From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.mageia


Hello All!

I recently (November or December) made a change to swap using UTF-8 to
8859-15 in my KDE environment, not that I noticed much of a change when
using Text editors or email readers (Thunderbird).

For some reason I pressed something or used the mouse some how and the
screen content would move left, right, up and down when moving the mouse so thought a reboot would be in order.

Doing this and on the reboot I now get the following messages appearing
with NO kde running just the text facility via tty1 through tty6 :-

setfont ERROR loadunimap.c:261 kfont_load_unimap: unable to find unimap:88
no such file or directory
setfont ERROR loadunimap.c:261 kfont_load_unimap: unable to find unimap: 8859-15 no such file or directory
FAILED: Failed to start clanav-clamonacc.service

As I would like to continue to use the KDE gui how do I fix this?

I am happy to switch back to using UTF-8 if needed and live with the odd characters appearing from time to time.

Note that when I switched I did NOT noticed that any new packages was installed.

Chapter and verse please as I am not familiar of using the Text interface
as against using the kde set up processes.

All updates are applied including from the tainted mirrors.

Thanks in advance.

Vincent



--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.mageia

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA256

Vincent Coen escreveu:

Hello All!

I recently (November or December) made a change to swap using UTF-8
to 8859-15 in my KDE environment, not that I noticed much of a
change when using Text editors or email readers (Thunderbird).

For some reason I pressed something or used the mouse some how and
the screen content would move left, right, up and down when moving
the mouse so thought a reboot would be in order.

Doing this and on the reboot I now get the following messages
appearing with NO kde running just the text facility via tty1
through tty6 :-

setfont ERROR loadunimap.c:261 kfont_load_unimap: unable to find
unimap:88 no such file or directory setfont ERROR loadunimap.c:261 kfont_load_unimap: unable to find unimap: 8859-15 no such file or
directory FAILED: Failed to start clanav-clamonacc.service

As I would like to continue to use the KDE gui how do I fix this?

I am happy to switch back to using UTF-8 if needed and live with
the odd characters appearing from time to time.

Note that when I switched I did NOT noticed that any new packages
was installed.

Chapter and verse please as I am not familiar of using the Text
interface as against using the kde set up processes.

All updates are applied including from the tainted mirrors.

Thanks in advance.

Vincent

According to Gemini, KDE relies exclusively on UTF-8 encoding.


- --

Abra|oos

Gilberto F da Silva
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Comment: ! https://t.me/Gilberto_F_da_Silva !
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--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.mageia

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA256

Vincent Coen escreveu:

Hello All!

I recently (November or December) made a change to swap using UTF-8
to 8859-15 in my KDE environment, not that I noticed much of a
change when using Text editors or email readers (Thunderbird).

For some reason I pressed something or used the mouse some how and
the screen content would move left, right, up and down when moving
the mouse so thought a reboot would be in order.

Doing this and on the reboot I now get the following messages
appearing with NO kde running just the text facility via tty1
through tty6 :-

setfont ERROR loadunimap.c:261 kfont_load_unimap: unable to find
unimap:88 no such file or directory setfont ERROR loadunimap.c:261 kfont_load_unimap: unable to find unimap: 8859-15 no such file or
directory FAILED: Failed to start clanav-clamonacc.service

As I would like to continue to use the KDE gui how do I fix this?

I am happy to switch back to using UTF-8 if needed and live with
the odd characters appearing from time to time.

Note that when I switched I did NOT noticed that any new packages
was installed.

Chapter and verse please as I am not familiar of using the Text
interface as against using the kde set up processes.

All updates are applied including from the tainted mirrors.

Thanks in advance.

Vincent

Gemini say:

**Subject: Re: Issues after switching from UTF-8 to 8859-15**

Hi Vincent,

The errors you are seeing occur because modern Linux distributions and
KDE are designed to work natively with **UTF-8**. When you switched to
ISO 8859-15, the system lost the ability to map fonts and handle
certain services correctly, preventing the GUI from starting.

Since you are at the text prompt (TTY), here is how you can revert to
UTF-8 "chapter and verse":

1. **Log in**: At the `tty` prompt, type your username and press
Enter, then type your password.
2. **Set the locale**: Run the following command to set your system
back to UTF-8 (replace `en_GB` with your actual language code if it's different, e.g., `en_US`):
```bash
sudo localectl set-locale LANG=en_GB.UTF-8

```


3. **Update the configuration**: To ensure the change is applied
everywhere, run:
```bash
sudo localectl set-keymap uk (or 'us' depending on your keyboard)

```


4. **Reboot**: Restart the system to see if the KDE login screen returns
:
```bash
sudo reboot

```



**Note on ClamAV error**: The `clamav-clamonacc.service` failure is
likely a side effect of the encoding change, as the service might be
failing to read its own logs or config files due to the character
mismatch. Once you are back in UTF-8, it should start normally.

