Small fonts (really small)

[teh_sAbEr]

i have my resolution set to 1600 x 1200 rite now (using fluxbox mostly, GNOME rite now), and the apps have VERY VERY SMALL text, like for example, in GAIM, my friend's away message is readable in GNOME, but in fluxbox, its too small to read. how do i increase the size of the font so its actually readable on my end, without asking my friend to increase font size on their end? thanx in advance!

Edited September 2, 2004 by teh_sAbEr

[arctic]

you have to config your fluxbox-theme file in order to change the font size in your menus. the other stuff, qt and gtk apps need to be adjusted via gnome control center (fonts) or kcontrol (fonts) i guess. dunno if you can change the stuff via flux-config files.

[zero0w]

To adjust font size for GTK-apps outside GNOME, you need to modify the file ~/.gtkrc-2.0

Add the following line:

 

gtk-font-name="Sans 12"

 

where Sans is the font name

12 is the font size

 

For more detail, you can check out the last post in this discussion in Tips and Tricks:

http://mandrakeusers.org/index.php?showtopic=15102

[teh_sAbEr]

cool thanx for the help, font problems are fixed now :-)

[coverup]

The proper fix is to run X server with a dpi option (I think it stands for "dots per inch" but not shure, as long as this does the trick, that does not matter :D ). This will affect all (!) X applications, and not only those which use Gnome fonts. If you start X from console, the command is

 

$ startx -- -dpi 120

 

(other possible values are 96, 144, there may be some other).

 

If boot directly into KDE or GNOME, adding the line

 

DisplaySize xxx yyy

 

to Section "Monitor" of XF86Config-4 will have the same effect. xxx, yyy set the size of the display in millimeters. To figure out suitable values of xxx, yyy, try several -dpi options by manually starting X from the console. Once you are happy with the size of the fonts, run this command in the terminal window:

 

$ xdpyinfo |grep dimensions

dimensions: 1280x1024 pixels (342x271 millimeters)

 

In my case, xxx=342, yyy=271

[teh_sAbEr]

ok thanx for the advice. i tried starting x from the console (i use XOrg, not too sure what version), because i usually start w/the KDE Login Manager. i type in

"startx -dpi=100" and it gives me a "Fatal Server Error: could not open default font 'fixed'". any advice? is there a way to change the default font to something that will work? thanks in advance.

[coverup]

Sorry, mate. I know nothing about xorg. Is it backward compatible with XFree86?

[teh_sAbEr]

uhh..im not too much of an expert on it either...i suppose its compatible..

[jameswong]

It is not "startx -dpi=100"

It is "startx -- -dpi=100"

[teh_sAbEr]

thanx a bunch fr the info. ill be sure to try that...im urpmi-updating my system rite now..

 

EDIT: ok, so i tried "startx -- -dpi 100", but it brought up the blue mandrake colored screen, like it was going to load, but it didn't, and it just hung there. the weird thing is that i was able to see one of the minidock programs i have for fluxbox in the upper left hand corner.

Edited September 11, 2004 by teh_sAbEr

[coverup]

thanx a bunch fr the info. ill be sure to try that...im urpmi-updating my system rite now..

 

EDIT: ok, so i tried "startx -- -dpi 100", but it brought up the blue mandrake colored screen, like it was going to load, but it didn't, and it just hung there. the weird thing is that i was able to see one of the minidock programs i have for fluxbox in the upper left hand corner.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

... which means the X server was starting normaully until it had stumbled over something... What log messages do you see? If it were XFree86, the messages would be in /var/log/XFree86.0.log. You've got to have superuser priviledges to read it. Also, you may want to have a look at the console messages. To switch to the console while in X, press <Ctrl>+<Alt>+<F1>, to go back to X press <Ctrl>+<Alt>+<F7>. If you can't open terminal to inspect the logs while in X, switch to the 2nd console by pressing <Ctrl>+<Alt>+<F2>, then login as root. You can also kill X with <Ctrl>+<Alt>+<Backspace>.

 

By the way, try "startx -- -dpi 120", that always worked for me.

[teh_sAbEr]

im not using XFree86, im using Xorg rite now. should i switch back?

[coverup]

I am not suggesting that you *should* switch. XFree86 or Xorg, they must leave error messages somewhere. I would assume that Xorg is backward compatible with XFree86, so there is a chance that you can use the same keys for switching between the console and X display. Another likely place for error messages is the file .xsession-errors in your home dir. If you locate those error messages, it will be much easier to figure out how to fix the problem.

[teh_sAbEr]

i was finally able to figure out what the error was: it stops on "(II)Initializing GLX (extension?)