.\" @(#)unicode_start.1 1.0 010203 aeb
.TH UNICODE_START 1 "3 Feb 2001"
.SH NAME
unicode_start \- put keyboard and console in unicode mode
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B unicode_start
.RI [ font " [" umap ]]
.SH DESCRIPTION
.IX "unicode_start command" "" "\fLunicode_start\fR command"  
.LP
The
.B unicode_start
command will put the keyboard and console into Unicode (UTF-8) mode.
.LP
For the keyboard this means that one can attach 16-bit U+xxxx values
to keyboard keys using
.BR loadkeys (1),
and have these appear as UTF-8 input to user programs.
Also, that one can type hexadecimal Alt-xxxx using the numeric keypad,
and again produce UTF-8.
.LP
For the console this means that the kernel expects UTF-8 output
from user programs, and displays the output accordingly.
.LP
The parameter
.I font
is a font that is loaded. It should have a built-in Unicode map,
or, if it hasn't, such a map can be given explicitly as second parameter.
When no font was specified, the current font is kept.
.SH NOTE
Unicode mode is a parameter with a value per virtual console.
However, usually the font and keymap is common to all consoles.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
.BR dumpkeys (1),
.BR kbd_mode (1),
.BR loadkeys (1),
.BR unicode_stop (1),
.BR utf-8(7),
.BR setfont (8)