To: ~alpine/devel@lists.alpinelinux.org
From: David Demelier <markand@malikania.fr>
Subject: WIP: trying to add consolefont in mkinitfs
Message-ID: <b2a9ae88-ed2c-b77a-3987-e3a3f52e3da0@malikania.fr>
Date: Tue, 28 Jan 2020 10:23:48 +0100
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Hello all,

I'm trying to create an additional features for mkinitfs, including 
setfont + console fonts.

Why? Because on some laptops with high dpi screens, the initramfs may 
ask passphrase for cryptsetup or show an emergency shell. On my laptop 
this is barely usable by default.

Thus, I've created a /etc/mkinitfs/features.d/consolefont with

/etc/conf.d/consolefont
/usr/sbin/setfont
/usr/share/consolefonts/*.psf.gz

Then, updated initramfs-init just before the first message [0]

--- initramfs-init.orig
+++ initramfs-init
@@ -353,6 +353,7 @@
         done
  done

+# Just for testing yet.
+setfont /usr/share/consolefonts/ter-224n.psf.gz
  [ "$KOPT_quiet" = yes ] || echo "Alpine Init $VERSION"

  # enable debugging if requested

I've enabled consolefont in my mkinitfs.conf and rebooted.

At boot setfont complained that /dev/tty does not exist even though 
printing on the screen does not work and cryptsetup asks the passphrase 
so... I'm unable to understand how can I achieve this. Is it possible to 
create a /dev/tty node? Should mdev be enabled earlier?

[0]: https://git.alpinelinux.org/mkinitfs/tree/initramfs-init.in#n355

Any help is welcomed.

-- 
David