debian.org; akur...@outlook.com
> Subject: Re: [SOLVED] Debian and Unicode line drawing
>
> [...]
>
> I use PuttyTray with transparency set to 210 and zenburn-light with Anonymous
> Pro font. I prefer this version much more than Consolas
>
> Ref:
>
> - http://speckyboy.com/2014/02/17/best-free-fonts-coding/
> - https://github.com/voieducode/putty-colors-zenburn
> - https://puttytray.goeswhere.com/
Thanks :-)
I don't like the color scheme but the font is really awsome!
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