Arch Linux

Could you please post your HOOKS Array from mkinitcpio.conf?

Here it is:

HOOKS="base udev autodetect keyboard keymap modconf block consolefont encrypt lvm2 resume filesystems fsck"

Do you do early KMS start? Please have a look at the last paragraph here [0] and make sure the graphicsdriver is loaded early.

[0] https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Linux_console#Persistent_configuration

Here is more of my configuration:

$ grep -v ^# /etc/mkinitcpio.conf
MODULES="i915"
BINARIES=""
FILES=""
HOOKS="base udev autodetect keyboard keymap modconf block consolefont encrypt lvm2 resume filesystems fsck"

$ cat /etc/vconsole.conf:
KEYMAP=fr-latin1
FONT=ter-118b

$ pacman -Qs terminus
local/terminus-font 4.48-1
Monospace bitmap font (for X11 and console)

$ cat /boot/loader/loader.conf
default arch
auto-firmware

$ cat /boot/loader/entries/arch.conf
title Arch Linux
linux /vmlinuz-linux
initrd /intel-ucode.img
initrd /initramfs-linux.img
options quiet loglevel=3 vga=current root=/dev/vg/root cryptdevice=UUID=xxxxxxxx-yyyy-yyyy-yyyy-zzzzzzzzzzzz:arch cryptkey=/dev/disk/by-id/someusbdevice@123456@2048 udev.log_priority=3 vt.global_cursor_default=0 i915.fastboot=1 resume=/dev/vg/swap

(to get an explanation for the @ in cryptkey, see my comment in https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/60927#comments)

I can upload somewhere my initramfs.img if you really want to

Do you have any console output before the password prompt?

The dracut folks seem to have tackled this a while ago... https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=811007

No. not even a systemd version. That's why I have the problem, I think.

Like I said, if I output something on screen before setfont in consolefont hook, then the font is changed

I have double checked that the font is in the initramfs.img and is actually ter-118b

Let's try to boot with rd.debug and rd.log=file to see if the command gets executed before the encrypt hook.
Please upload /run/initramfs/init.log here.

I am sorry to say that my netbook did not boot with these settings. I don't know why. may be its limited capacity (2GB RAM ?)
It gets stuck at a blank screen

So instead, I modifed the consolefont hook to get a log of the acces time of the font used as in the patch I attached.

and rerun mkinitcpio and rebooted.

the log file I get from that is:
$ cat /run/initramfs/consolefont.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 9983 Jan 1 1970 /consolefont.psf
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 9983 Jan 20 19:19 /consolefont.psf

So it is very likely that setfont is actually run (at least, it tries to access the font file)

My take:
The config file /etc/vconsole.conf where the font is specified is on the still encrypted root partition when the consolefont HOOK is encountered.
The encrypt HOOK, the passphrase entry, and access to /etc/vconsole.conf all happen later.

So, how can the consolefont HOOK ever work on an encrypted root partition?

This is wrong.

`vconsole.conf` is copied by mkinitcpio into `initramfs-linux.img`. And this is the copy from there that is used during the early boot

I *strongly* advise for the usage of early KMS. And the removal of vga=current from the grub configuration.

Thanks solsTiCe (zebul666)! This makes sense. I had failed to run mkinitcpio after creating /etc/vconsole.conf

I have now run mkinitcpio -P, and the font has properly changed for the "Enter passphrase" prompt.

I know it's the wrong place to ask this, but I now have a new problem: I can't enter the passphrase at the prompt.

In addition to changing the font via /etc/vconsole.conf, I also changed the keymap to remap CapsLock to Ctrl.

I have not found a wiki entry to help me with this.

Setup:

HOOKS=(base udev autodetect keyboard keymap consolefont modconf block encrypt lvm2 filesystems fsck)

/usr/local/share/kbd/keymaps/local_remap.map
keymaps 0-255
keycode 58 = Control

/etc/vconsole.conf
FONT=sun12x22
KEYMAP=/usr/local/share/kbd/keymaps/local_remap.map

Edit: Also, I am using systemd-boot, not GRUB

You're correct, this is the wrong place. Please take this discussion elsewhere. (If you think it is a bug, open a new bug for it.)

You have to copy that map you've done to the initramfs. Use the FILES array on mkinitcpio.conf

Hello,

I have this issue, and don't see here what the solution is.

I have i915.fastboot=1 kernel parameter, nothing else related to vga. And if I have the quiet param the password prompt font doesn't change.

I don't understand what the "early KMS" is.

Can you help me?
Thanks

This is not a support ticket. Please use the forum, the IRC or the mailing list to ask questions.
Thank you

From Gabor:

I was able to add rd.debug rd.log=file as you suggested (just had to figure out I don't see the password prompt and have to type my disk password on a blank screen)
Inspected the log and the consolefont hook is ok.

I have spent a couple of hours with it and ended up with a workaround adding echo -en "a\010 \010" to /usr/lib/initcpio/hooks/consolefont before setfont -C /dev/console /consolefont.psf

Why?

It looks like setfont doesn't work if nothing was echo-ed before the console.
echo -n " " not works
echo -n "a" works
echo -n "a" ;clear works
Maybe I am wrong, but I thought maybe echo-ing just one char and deleting it back is faster than clear, so this is the echo -en "a\010 \010" ("a",back,overwrite with space,back)

This is an automated comment as this bug is open for more then 2 years. Please reply if you still experience this bug otherwise this issue will be closed after 1 month.

This but is still present and more serious than ever since update systemd 254.1 as the sd-vconsole hook no longer works at all. With sd-vconsole hook neither keymap nor consolefont is applied anymore.

With consolefont hook:

It does not matter if BINARIES="setfont" is set or not - the consolefont will not be applied at erly boot (LUKS password prompt e.g.)

Without BINARIES="setfont" in mkinitcpio.conf you'll get error message:
"setfont: KDFONTOP: Function not implemented"
with BINARIES="setfont" you will get error:
"setfont: ERROR kdfontop.c:183 put_font_kdfontop : Unable to load sich font with such kernel version"

Yes, the bug still exists.

But as explained earlier, it is a mattter of adding a line in /usr/lib/initcpio/hooks/consolefont

As the maintainer does not care to fix it (why?), I have made a pacman hook to fix it at each upgrade:

[Trigger]
Operation = Install
Operation = Upgrade
Type = Package
Target = mkinitcpio

[Action]
Description = Patching consolefont hook [#FS65148]
When = PostTransaction
Depends = sed
Exec = /usr/bin/sed -i '/ *setfont/i\ echo -en "a\\010 \\010"' /usr/lib/initcpio/hooks/consolefont

@reneagat works fine with this fix. no error for me here. you can ignore the message "setfont: KDFONTOP: Function not implemented" it is harmless

If you have a working fix, create a merge request with it in https://gitlab.archlinux.org/archlinux/mkinitcpio/mkinitcpio.

the fix has been merged. https://gitlab.archlinux.org/archlinux/mkinitcpio/mkinitcpio/-/merge_requests/255 you can close this bug