Font not readable on startup of xfs

[kmack]

Having occasional xfont server freezes that lock my computer up and require powerdown to recover. In troubleshooting I found the following error messages:

# grep xfs /var/log/messages



May 16 07:48:36 localhost xfs: xfs startup succeeded

May 16 07:48:36 localhost xfs: ignoring font path element /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/drakfont (unreadable)

May 16 07:48:37 localhost xfs: ignoring font path element /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/pcf_drakfont:unscaled (unreadable)

 

I'm a bit timid to do much until I understand this more. Should the fonts be uninstalled/reinstalled or force install over the top? What would the experts recommend?

[qeldroma]

Theese lines only tell you that there were not fonts there. The xfs searches in several predefined directories for fonts to use. If he can't find any in one directory, this messages appears.

 

For new fonts to work i had good experiences with the original Mandrake tool for it. Try it out, if you want to import new fonts.

There are several good Font-rpms out there, with them, you won't have to use the Mandrake-tool.

 

Solved?

[kmack]

geldroma: Thanks for your input. I used MCC to import MS fonts and this is what I had afterwards. Wish I'd used texstar's rpm instead!

 

I cannot figure out why it doesn't like the files in those directories... that is the problem. I think it might be a permission thing.

[kelly@localhost kelly]$ ls -l /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/drakfont

total 24

drwxr-xr-x    2 root     root         8192 Apr 13 01:58 ttf/

drwxr-xr-x    2 root     root        16384 Apr 14 21:26 Type1/

[kelly@localhost kelly]$ ls -l /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/drakfont/ttf



--SNIP--



-rwxrwxr-x    1 root     root        45952 Apr 13 01:58 felixti.ttf*

-rw-rw-r--    1 root     root       120552 Apr 14 21:26 fonts.dir

-rwxrwxr-x    1 root     root        54216 Apr 13 01:58 forte.ttf*

--SNIP--

AND

[kelly@localhost kelly]$ ls -l /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/

total 124

drwxr-xr-x    2 root     root        40960 Apr 13 07:03 100dpi/

drwxr-xr-x    2 root     root        40960 Apr 13 07:03 75dpi/

drwxr-xr-x    4 root     root         4096 Apr 14 21:26 drakfont/

drwxr-xr-x    3 root     root         4096 Apr 13 07:02 encodings/

-rw-r--r--    1 root     root          102 Apr 13 07:02 fonts.cache-1

drwxr-xr-x    2 root     root         4096 Apr 13 07:02 mdk/

drwxr-xr-x    2 root     root        16384 Apr 13 07:02 misc/

drwxr-xr-x    2 root     root         4096 Apr 13 07:02 Speedo/

drwxr-xr-x    2 root     root         4096 Apr 13 07:02 TTF/

drwxr-xr-x    2 root     root         4096 Apr 13 07:02 Type1/

 

Could it be that the fonts.dir and fonts.cache-1 files have wrong permissions and cannot be used? I don't know why they are different?

 

Can someone (with a good font server setup) please compare their permissions for these directories and files with mine and let me know if there is a difference? TIA! :)

[bvc]

Mine's exactly the same. Try running

fc-cache -f

or, delete the dirs and re-run drakfont from mcc. Also, make sure the paths are in all the rt font config files. Can't recall them now.

[kmack]

Thanks bvc! I appreciate the file permission check and feedback.

 

I tried the fc-cache -f by going to init-3 and root and running it. I then relogged in as a user and started x and couldn't see anything changed. I rebooted and the error still exists.

 

Which font directories do you think I should delete? Do you mean the MS directories? or the /drakfont that is giving the problem?

 

If I delete them, how do I reload them in Drakfont? Where would I find the drakfont files?

 

Since I am basically running now with only a rare intermittent problem, I have been reluctant to do much surgery for fear of making things worse. Since I don't understand this as well as I should and haven't had time to really study it out I am moving slowly on this. From what I have read, this gets pretty technical and will take some time to work through!

 

Sorry for some many questions... just want to get a handle on this before I try to do anything!

[bvc]

fc-cache -f rebuilds the font.dir files and restarts xfs so that there is no need to exit X :wink:

 

It would be better to move them or rename them, and yes, just the ones giving the error messages.

 

Then go get the ms fonts from windows again. Another thing you can try is to copy them from windows to your home dir .font and tell mcc>drakfont to get fonts from there.

 

Another option is the kfontinstaller? or kfinstaller? I believe it's included in 9.1. It's default is the ~/.font dir.

[kmack]

bvc: Once again thanks!

 

I tried to find docs for the fc-cache -f command but no luck here. I found fc in my O'Reilly Linux in a nutshell but no joy on the fc-cache command anywhere else that I could find. So I took a leap of faith and trusted that you knew what was best. To be safe, I dropped out of X as I was concerned it might cause problems. Now I know...

 

for the record, where can I find source for docs on fc-cache?

 

I'm a bit strapped for time right now as I have deadline for a paper for a PhD class I am taking and I need to get focused on it. My heart's more on solving this problem, but it will have to wait a bit longer. Tomorrow I leave for a week long trip, and won't have this linux desktop with me so will be relegated to using my WinME laptop, and playing with Knoppix 3.2 CD for a time. Winmodem blues too...

[bvc]

fc-cache is part of the fontconfig pkg, if that helps? This is how somone using LFS, Slackware, or some other minimal distro gets newly installed fonts to show up without restarting X. If I'm not mistaken, it's the same command drakfont and kfontinstaller use. I got a popup once asking if it was ok to exec fc-cache, but I can't remember what distro.

 

:shock: I know about WinMe...in it right now after a major grub mistake;

http://www.mandrakeusers.org/viewtopic.php?t=5232

 

....can't get that winmodem going with Knoppix?...or linux in general? drivers not available?....another thread I guess so not to get offtopic, or just pm me :wink: