diff --git a/stand/liblua/gfx_utils.c b/stand/liblua/gfx_utils.c
--- a/stand/liblua/gfx_utils.c
+++ b/stand/liblua/gfx_utils.c
@@ -254,7 +254,9 @@
 
 	/*
 	 * Add in the compatibility references in the loader table.  Doing it with
-	 * a pseudo-embedded script is easier than the raw calls.
+	 * a pseudo-embedded script is easier than the raw calls. Also note: when
+	 * removing this in the future, pay special attention to drawer.lua which
+	 * purposely uses loader.term_drawrect to detect the text-only BIOS laoder.
 	 */
 	if (luaL_dostring(L,
 		"loader.fb_bezier = gfx.fb_bezier\n"
diff --git a/stand/lua/drawer.lua b/stand/lua/drawer.lua
--- a/stand/lua/drawer.lua
+++ b/stand/lua/drawer.lua
@@ -506,23 +506,53 @@
 		top_right	= "+",
 		bottom_right	= "+",
 	},
-	["single"] = {
+}
+
+-- The graphical-enabled loaders have unicode drawing character support. The text-only
+-- ones do not. Select the single and double frame styles based on whether or not we
+-- have gfx binding. We have to check these funciton bindings since we create gfx above
+-- for really old loaders and they may or may not support this based on whether these
+-- functions are defined. And we check the old loader.term_drawrect rather than the newer
+-- gfx.term_drawrect so that old releases with graphical support will work (though that's
+-- untested). We rely on liblua creating the compat loader.term_drawrect compat on new
+-- loaders.
+if loader.term_drawrect ~= nil then
+	-- unicode based framing characters
+	drawer.frame_styles["single"] = {
 		horizontal	= "\xE2\x94\x80",
 		vertical	= "\xE2\x94\x82",
 		top_left	= "\xE2\x94\x8C",
 		bottom_left	= "\xE2\x94\x94",
 		top_right	= "\xE2\x94\x90",
 		bottom_right	= "\xE2\x94\x98",
-	},
-	["double"] = {
+	}
+	drawer.frame_styles["double"] = {
 		horizontal	= "\xE2\x95\x90",
 		vertical	= "\xE2\x95\x91",
 		top_left	= "\xE2\x95\x94",
 		bottom_left	= "\xE2\x95\x9A",
 		top_right	= "\xE2\x95\x97",
 		bottom_right	= "\xE2\x95\x9D",
-	},
-}
+	}
+else
+	-- non-unicode cons25-style framing characters
+	drawer.frame_styles["single"] = {
+		horizontal	= "\xC4",
+		vertical	= "\xB3",
+		top_left	= "\xDA",
+		bottom_left	= "\xC0",
+		top_right	= "\xBF",
+		bottom_right	= "\xD9",
+        }
+	drawer.frame_styles["double"] = {
+		horizontal	= "\xCD",
+		vertical	= "\xBA",
+		top_left	= "\xC9",
+		bottom_left	= "\xC8",
+		top_right	= "\xBB",
+		bottom_right	= "\xBC",
+	}
+end
 
 function drawer.drawscreen(menudef)
 	-- drawlogo() must go first.