Cyrillization info (mostly Linux oriented)

by Alexey Roytman

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Font package

First, obtain font package (I use Cronyx KOI-8).

Fonts files: directories

Then put the package (unpack *.tgz, *.tar.gz, *.taz, *.tar.Z) into directory ( /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/cyrillic, /usr/lib/X11/fonts/cyrillic or /var/X11R6/lib/fonts/cyrillic are recommended (we shall use the first one, but nothing especial will happen, if you use another directory {especially, if you aren't root} ).

Fonts files: formats

On Linux & SunOS with NCD X-terminals, put to this directory *.pcf.Z files, on other(?) systems -- *.bdf files.
PCF is a compiled format, you can compile BDF files into PCF using bdftopcf (or ncdbdftopcf on NCDs) and compress using compress command.

Fonts files: prepare directory

In this directory type mkfontdir. (This will create fonts.dir file in this directory.) Then either add this directory name to /etc/XF86Config:
	FontPath	"/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/cyrillic/"
(on Linux) or execute
xset +fp /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/cyrillic/
manually
(On some Unices, (e.g. AIX) +fp and fp+ have slightly different effect... )
(On some X-terminals such command does not work at all, try:
xset fp+ tcp/host:7000/directory/
where host is the host name from which the X-session was initialized/loaded. Slash ("/") after the directory name is required on some systems (e.g. NCDs) ...)
and then:
xset fp rehash
Sometimes these command make the terminal "hang" for a half a minute, especially if it has not very big memory.

Fonts: list & view

You can list loaded fonts name by
xlsfonts font
, where font is a font wildcard should be quoted
For example: xlsfonts '*koi*' or xlsfonts '*fixed*koi*'
The following command will show the font shapes/letters:
xfd -fn font
You can also view some Russian (KOI-8) texts in XTerm run by:
xterm -fn '*fixed*koi*'&
(Use fixed fonts for typing.)

Keyboard mapping: X11

To install Cyrillic keyboard under X11, first I've tried the following examples:
	! Cyrillic keyboard mapping table.
	! Produced by Serge Vakulenko, <vak@kiae.su>, Moscow.
but it uses rather strange Cyrillic/Latinic switchers, and after the applying those tables you cannot use main number part of the keyboard (the 2-nd horizontal row on keyboard:
	1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  0
	 !  @  #  $  %  ^  &  *  (  )
[I'll not explain why it's so bad not to have the letter & in *NIX.]

Now, if the fact, that the number row on keyboard is as on Latinic one, does not hurt you, I can offer you the variant (my best wishes to Sedelnikov Il'ya <ilia@cs.bgu.ac.il>, which told me the main secret: in /etc/XF86Config the following lines should be the same:

#	LeftAlt		Meta
	RightAlt	ModeShift
#	RightCtl	Compose
	ScrollLock	ModeLock
after that (I thought, you've changed /etc/XF86Config) use the command
xmodmap koi8.jcuken.xmm
If you want to load this keyboard mapping "automagically" every time, when X11 starts (for example, either by startx, or by xinit command), you are to put the same file under another name ~/.Xmodmap into your home directory.

Copyright © 1997, Alexey Roytman
http://www.cs.bgu.ac.il/~roytman/
Last modified 19 Apr 1997.