[lug] Font installation question

Michael J. Hammel mjhammel at graphics-muse.org
Tue Oct 26 11:55:49 MDT 1999


Thus spoke Rob
> 1)  Working as root untarred the archive which created the  
> /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/URW on my RedHat 6.0 system.  The  
> directory is full off files and tar reported no errors. 

Thats good.

> 2) Again as root, I added added the FontPath line to the Section  
> "Files" as specified in the gimp directions: 
> 
> FontPath  "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/URW" 
> 
> 
> The URW line follows the FontPath lines for "misc: unscaled",  
> "75dpi: unscaled", and "100dpi: unscaled".  In what appeared to me  
> to be a distribution dependent distinction, the Section "Files" was  
> contained in XF86Config.eg, not XF86Config.   

Overkill.  You don't necessarily need to update the XF86Config file, but I
suppose that works.  I just use 

   xset fp+ /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/URW

from the command line.  That should make the fonts available immediately,
even if you're already running under X (actually, I install new fonts under 
/usr/local/fonts, but thats really a user preference thing).

> 3)  Logged out and restarted the machine.  After logging in as a  

Restarting the machine is not necessary - you only need to restart the X
session, which means logging out of X and then logging back in.

> regular user, I used xfontsel to see the new set of fonts were being  
> available.  Unfortunately, I didn't find any URW foundry entries, nor  
> a dingbats family.  Oh, the java problem remained as well. 

xfontsel isn't the easiest tool to use.  Its often easier to start up the
Gimp and look through its font list since the font names are more human
readable.  There are some other tools for previewing fonts out there (I
think KDE has one thats supposed to be pretty good) but I just use the
Gimp.

> Do I need to run xset as root?   Is there a better way to tell if the  
> fonts were successfully installed than running xfontsel?  Your  
> suggestions are appreciated. 

No, xset works for the current user and the current X session.  Adding the
FontPath entry to XF86Config is supposed to make sure the font path is
added each time you restart X.  

When you log back into your X session, in an xterm run "xset q".  At the
bottom of the output you'll see the current paths that the server is using
for finding fonts.  If your URW path is not listed, then that may be the
problem.  If it is listed, then you may need to run mkfontdir in the URW
directory and restart the X session.  

At least I think its mkfontdir - I use a script called Type1Inst, but thats
not available on most distributions (you have to grab it off the net).
mkfontdir is delivered with all installations of X.
-- 
Michael J. Hammel           |  "I don't like people.  They can't be easily
The Graphics Muse           |   categorized, referenced or explained."
mjhammel at graphics-muse.org  |         Michael "Spooky" Hammel
http://www.graphics-muse.com 




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