Linux: Display Japanese or Chinese Or Any Other Multilingual Text On The Console / Shell Prompt

by nixCraft on July 16, 2008 · 5 comments· Last updated July 16, 2008

Most Linux distro can not display multilingual text on the console / shell prompt by default. There is a small hack which allows you to display other languages such as Hindi, Chinese, Korean, Japanese etc text on the prompt.

You need to use the bterm application, which is a terminal emulator that displays to a Linux frame buffer. It is able to display Unicode text on the console.

First, enable framebuffer by editing grub.conf file, enter:
# vi /etc/grub.conf
or
# vi /boot/grub/menu.lst
Find kernel line and append "vga=0x317" parameter:
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.18-92.1.1.el5 ro root=LABEL=/ console=tty0 console=ttyS1,19200n8 vga=0x317
Save and close the file. Next, you need to install bterm - a unicode capable terminal program for the Linux frame buffer. Type the following command to install it under Fedora / RHEL / Cent OS Linux, enter:
# yum install bogl-bterm
If you are using Debian / Ubuntu Linux, enter:
$ sudo apt-get install bogl-bterm
Now reboot your Linux desktop / workstation so that kernel can create /dev/fb0. To use multilingual text on the console, type the command bterm, enter:
$ /usr/bin/bterm

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{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }

1 alireza July 18, 2008 at 9:37 pm: i do these steps for gain this method in fedora9 64 bit:
1- vi /etc/grub.conf
2- append vga=0×317 at the end of kernel line like this:
title Fedora (2.6.25-14.fc9.x86_64)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.25-14.fc9.x86_64 ro root=UUID=638dd2e3-9fd1-4bcc-b259-9f84b2430050 rhgb quiet vga=0×317
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.25-14.fc9.x86_64.img
3-yum install bogl-bterm
4-reboot system
5- type this command: /usr/bin/bterm
but it wasnt work.i hav a error
bash: /usr/bin/bterm/: Not a directory
Reply
2 alireza July 19, 2008 at 6:23 am: what should i do?
Reply
3 alireza July 20, 2008 at 7:32 pm: when i did it again in 2.6.25.10-86.fc9.x86_64 kernel of fedora9 i took this error:
[alireza@localhost ~]$ /usr/bin/bterm
bogl: opening /dev/tty0: No such file or directory
Reply
4 Binu.Raveendran July 22, 2008 at 4:53 am: Try to find bterm parth try following commands
which bterm
or
find / -maxdepth 3 -name bterm 2>/dev/null
if it displays the executable try to run that
Regards
Binu
binu.raveendran@wippies.com
Reply
5 alireza July 24, 2008 at 3:05 pm: i did it according your order and advantage was:
[root@localhost ~]# which bterm
/usr/bin/bterm
[root@localhost ~]# find / -maxdepth 3 -name bterm 2>/dev/null
/usr/bin/bterm
Reply