24.5 Localizing FreeBSD to Specific Languages

24.5.1.1 Locale Setup

To set this locale, put the following lines into each user's ~/.login_conf:

me:My Account:\
	:charset=KOI8-R:\
	:lang=ru_RU.KOI8-R:

24.5.1.2 Console Setup

• Add the following lines to /etc/rc.conf:

  keymap="ru.koi8-r"
  scrnmap="koi8-r2cp866"
  font8x16="cp866b-8x16"
  font8x14="cp866-8x14"
  font8x8="cp866-8x8"
  mousechar_start=3
  

• For each ttyv entry in /etc/ttys, use cons25r as the terminal type.

24.5.1.3 Printer Setup

Since most printers with Russian characters come with hardware code page CP866, a special output filter is needed to convert from KOI8-R to CP866. FreeBSD installs a default filter as /usr/libexec/lpr/ru/koi2alt. A Russian printer /etc/printcap entry should look like:

lp|Russian local line printer:\
	:sh:of=/usr/libexec/lpr/ru/koi2alt:\
	:lp=/dev/lpt0:sd=/var/spool/output/lpd:lf=/var/log/lpd-errs:

Refer to printcap(5) for a more detailed description.

24.5.1.4 MS-DOS® and Russian Filenames

The following example fstab(5) entry enables support for Russian filenames in mounted MS-DOS® filesystems:

/dev/ad0s2      /dos/c  msdos   rw,-Lru_RU.KOI8-R 0 0

-L selects the locale name. Refer to mount_msdosfs(8) for more details.

24.5.1.5 Xorg Setup

1. First, configure the non-X locale setup.

2. When using Xorg, install the x11-fonts/xorg-fonts-cyrillic package.

   Check the "Files" section in /etc/X11/xorg.conf. The following line must be added before any other FontPath entries:

   FontPath   "/usr/local/lib/X11/fonts/cyrillic"
   

   Note: Search the Ports Collection for more Cyrillic fonts.

3. To activate a Russian keyboard, add the following to the "Keyboard" section of /etc/xorg.conf:

   Option "XkbLayout"   "us,ru"
   Option "XkbOptions"  "grp:toggle"
   

   Make sure that XkbDisable is commented out in that file.

   For grp:toggle use Right Alt, for grp:ctrl_shift_toggle use Ctrl+Shift. For grp:caps_toggle use CapsLock. The old CapsLock function is still available in LAT mode only using Shift+CapsLock. grp:caps_toggle does not work in Xorg for some unknown reason.

   If the keyboard has “Windows®” keys, and some non-alphabetical keys are mapped incorrectly, add the following line to /etc/xorg.conf:

   Option "XkbVariant" ",winkeys"
   

   Note: The Russian XKB keyboard may not work with non-localized applications.