The file with a strange name in this directory is no mistake. It shows that Linux handles filenames in Unicode (UTF-8) without ever realizing that they are in Unicode. [However, some old tar's are unhappy with this filename.] If you want to see it (the filename consists of two musical notes): % consolechars --default-font # load PC font, just to be sure % echo -e '\033%8' # set Unicode output mode % ls -N # show filenames (raw) % echo -e '\033%@' # set Latin1 output mode again. If you want to remove it: % rm ./?????? If you want to input Unicode: % kbd_mode -u # Be careful! Do this only with a kbd_mode # from kbd-0.88.tar.gz or later! and next tell loadkeys what key combinations correspond to which Unicode values. (See also the contents of that musical file.) See also the scripts unicode_start and unicode_stop in ../src.