A boxes instead of a Cyrillic chars in VTs

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

I think you didn't get the framebuffer working. Please, reboot and show us the result of:

$ locale
$ ls /dev/fb0
$ journalctl -b
$ lspci

Check if the problem is solved with:
$ setupcon --current-tty

$ locale
LANG=uk_UA.UTF-8
LANGUAGE=
LC_CTYPE="uk_UA.UTF-8"
LC_NUMERIC="uk_UA.UTF-8"
LC_TIME="uk_UA.UTF-8"
LC_COLLATE="uk_UA.UTF-8"
LC_MONETARY="uk_UA.UTF-8"
LC_MESSAGES="uk_UA.UTF-8"
LC_PAPER="uk_UA.UTF-8"
LC_NAME="uk_UA.UTF-8"
LC_ADDRESS="uk_UA.UTF-8"
LC_TELEPHONE="uk_UA.UTF-8"
LC_MEASUREMENT="uk_UA.UTF-8"
LC_IDENTIFICATION="uk_UA.UTF-8"
LC_ALL=

$ ls /dev/fb0
/dev/fb0

$ journalctl -b
Please, see attachment

$ lspci

$ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 82G33/G31/P35/P31 Express DRAM Controller
00:01.0 VGA compatible controller: Red Hat, Inc. QXL paravirtual graphic card (rev 04)
00:02.0 PCI bridge: Red Hat, Inc. QEMU PCIe Root port
00:02.1 PCI bridge: Red Hat, Inc. QEMU PCIe Root port
00:02.2 PCI bridge: Red Hat, Inc. QEMU PCIe Root port
00:02.3 PCI bridge: Red Hat, Inc. QEMU PCIe Root port
00:02.4 PCI bridge: Red Hat, Inc. QEMU PCIe Root port
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) HD Audio Controller (rev 03)
00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 03)
00:1d.1 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 03)
00:1d.2 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 03)
00:1d.7 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1 (rev 03)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801IB (ICH9) LPC Interface Controller (rev 02)
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 82801IR/IO/IH (ICH9R/DO/DH) 6 port SATA Controller [AHCI mode] (rev 02)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 02)
01:00.0 Ethernet controller: Red Hat, Inc Virtio network device (rev 01)
02:00.0 Communication controller: Red Hat, Inc Virtio console (rev 01)
03:00.0 SCSI storage controller: Red Hat, Inc Virtio block device (rev 01)
04:00.0 Unclassified device [00ff]: Red Hat, Inc Virtio memory balloon (rev 01)

$ setupcon --current-tty
It changes the font, after which Cyrillic symbols become displaying normally. But it should display them normally with initial font too. Also this changes saves only till next reboot.

I've installed Kubuntu under KVM and see no issues:

$ date
неділя, 4 березня 2018 13:55:12 +0300

There is the newer version of console-setup, try to update.

$ LANG=C apt policy keyboard-configuration
keyboard-configuration:
  Installed: 1.178ubuntu1
  Candidate: 1.178ubuntu1
  Version table:
 *** 1.178ubuntu1 500
        500 http://ru.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic/main amd64 Packages
        500 http://ru.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic/main i386 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

> $ ls /dev/fb0
> /dev/fb0
Framebuffer is OK.

> 18:29:32 PC-Q35 systemd[1]: Starting Set console font and keymap...
> 18:29:32 PC-Q35 systemd[1]: Started Set console font and keymap.
console-setup service also starts, but, maybe in an inappropriate moment...

>$ LANG=C apt policy keyboard-configuration
>keyboard-configuration:
> Installed: 1.178ubuntu1
> Candidate: 1.178ubuntu1
> Version table:
> *** 1.178ubuntu1 500
> 500 http://ru.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic/main amd64 Packages
> 500 http://ru.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic/main i386 Packages
> 100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
I have the same already. But the boxes after booting in VM still is. And the framebuffer is OK too.

$ cat /etc/default/console-setup

# CONFIGURATION FILE FOR SETUPCON

# Consult the console-setup(5) manual page.

ACTIVE_CONSOLES="/dev/tty[1-6]"

CHARMAP="UTF-8"

CODESET="guess"
FONTFACE="Fixed"
FONTSIZE="16x8"

VIDEOMODE=

# The following is an example how to use a braille font
# FONT='lat9w-08.psf.gz brl-8x8.psf'

It will be difficult to cope with it remotely :)

So, lets start from the beginning. Reboot your machine and prevent grub from booting. Add the 'break=init' command to your kernel line and continue booting. You'll get the initramfs command line. At this moment your console should be already localized. Try this:
(initramfs) LANG=uk_UA.UTF-8 chroot /root date

If you don't get localized date, check that these files exist in your initramfs environment:
/scripts/init-top/console_setup
/etc/default/console-setup
/etc/console-setup/Uni2-Fixed16.psf.gz

To check if font installs, try to execute:
(initramfs) setfont /root/usr/share/consolefonts/Uni2-Fixed14.psf.gz
and
(initramfs) /scripts/init-top/console_setup

Tell us the result.

Recently I've reinstalled Kubuntu 18.04 too from daily image by 03.03.2018. While installation I've chose ukrainian locale. As a result - white boxes in VT's, the same as on previous installation.
Just a moment, I'l try to check what you've suggested.

>Add the 'break=init' command to your kernel line and continue booting. You'll get the initramfs command line.
Can't get initramfs. Please, see the video:

https://youtu.be/Ik092R7UtLM

You can add this line in the /etc/default/grub:
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="break=init"

$ sudo update-grub

But after that you'll have to remove this line manually from initramfs environment:
(initramfs) mount -o rw,remount /root
(initramfs) chroot /root bash
# vi /etc/default/grub
# update-grub

Or, just do a snapshot with virt-manager beforehand.

Please, see attachments.

Ok, obviously /scripts/init-top/console_setup doesn't work. I'll try to setup up an Ukranian version. Please, share your current /boot/initrd.img

Here it is.

It seems that this bug related to kvm qxl implementation. I've got the same behavior as you only once after rebooting from graphical.target.

Try VirtualBox instead KVM.

Are you wanna say that Cyrillic not displaying correctly in VM's because of KVM QXL ?

But in 16.04 which is also in KVM there is no such issue.

Tried KVM with Virtio instead of QXL. The same issue.

initramfs with provided initrd.img

Take a look at the screenshot. It's your initrd.img. And I have no issues with it.

Maybe, Virtio and QXL have common parts. Try VirtualBox or VmWare.

Recently I've been installed 18.04 on my host system. A boxes in VM still is. So it is not because of Virtio/QXL/KVM.

I'll try to experiment on several hosts, when I have free time. Maybe, at the weekend.

Evgeniy, when you'll try, please, choose Ukrainian for localization and Ukrainian for keyboard layout during installation as I did it.