Hope this helps!

- --
- --

Abra|oos

Gilberto F da Silva
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Comment: +-----------------------------------------------------+
Comment: ! https://t.me/Gilberto_F_da_Silva !
Comment: +-----------------------------------------------------+

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--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.mageia


a) Note that you do not have to use sddm to bring up Plasma (the KDE
gui). SDDM tends to be a bit fragile I found.
However this is not your problem so see below.
On 2026-01-04, Gilberto F da Silva <gfs1989@gmx.net> wrote:

Vincent Coen escreveu:

Hello All!

I recently (November or December) made a change to swap using UTF-8
to 8859-15 in my KDE environment, not that I noticed much of a
change when using Text editors or email readers (Thunderbird).

For some reason I pressed something or used the mouse some how and
the screen content would move left, right, up and down when moving
the mouse so thought a reboot would be in order.

Doing this and on the reboot I now get the following messages
appearing with NO kde running just the text facility via tty1
through tty6 :-

setfont ERROR loadunimap.c:261 kfont_load_unimap: unable to find
unimap:88 no such file or directory setfont ERROR loadunimap.c:261
kfont_load_unimap: unable to find unimap: 8859-15 no such file or
directory FAILED: Failed to start clanav-clamonacc.service

As I would like to continue to use the KDE gui how do I fix this?

I am happy to switch back to using UTF-8 if needed and live with
the odd characters appearing from time to time.

Note that when I switched I did NOT noticed that any new packages
was installed.

Chapter and verse please as I am not familiar of using the Text
interface as against using the kde set up processes.

All updates are applied including from the tainted mirrors.

Thanks in advance.

Vincent

Gemini say:

**Subject: Re: Issues after switching from UTF-8 to 8859-15**

Hi Vincent,

The errors you are seeing occur because modern Linux distributions and
KDE are designed to work natively with **UTF-8**. When you switched to
ISO 8859-15, the system lost the ability to map fonts and handle
certain services correctly, preventing the GUI from starting.

Since you are at the text prompt (TTY), here is how you can revert to
UTF-8 "chapter and verse":

1. **Log in**: At the `tty` prompt, type your username and press
Enter, then type your password.

You can log in as root instead of user. Then You woud not have to use
sudo in the below ( which would be useless if you had not set up the
sudo configuration to allow your particular username)

Note that mageia does NOT automatically enroll you in sudo, so unless
you explicitly edited /etc/sudoers file.
and for example put your username into the /etc/groups file for the
wheel group, and edited the sudoers file to allow the wheel group to run anything as sudo.

2. **Set the locale**: Run the following command to set your system
back to UTF-8 (replace `en_GB` with your actual language code if it's different, e.g., `en_US`):
```bash
sudo localectl set-locale LANG=en_GB.UTF-8

```

So that would just be
localectl set-locale LANG=en_GB.UTF-8

3. **Update the configuration**: To ensure the change is applied
everywhere, run:
```bash
sudo localectl set-keymap uk (or 'us' depending on your keyboard)

```

localectl set-keymap uk

4. **Reboot**: Restart the system to see if the KDE login screen returns
:
```bash
sudo reboot

```

Again
reboot

**Note on ClamAV error**: The `clamav-clamonacc.service` failure is
likely a side effect of the encoding change, as the service might be
failing to read its own logs or config files due to the character
mismatch. Once you are back in UTF-8, it should start normally.

Hope this helps!

- --
- --

Abra|oos

Gilberto F da Silva

--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.mageia


Hello William!

05 Jan 26 00:52, William Unruh wrote to all:

I followed those steps but it still failed so I restored from backs /etc/vconsole.conf & locale.conf then rebooted same problem.
Then looking at man localectl it says to run dracut but had to use -force.

Now I do not get errors regarding locale but do still not have kde
starting.
On reboot I do get clamav etc. and looking at msgs using alt/F12 I see a
pile of msgs regarding failure for starting too long to try typing ( no
cut and paste ) between text consoles so thought that just reinstall
current kernel of kernel-desktop-6.6.116-1.mga9.x86_64 but it is not
present as an rpm so stuck unless some one has a way of refresh installing
it.

