Use or convert .ttf font for console use in FreeBSD

Question

I have a monospace .ttf font I really like (UbuntuBeta Mono). Is there any way I can use it (or convert first and then use, if needed) for the console in freeBSD? I know there is usr/share/syscons/fonts, but it looks like they might be a different format? Once I install the font, how do I tell the console to use it?

Solution

It would depend upon the font formats that FreeBSD accepts in usr/share/syscons/fonts.

You can use FontForge to convert a TTF font into other formats. According to this blog post, FreeBSD accepts the Slackware .fnt.gz format (the .gz just indicates it is zipped).

The Linux console uses .psf.gz fonts. You might try one of those to see if it works, if so you could use PSF Tools to do the final conversion to that format.

If all that goes to plan, you can tell the console to use it with the vidcontrol command and then, if you wish to make it permanent, add it to your rc.conf. The blog post linked to above has the details.