A Linux VT loads one font for the whole console, so asking for the 6x8 build
(53x40, fourteen rows more) changes what the shell is drawn in too. The new
console_font preference (6x12 default, 6x8 the alternative, offered on the
PicoCalc only, round-tripping through preferences.yaml on every platform)
therefore comes with services/consolefont.py: remember the font the shell had
with `setfont -O`, apply the one the preference names, and restore it on every
way out -- the menu's finally and an atexit hook, since ^Q and an unhandled
error leave by other doors. Verified on the device that setfont -O captures
the current font with its unicode table and that feeding it back reproduces it
exactly, with no sudo, because the VT is the process's own controlling
terminal. Only the interactive menu switches; a scripted run never touches the
console it was invited into. Changing the preference on its page applies live.
Shipping both fonts needed the licence untangled: the 6x8 base is the Linux
kernel's font_6x8 bitmap, GPL-2.0, so its build moves into
calculinux-console-font-6x8.sh under that licence with the GPLv2 text beside it
in scripts/LICENSE.GPL-2.0. The shared generator stays in the 6x12 script
between BEGIN/END markers and the 6x8 script executes that block, so the marks,
donors and aliases the font contract pins exist in one place. The produced PSF
is a data file the kernel console reads; MeshTerm never links or bundles it, and
NOTICE and the hardware manual say so. PrefSpec gains a platforms gate for the
page; the labels use an ASCII x because U+00D7 is not in the console font.
The 6x8 base has no Cyrillic; the manual says so and the owner accepts it.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5.1 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Jean-Pierre MartineauandClaude Fable 5.1
3b67c6813e