I am getting close to installing the current version on a spare area on a
WD Black but will need to shrink space to create space as it is used as a
data volume as my m.2 SSD is full and same problem I would need to reduce
space on 2nd partition to use as a new boot volume but all of the tools
are via kde.

Chicken and egg problem :(


Vincent

a) Note that you do not have to use sddm to bring up Plasma (the KDE
gui). SDDM tends to be a bit fragile I found.
However this is not your problem so see below.
On 2026-01-04, Gilberto F da Silva <gfs1989@gmx.net> wrote:

Vincent Coen escreveu:

Hello All!

I recently (November or December) made a change to swap using UTF-8
to 8859-15 in my KDE environment, not that I noticed much of a
change when using Text editors or email readers (Thunderbird).

For some reason I pressed something or used the mouse some how and
the screen content would move left, right, up and down when moving
the mouse so thought a reboot would be in order.

Doing this and on the reboot I now get the following messages
appearing with NO kde running just the text facility via tty1
through tty6 :-

setfont ERROR loadunimap.c:261 kfont_load_unimap: unable to find
unimap:88 no such file or directory setfont ERROR loadunimap.c:261
kfont_load_unimap: unable to find unimap: 8859-15 no such file or
directory FAILED: Failed to start clanav-clamonacc.service

As I would like to continue to use the KDE gui how do I fix this?

I am happy to switch back to using UTF-8 if needed and live with
the odd characters appearing from time to time.

Note that when I switched I did NOT noticed that any new packages
was installed.

Chapter and verse please as I am not familiar of using the Text
interface as against using the kde set up processes.

All updates are applied including from the tainted mirrors.

Thanks in advance.

Vincent

Gemini say:

**Subject: Re: Issues after switching from UTF-8 to 8859-15**

Hi Vincent,

The errors you are seeing occur because modern Linux distributions
and KDE are designed to work natively with **UTF-8**. When you
switched to ISO 8859-15, the system lost the ability to map fonts
and handle certain services correctly, preventing the GUI from
starting.

Since you are at the text prompt (TTY), here is how you can revert
to UTF-8 "chapter and verse":

1. **Log in**: At the `tty` prompt, type your username and press
Enter, then type your password.

You can log in as root instead of user. Then You woud not have to use
sudo in the below ( which would be useless if you had not set up the
sudo configuration to allow your particular username)

Note that mageia does NOT automatically enroll you in sudo, so unless
you explicitly edited /etc/sudoers file.
and for example put your username into the /etc/groups file for the
wheel group, and edited the sudoers file to allow the wheel group to
run anything as sudo.

2. **Set the locale**: Run the following command to set your system
back to UTF-8 (replace `en_GB` with your actual language code if
it's different, e.g., `en_US`):
```bash
sudo localectl set-locale LANG=en_GB.UTF-8

```

So that would just be
localectl set-locale LANG=en_GB.UTF-8

3. **Update the configuration**: To ensure the change is applied
everywhere, run:
```bash
sudo localectl set-keymap uk (or 'us' depending on your keyboard)

```

localectl set-keymap uk

4. **Reboot**: Restart the system to see if the KDE login screen
returns
:
```bash
sudo reboot

```

Again
reboot

**Note on ClamAV error**: The `clamav-clamonacc.service` failure is
likely a side effect of the encoding change, as the service might be
failing to read its own logs or config files due to the character
mismatch. Once you are back in UTF-8, it should start normally.

Hope this helps!

- --
- --

Abra|oos

Gilberto F da Silva

Vincent



--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.mageia

I had trouble with sddm (it seems to be somewhat complicated and
fragile.) and I solved it by running lightdm as the login system
instead. I had it start plasma as the dm, so I still used KDE.
That seemed to work much more stabely.

A possible thing to try
On 2026-01-05, Vincent Coen <VBCoen@gmail.com> wrote:

Hello William!

05 Jan 26 00:52, William Unruh wrote to all:

I followed those steps but it still failed so I restored from backs /etc/vconsole.conf & locale.conf then rebooted same problem.
Then looking at man localectl it says to run dracut but had to use -force.

Now I do not get errors regarding locale but do still not have kde
starting.
On reboot I do get clamav etc. and looking at msgs using alt/F12 I see a pile of msgs regarding failure for starting too long to try typing ( no
cut and paste ) between text consoles so thought that just reinstall
current kernel of kernel-desktop-6.6.116-1.mga9.x86_64 but it is not
present as an rpm so stuck unless some one has a way of refresh installing it.

