How do I get the box-drawing characters to look right for Debian Installer?

[Stephen Powell]

As you know, the installation procedure for Debian on the s390 and s390x
architectures involves using the Integrated System Console (or the virtual
3215 console in a virtual machine under z/VM) to get the network device
configured, then logging in as "installer" using a remote SSH client to
finish the rest of the installation. I have learned from experience that
when my remote SSH client is PuTTY running under Windows, I can get the
box-drawing characters in the Debian installer to look right by selecting
"UTF-8" as the character set in the PuTTY configuration. If I use Lat-1,
or some other character set, the box-drawing characters don't look right.

Recently, however, I tried a Debian install for s390x (wheezy) using the
Linux SSH client running under Linux on an Intel box instead of PuTTY
running under Windows. (Debian package openssh-client, command ssh.)
I used a virtual terminal, vt2 in this case, rather than an xterm window
or something similar (i.e. gnome-terminal). I can connect just fine,
but the box-drawing characters don't look right. I can't find any way
to configure the Linux ssh client to make the box-drawing characters
display properly.

How do I get the Linux ssh client to work with the Debian installer to get
the box-drawing characters to look right? Or must I use Windows to
install Debian?
--
.''`. Stephen Powell
: :' :
`. `'`
`-

[Stephen Powell]

Post by Stephen Powell
As you know, the installation procedure for Debian on the s390 and s390x
architectures involves using the Integrated System Console (or the virtual
3215 console in a virtual machine under z/VM) to get the network device
configured, then logging in as "installer" using a remote SSH client to
finish the rest of the installation. I have learned from experience that
when my remote SSH client is PuTTY running under Windows, I can get the
box-drawing characters in the Debian installer to look right by selecting
"UTF-8" as the character set in the PuTTY configuration. If I use Lat-1,
or some other character set, the box-drawing characters don't look right.
Recently, however, I tried a Debian install for s390x (wheezy) using the
Linux SSH client running under Linux on an Intel box instead of PuTTY
running under Windows. (Debian package openssh-client, command ssh.)
I used a virtual terminal, vt2 in this case, rather than an xterm window
or something similar (i.e. gnome-terminal). I can connect just fine,
but the box-drawing characters don't look right. I can't find any way
to configure the Linux ssh client to make the box-drawing characters
display properly.
How do I get the Linux ssh client to work with the Debian installer to get
the box-drawing characters to look right? Or must I use Windows to
install Debian?

Well, I'm answering my own post. Sorry about that. But maybe it will
help others. I guess I didn't do enough digging before posting my question.
But anyway, here's the answer.

The Linux ssh client apparently does not have a mechanism for independently
specifying the character mapping, as PuTTY does. If it does, I haven't
discovered it. The Linux ssh client relies on the character mapping of
the host Linux system under which it runs. You have to change that to UTF-8
if you want to have the box characters of the Debian installer running on
a remote s390 or s390x host look right. You specify that in two different
places: one for xterm sessions under the X Window system (or a substitute
application for xterm, such as Gnome Terminal) and the other for virtual
terminals (vt1-vt6).

Login as root. Enter the command

dpkg-reconfigure locales

Select appropriate locales. On my system, I selected en_US, en_US.ISO-8859-15,
and en_US.UTF-8. Select OK. On the next screen, you select a default locale
for the system. I selected en_US.UTF-8. Complete the configuration. This
changes the character mapping for stuff under the X Window System. Now enter

dpkg-reconfigure console-setup

On the first screen, you select the encoding to use on the console. Select
UTF-8, then select OK. Finish the configuration. This changes the character
mapping for virtual consoles. Now shutdown and reboot.

Upon reboot, the ssh client will use UTF-8 character mappings, whether you
run it in a terminal window under the X Window system or whether you run it
in a virtual terminal. And the box characters of the Debian installer will
look right for the remote s390/s390x host.
--
.''`. Stephen Powell
: :' :
`. `'`
`-

[Philipp Kern]

Post by Stephen Powell
The Linux ssh client apparently does not have a mechanism for independently
specifying the character mapping, as PuTTY does. If it does, I haven't
discovered it. The Linux ssh client relies on the character mapping of
the host Linux system under which it runs. You have to change that to UTF-8
if you want to have the box characters of the Debian installer running on
a remote s390 or s390x host look right. You specify that in two different
places: one for xterm sessions under the X Window system (or a substitute
application for xterm, such as Gnome Terminal) and the other for virtual
terminals (vt1-vt6).

UTF-8 has been the default on Debian for ages now and there really is no reason
to run it with a different charset. (convmv helps if you're dealing with
wrongly encoded files.)

Kind regards
Philipp Kern

[Jeremy Stanley]

On 2013-06-30 13:58:35 +0200 (+0200), Philipp Kern wrote:
[...]

convmv helps if you're dealing with wrongly encoded files.

Wrongly encoded fileNAMEs perhaps, but for wrongly encoded file
CONTENT you want iconv instead.
--
{ PGP( 48F9961143495829 ); FINGER( ***@cthulhu.yuggoth.org );
WWW( http://fungi.yuggoth.org/ ); IRC( ***@irc.yuggoth.org#ccl );
WHOIS( STANL3-ARIN ); MUD( ***@katarsis.mudpy.org:6669 ); }

[Philipp Kern]

Post by Jeremy Stanley
[...]

convmv helps if you're dealing with wrongly encoded files.

Wrongly encoded fileNAMEs perhaps, but for wrongly encoded file
CONTENT you want iconv instead.

Yeah, I'm sorry. When on the console one usually has to deal with filenames,
while file encodings are handled by the editor. (Unless one uses cat,
of course.)

Kind regards
Philipp Kern