[arch-general] KVM with larger console font set in rc.conf[was ...microscoic console font...]

[Joe(theWordy)Philbrook]

It would appear that on Apr 10, I, Joe(theWordy)Philbrook did utter:

> It would appear that on Apr 10, Jeroen Op 't Eynde did say:
> 
> > For #1: For the resolution, you probably have some high resolution screen and
> > KMS is now enabled by default. So check here:
> > http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/KMS
> 
> That does appear to be the issue. For me the quick fix was to disable KMS
> from grub by adding "radeon.modeset=0" to the kernel options...

Well, like I said, that's the quick fix. But:

I've done some more reading in http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/KMS and
related links. And it would seem that KMS is going to become more & more
prevalent. It could well be that as the hardware that supports it also
becomes more prevalent, support for the "slow","painful", process of passing
control of the video card back and forth between the X server and the
kernel will become a lower priority, gradually leading to an intolerable
level of "flickering" etc... So I'm suspicious that sooner or later I'm
going to have to embrace KMS. Accordingly I've done a bit of experimenting. ;-)

I found that there was a mechanism in Arch to set a different console
font in the rc.conf. It's supposedly only needed for "non-US" {fonts? I
presume} But as little as I know about console fonts, I guessed from the
filename that "sun12x22.psfu.gz" would just be a larger US font. And as
far as I can tell, that is in fact what it is.  However, if I let the
kernel enable KMS, the sun12x22.psfu.gz font is only just barely
tolerable. (It "looks" like than expletive-deleted 10pt font size that
most educators seem to favor. I'd love to find something that "looks"
more like the 12pt fonts I can read without eyestrain.)  Are there other
compatible large US fonts that I could perhaps download from someplace????
  
> > For #2: Just edit /et/inittab and comment out the rule with tty1
> 
> Yup, that works... I can deal with only having 5 ttys available. AND  with
> having to explicitly choose one before I login.

Well it turns out that only works for the last step. Which my rc.local echo
statement kludge can compensate for without giving up tty1 as a viable console.

If I let KMS happen, everything that printed to the screen before the
kernel enabled it is gone. And if I set a larger console font, it clears
the screen again when it enters runlevel 3... <sigh> I guess that if/when I
choose to use KMS with a large console font, I'm going to have to settle
for dmesg... I could even put a call to dmesg in rc.local. But it wouldn't be
the same as watching the screen to see if any [failed] indicators scroll
by. So whether or not I disable KMS, I'm uncommenting that tty rule and
reinstating my echo statement. That, will at least let me keep an eye on 
my rc.local initializations. {Even with KMS & larger fonts enabled...}

-- 
|  ~^~   ~^~
|  <?>   <?>       Joe (theWordy) Philbrook
|      ^                J(tWdy)P
|    \___/         <<jtwdyp at ttlc.net>>

I'm NOT clueless... But I just don't know.