Slackware 9.0 / XFree 4.3.0 - importing fonts

[Guest SDMF]

I am trying to import fonts to my Slackware 9.0 installation.

 

On Mandrake w/XFree 4.2.1, this is how I got them to work: First, I went to the directory all the other fonts were in, /usr/X11R6/......./fonts and created 2 directories, one for windows TTF fonts which I copied from my windows partition, and another for the artwiz fonts for Fluxbox. I then put the fonts in their respective directories, ran mkfontdir for the artwiz fonts, ran ttmkfdir >fonts.dir for the windows fonts. Then I edited /etc/X11/fs/config, and added the paths to the 2 new directories to the "catalog" entry in that file. Then I also added the new directories to /etc/X11/XftConfig. When I had done that, I ran /etc/rc.d/init.d/xfs restart, and voila, fonts work.

 

Now, I don't know if the difference with Slackware w/XFree 4.3.0 is that it is a new version of XFree, or if the difference is with Slack as compared to Mandrake. So far, I created the new directories, and copied the fonts there. When I tried to run the commands to create the fonts.dir files, however, I got an error saying that the command was not found (yes, I was doing this as root). I just mounted my Mandrake partition and copied them from there though. Next I edited the /etc/X11/fs/config file to include these new directories. When I went to edit the /etc/X11/XftConfig file, I found that there wasn't one. Again, I don't know whether this is a difference between the two distros, or the different versions of XFree. I can't seem to find the xfs command, either, so that I can run xfs restart restart the font server. Now, I was told by someone on a Slack board to run a command which I have never heard of before, called fc-cache -f, which I was told would rebuild the fonts.dir and fonts.scale, and restart the font server. This command ALSO does not seem to exist on my system. However, it does have a man page, as does ttmkfdir AND mkfontdir. I am thinking that I may be missing a package, but I cannot figure out which one it could be.

[bvc]

from ML9.1's XFree86-4.3 /etc/X11/XftConfig.README-OBSOLETE

# IMPORTANT NOTICE about XftConfig:

#

# The XftConfig config file has been deprecated and obsoleted by

# /etc/fonts/fonts.conf, which is the new font configuration file for Xft2, and

# is provided by "fontconfig".  A backward compatible Xft1 library is also

# provided which has been converted to use fontconfig also and provide users

# with a single way of configuring client side fonts, while retaining binary

# compatibility. For information on configuring fonts using fontconfig,

# please consult the fontconfig documentation.

 

If you look at your /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 you'll see each fon't path listed indicating that XFree is handling the fonts....no xfs. I don't even think it's compile into the kernel, but you can look at the /usr/src/linux/.config file to find out.

 

I believe you just put the fonts in the correct dir, or ~/.fonts and run fc-cache -f . If you want freetype2 you'll either have to install an already hacked version or edit and comment out one line in the uncompressed archive before compiling. You can get a hacked freetype2.rpm and use the rpm2tgz command to make a pkg to install with pkgtool.

 

fc-cache is part of the fontconfig pkg.

[Guest SDMF]

ok, so just run pkgtool and install the fontconfig package? I thought it was already installed, wierd.

[Guest SDMF]

Nevermind, I downloaded it from the fontconfig homepage and installed it that way. Thanks for the heads-up on that.