[LFS 8.4] rcS.d/S70console fails: mapscrn: cannot open map file _8859-1_

METROIDHunter_ · 08-10-2019, 09:48 PM

Hello LQ.org, I'm a fairly new Linux user (Started with Ubuntu almost a year ago now, tiny bit of Linux Mint before that) making my way through Linux From Scratch.

I've finished the LFS book and I'm trying to boot into the new system. During the init process I find this error:

Code:

Setting up Linux console...mapscrn: cannot open map file _8859-1_

FAILURE:

You should not be reading this error message.
It means that an unforeseen error took place in 
/etc/rc.d/rcS.d/S70console,
which exited with a return value of 1.

It asks me to "Press Enter to continue" and the system finishes booting without any problems. I'm able to log in and do whatever I want.

I'm not sure how to fix this. I was concerned that my /etc/sysconfig/console file was set up incorrectly, as I was a bit confused by those instructions in LFS, but I'm really not sure.

What is going on here? What exactly is the mapscrn program, what's it trying to do, and why can't it do it? Any advice on where to start troubleshooting?

I use a standard qwerty keyboard in the US, nothing special. My /etc/sysconfig/console:

Code:

# Begin /etc/sysconfig/console

KEYMAP="us"
FONT="lat1-16 -m 8859-1"

# End /etc/sysconfig/console

hazel · 08-11-2019, 07:33 AM

mapscrn is part of setfont. Did you try googling it?

I think the problem is that the -m option is meant to work with utf-8 but you haven't got utf-8 set in your console file.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Linux From Scratch 8.4

FONT
In UTF-8 mode, the kernel uses the application character map for conversion of composed 8-bit key codes in the keymap to UTF-8, and thus the argument of the "-m" parameter should be set to the encoding of the composed key codes in the keymap.
UNICODE
Set this variable to “1”, “yes” or “true” in order to put the console into UTF-8 mode. This is useful in UTF-8 based locales and harmful otherwise.

Try adding UNICODE=1 to your configuration.

Incidentally, it's useful in this kind of query to say whether you are using sysvinit or systemd LFS.

METROIDHunter_ · 08-11-2019, 12:09 PM

Hi, thank you for your reply, hazel.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding the book? In section 7.6.5, under "FONT", it says:

Code:

Typically, this includes the font name, “-m”, and thename of the application character map to load. E.g., in order to load the “lat1-16” font together with the “8859-1”application character map (as it is appropriate in the USA), set this variable to “lat1-16 -m 8859-1”.

My understanding is that UNICODE=1 is only necessary if I plan to use a UTF-8 based locale, but I set my locale in /etc/profile with:

Code:

export LANG=en_US.ISO-8859-1

Adding "UNICODE=1" changed nothing, and interestingly, removing "-m 8859-1" changed the error to "Cannot open font file lat1-16", with or without "UNICODE=1".
I checked /usr/share/consolefonts and found "lat1-16.psfu.gz", so I'm not sure why that won't work.
On another note, not sure whether I should use "KEYMAP=qwerty" or "KEYMAP=us" but it hasn't made a difference so far.

I feel like I made a configuration or setup error somewhere, but I don't know where. I'll keep looking.

EDIT: I'm sorry, I shoulda mentioned, I'm using LFS 8.4 with SysVInit, not SystemD