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//lib/dracut/modules.d/10i18n/README

dracut i18n module
------------------

INDEX

0. Introduction
1. Hostonly vs Generic
2. Configuration
   2.1. Variables
   2.2. Setting up mappings
   2.3. Additional settings
3. Kernel parameters

0. Introduction

i18n module provides internationalization for initramfs at runtime.  It
is intended to be generic across different GNU/Linux distributions.

i18n and keyboard settings are stored in different files among
distributions.  To deal with it avoiding hardcoding those differences in
the installation script we handle it by mappings between variables used
by dracut and the ones in the system.  Package maintainer is expected to
create those for his/her distribution and it's appreciated to share it
with us, so we can include it in source package.

1. Hostonly vs Generic

If you invoke dracut with '-H' option, i18n module install script will
gather variables values from your configuration files using mappings
provided in "/etc/dracut.conf.d/<foo>.conf".  Those variables will be
put in "etc/vconsole.conf" and "etc/locale.conf" files inside initramfs
image. Next it will install only declared font, keymaps and so.

When building generic image (dracut without '-H' option), install script
copies all content of directories: consolefonts, consoletrans, unimaps
and keymaps to image.  Take into account that's about 4 MiB.

2. Configuration

2.1. Variables

The following variables are used by i18n install script and at initramfs
runtime:

KEYMAP - keyboard translation table loaded by loadkeys
    KEYTABLE - base name for keyboard translation table; if UNICODE is
    true, Unicode version will be loaded. Overrides KEYMAP.
    EXT_KEYMAPS - list of extra keymaps to bo loaded (sep. by space)
    UNICODE - boolean, indicating UTF-8 mode
    FONT - console font
    FONT_MAP - see description of '-m' parameter in setfont manual
    FONT_UNIMAP - see description of '-u' parameter in setfont manual

The following are appended to EXT_KEYMAPS only during build time:

UNIKEYMAP
    GRP_TOGGLE

They were used in 10redhat-i18n module, but not sure of its purpose.
I'm leaving it in case...  The following are taken from the environment:

LANG
    LC_ALL

If UNICODE variable is not provided, script indicates if UTF-8 should be
used on the basis of LANG value (if it ends with ".utf8" or similar).

2.2. Setting up mappings

Mappings between variables listed in 2.1. and the ones spread around
your system are set up in /etc/dracut.conf.d/<foo>.conf.  You need to
assign mappings to i18n_vars.  Here's an example:

i18n_vars="/etc/conf.d/keymaps:KEYMAP,EXTENDED_KEYMAPS-EXT_KEYMAPS /etc/conf.d/consolefont:CONSOLEFONT-FONT,CONSOLETRANSLATION-FONT_MAP /etc/rc.conf:UNICODE"

First we've got name of file in host file system tree.  After colon
there's mapping: <from>-<to>.  If both variables have the same name you
can enter just a single, but it's important to specify it!  The module
will source only variables you've listed.

Below there's detailed description in BNF:

We assume no whitespace are allowed between symbols.
<conf-file-name> is a file holding <src-var> in your system.
<src-var> is a variable holding value of meaning the same as <dst-var>.
<dst-var> is a variable which will be set up inside initramfs.
If <dst-var> has the same name as <src-var> we can omit <dst-var>.

Example:
/etc/conf.d/keymaps:KEYMAP,extended_keymaps-EXT_KEYMAPS
<list> = /etc/conf.d/keymaps:KEYMAP,extended_keymaps-EXT_KEYMAPS
<element> = /etc/conf.d/keymaps:KEYMAP,extended_keymaps-EXT_KEYMAPS
<conf-file-name> = /etc/conf.d/keymaps
<map-list> = KEYMAP,extended_keymaps-EXT_KEYMAPS
<mapping> = KEYMAP
<src-var> = KEYMAP
<mapping> = extended_keymaps-EXT_KEYMAPS
<src-var> = extended_keymaps
<dst-var> = EXT_KEYMAPS

2.3. Additional settings

If you encounter following error message: "Directories consolefonts,
consoletrans, keymaps, unimaps not found.", you can provide path where
those directories lie in your system by setting kbddir in configuration
file (the same where you put mappings).

3. Kernel parameters

If you create generic initramfs you can set up i18n by kernel
parameters using variables listed in 2.1. (except of UNIKEYMAP
and GRP_TOGGLE) The recommended minimum is: FONT and KEYMAP.