NAME

       unicode_start - put keyboard and console in unicode mode

SYNOPSIS

       unicode_start [font [umap]]

DESCRIPTION

       The unicode_start command will put the keyboard and console into Unicode (UTF-8) mode.

       For  the keyboard this means that one can attach 16-bit U+xxxx values to keyboard keys using loadkeys(1),
       and have these appear as UTF-8 input to user programs.  Also, that  one  can  type  hexadecimal  Alt-xxxx
       using the numeric keypad, and again produce UTF-8.

       For  the  console  this  means  that the kernel expects UTF-8 output from user programs, and displays the
       output accordingly.

       The parameter font is a font that is loaded. It should have a built-in Unicode map,  or,  if  it  hasn't,
       such  a map can be given explicitly as second parameter.  When no font was specified, the current font is
       kept.

NOTE

       Unicode mode is a parameter with a value per virtual console.  However, usually the font  and  keymap  is
       common to all consoles.

SEE ALSO

       dumpkeys(1), kbd_mode(1), loadkeys(1), unicode_stop(1), utf-8(7), setfont(8)

                                                   3 Feb 2001                                   UNICODE_START(1)