I am getting close to installing the current version on a spare area on a
WD Black but will need to shrink space to create space as it is used as a data volume as my m.2 SSD is full and same problem I would need to reduce space on 2nd partition to use as a new boot volume but all of the tools
are via kde.

Chicken and egg problem :(

Vincent

a) Note that you do not have to use sddm to bring up Plasma (the KDE
gui). SDDM tends to be a bit fragile I found.
However this is not your problem so see below.
On 2026-01-04, Gilberto F da Silva <gfs1989@gmx.net> wrote:

Vincent Coen escreveu:

Hello All!

I recently (November or December) made a change to swap using UTF-8
to 8859-15 in my KDE environment, not that I noticed much of a
change when using Text editors or email readers (Thunderbird).

For some reason I pressed something or used the mouse some how and
the screen content would move left, right, up and down when moving
the mouse so thought a reboot would be in order.

Doing this and on the reboot I now get the following messages
appearing with NO kde running just the text facility via tty1
through tty6 :-

setfont ERROR loadunimap.c:261 kfont_load_unimap: unable to find
unimap:88 no such file or directory setfont ERROR loadunimap.c:261
kfont_load_unimap: unable to find unimap: 8859-15 no such file or
directory FAILED: Failed to start clanav-clamonacc.service

As I would like to continue to use the KDE gui how do I fix this?

I am happy to switch back to using UTF-8 if needed and live with
the odd characters appearing from time to time.

Note that when I switched I did NOT noticed that any new packages
was installed.

Chapter and verse please as I am not familiar of using the Text
interface as against using the kde set up processes.

All updates are applied including from the tainted mirrors.

Thanks in advance.

Vincent

Gemini say:

**Subject: Re: Issues after switching from UTF-8 to 8859-15**

Hi Vincent,

The errors you are seeing occur because modern Linux distributions
and KDE are designed to work natively with **UTF-8**. When you
switched to ISO 8859-15, the system lost the ability to map fonts
and handle certain services correctly, preventing the GUI from
starting.

Since you are at the text prompt (TTY), here is how you can revert
to UTF-8 "chapter and verse":

1. **Log in**: At the `tty` prompt, type your username and press
Enter, then type your password.

You can log in as root instead of user. Then You woud not have to use
sudo in the below ( which would be useless if you had not set up the
sudo configuration to allow your particular username)

Note that mageia does NOT automatically enroll you in sudo, so unless
you explicitly edited /etc/sudoers file.
and for example put your username into the /etc/groups file for the
wheel group, and edited the sudoers file to allow the wheel group to
run anything as sudo.

2. **Set the locale**: Run the following command to set your system
back to UTF-8 (replace `en_GB` with your actual language code if
it's different, e.g., `en_US`):
```bash
sudo localectl set-locale LANG=en_GB.UTF-8

```

So that would just be
localectl set-locale LANG=en_GB.UTF-8

3. **Update the configuration**: To ensure the change is applied
everywhere, run:
```bash
sudo localectl set-keymap uk (or 'us' depending on your keyboard)

```

localectl set-keymap uk

4. **Reboot**: Restart the system to see if the KDE login screen
returns
:
```bash
sudo reboot

```

Again
reboot

**Note on ClamAV error**: The `clamav-clamonacc.service` failure is
likely a side effect of the encoding change, as the service might be
failing to read its own logs or config files due to the character
mismatch. Once you are back in UTF-8, it should start normally.

Hope this helps!

- --
- --

Abra|oos

Gilberto F da Silva

Vincent

--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.mageia

On 02/01/2026 15:34, Vincent Coen wrote:

Hello All!

I recently (November or December) made a change to swap using UTF-8 to 8859-15 in my KDE environment, not that I noticed much of a change when
using Text editors or email readers (Thunderbird).

For some reason I pressed something or used the mouse some how and the
screen content would move left, right, up and down when moving the mouse so thought a reboot would be in order.

I'll firstly declare I'm no expert in Linux, but have had run ins with
it that need sorting in Konsole (logged out of KDE).

As /swap isn't technically needed to get a system running..


As superuser (root)
vi /etc/fstab

Scroll down to the line which mentions your swap drive, and add a # at
the beginning of the line to comment it out.

To save it press the escape key, then type
:wq
(You'll see the text on bottom left)

That will write the change and quit.

Now type "reboot" and see if it loads the KDE front / login page. If it
does tell the group.

You can reverse all this by doing the opposite of commenting out.
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2