Russification of MUSes

This is a detailed guide on how to install Russian fonts in order to read and write Russian for many X Windows applications such as xemacs, emacs, pico, Netscape, etc.  If, after reading this guide, you require additional assistance please see Sergei Shinkarev during his consulting hours or e-mail help@math.uiuc.edu.

To make sure Russian (Cyrillic) fonts work properly for any application, one must select Russian as the default language before logging in.

To do this at the login screen select:

Options->Language->Pt-Pr->ru-----Russia (KOI8-R)

*the path is slightly different in the Cobalt lab (where Solaris 8 OS is used)
**this is irrespective of whether you will be using KOI8-R or CP-1251 fonts
***this may cause some applications to temporarily malfunction.

Once you have selected Russian as your default language and logged in, you can begin to view Russian web pages. Simply open the browser of your choice and select the appropriate encoding.

In Netscape click on the View menu:

View->Character Set-> select the appropriate Cyrillic coding for the web page you like to view

To use Russian fonts with editors
 

To read Russian documents in emacs, xemacs, etc. one must first download and install appropriate fonts.

For KOI8-R
 

Download the KOI8-R fonts (370 Kb) to your home directory

xrus-src.tar.gz

Uncompress the files by using the following two commands:

gunzip xrus-src.tar.gz ; tar xvf xrus-src.tar

A directory xrus will be automatically created, cd to it and type:

make

Once make finishes running make sure you are still in the xrus directory and type:

xset fp+ `pwd`

This should install the appropriate KOI8-R fonts, to test that everything worked type:

xfd -fn koi9x15

This should bring up a panel with Russian fonts.  Close the panel and you are now ready use Russian fonts with xemacs (or emacs).  Simply type:

xemacs -fn koi9x15

Xemacs will now work with KOI8-R encoded files.  To ensure that the fonts you've just installed will be loaded every time you log in it is  recommended that you do the following:

If you are using Open Windows, modify your .xinitrc file. Open a file called .xinitrc in your home directory with any editor, if the file doesn't exist create it.  Copy and paste this line into the file:

xset fp+ ~/xrus

If you are using CDE , you will have to create a file called sessionetc located in the .dt/sessions/ folder.  Once the file is created copy and paste this line into the file:

xset fp+ ~/xrus

Now make the sessionetc file is executable, that can be done with the following command:

chmod 700 sessionetc

Please note if this is not done you will have to run xset fp+ `pwd` command every time you log out and log back in.

For CP-1251
 

The procedure is nearly identical to the KOI8-R font installation.  Download the CP-1251 fonts (360 Kb) to your home directory

xrus-1251.tar.gz

Uncompress the files by using the following two commands:

gunzip xrus-1251.tar.gz ; tar xvf xrus-1251.tar

A directory xrus-1251 will be automatically created, cd to it and type:

mkfontdir

Once make finishes running make sure you are still in the xrus-1251 directory and type:

xset fp+ `pwd`

This should install the appropriate CP-1251 fonts, to test that everything worked type:

xfd -fn 1251-9x15

This should bring up a panel with Russian fonts. Close the panel and you are now ready use Russian fonts with xemacs (or emacs).  Simply type:

xemacs -1251-9x15

Xemacs will now work with CP-1251 encoded files.  To ensure that the fonts you've just installed will be loaded every time you log in it is  recommended that you do the following:

If you are using Open Windows, modify your .xinitrc file. Open a file called .xinitrc in your home directory with any editor, if the file doesn't exist create it.  Copy and paste this line into the file:

xset fp+ ~/xrus-1251

If you are using CDE , you will have to create a file called sessionetc located in the .dt/sessions/ folder.  Once the file is created copy and paste this line into the file:

xset fp+ ~/xrus-1251

Now make the sessionetc file is executable, that can be done with the following command:

chmod 700 sessionetc

Please note if this is not done you will have to run xset fp+ `pwd` command every time you log out and log back in.

Netscape Mail

To use Russian fonts with Netscape mail, simply login in selecting Russian as the default language and select the appropriate encoding just like in the Netscape browser:

View->Character Set-> select the appropriate Cyrillic coding for the web page you like to view

Xemacs

If you are using xemacs to read your e-mail, as always make sure you are logged in with Russian selected as the default language and that appropriate Russian fonts are installed as detailed above.  Then use the -fn extension to run xemacs for KOI8-R:

xemacs -fn koi9x15

or for CP-1251:

xemacs -fn 1251-9x15

Once you have logged in selecting the Russian language and installed the appropriate Russian fonts as detailed above, one can use Russian fonts with any applications that supports -fn fontname option.   Simply type applicationname -fn fontname (either koi9x15 or 1251-9x15 depending on which encoding you would like to use). For example typing xterm -fn koi9x15 will bring up a terminal window that uses the Russian KOI8-R fonts.

To type in Russian one must first install a Russian keyboard switcher, that switches the keyboard layout from English to Russian. Download the keyboard switcher to your home directory:

xruskb-1.4.2.tar.gz

Uncompress the files by using the following two commands:

gunzip xruskb-1.4.2.tar.gz ; tar xvf xruskb-1.4.2.tar

A directory xruskb-1.4.2 will be automatically created, cd to it and type:
 

./configure

After this finishes running type:

make

To run the keyboard switcher, make sure you are in the xruskb-1.4.2 directory and type:

./xrus yawerty-koi8-xrus.xmm

This will run the keyboard switcher, you should see a small button in the left bottom corner of your screen with the letters LAT or RUS on it.  When in LAT mode the keyboard layout will be the standard english, when in RUS mode the keyboard will have a Russian layout roughly corresponding phonetically to the standard keyboard. To switch modes either click on the button or press LShift-Rshift.  Please note that yawerty-koi8-xrus.xmm is a keyboard layout if you wish you could use other keyboard layout (*.xmm file) with this keyboard switcher. Another non-phonetical Russian keyboard layout you could use is jcuken-koi8-xrus.xmm.

There are a number of utilities available to convert Cyrillic text from one encoding to the others.  Here are two web based converters:

• Automatic Cyrillic Converter
• Universal Cyrillic Converter

These utilities can convert from any encoding to the other as well as from latin to Cyrillic and vice versa.

Useful Links

• Promt's Online Translator - An online translator from Russian to a number of popular languages (English, German, French, Italian) and vice versa.
• Rambler Slovari - A collection of Russian dictionaries.
• Vesna dictionary - An excellent Russian-Ukrainian-Belorussian-Polish-English dictionary.
• Siber's Russifaction guide - Another X Windows Russification guide.
• The Russian Society - A local Russian organization.

Xrus Fonts:

Copyright (C) 1994-1995 Cronyx Ltd.
Changes Copyright (C) 1996 by Andrey A. Chernov, Moscow, Russia.
Changes Copyright (C) 1996 by Siber Systems, Herndon, Virginia, USA.

Xrus Keyboard package thanks to:

Alexander V. Lukaynov