No fonts in icewm: "Could not load fallback Xft font"
 

Hi all

I posted this here because though I have used Linux for a few years now, I almost never used X and windows managers, being a newbie in that field - please relocate post if seen fit.

I am currently trying to re-install X on my machine (pentium 90, kernel 2.4.28) which is primarily a server for backups, printing, etc...

I had X, with IceWM, previously installed as a part of my first (and only) linux distro installation - VectorLinux. I really didn't care much about X apps because the machine was mainly a server (it even lived for some months without monitor, being controlled only by ssh) but recently I felt the need for an always-ready way of checking the internet or writing a simple word-like doc. So I started to use X again. I found out that something had somehow become corrupt because most apps would complain about libgdk-1.2.so.0 (undefined symbol ...) and refuse to run. I tried to install the latest version of GTK+ but to no avail and, in a moment of despair I uninstalled X (as in "deleted /usr/X11R6 and /usr/X11" - a typical M$-like behavior...).

I then initiated the painful task of reinstalling... With Xfree86 version 4.5.0 no probs, I even got it to correcly use my graphics card and use 1024x768 resolution, which I previously was unable to. Then I installed IceWM (1.2.23), configured .Xclients and got it to run but:
THERE ARE NO FONTS! No letters! Zip! All the buttons and text boxes are there, empty and shrunken by the lack of content. xterm runs fine (no title on the window but the prompt is ok). When I return to console I see that lots of errors like these have been spat out:
I updated Xft, but to no avail...

I googled for the errors but this seems to be only addressed by a Russian forum...
The following two lines are output at the X server start:
Is this the problem? Why were these fonts not installed with Xfree? What can I do?

the X log shows no errors.

I still really don't need X that much but this has become a personal matter and I would appreciate any help. tkx for reading!

big_manel

It would help if you could post some relevant sections of your XFree86.conf file, namely the "Files" section and the "Modules" section. And perhaps you will find the following pages useful: Fonts in XFree86 and XFree86 4.5.0 Documentation
Hope that helps.

Thanks for the directions. I read what you said and, out what I could understand of it, I still don't understand what I was doing wrong...

However I DID get it to work! The problem was that I had used Xfree's install script with some of the optional packages, but left out the heavier font extensions: Xf100.tgz (100dpi fonts) and Xfscl.tgz (Scalable fonts (Speedo, Type1 and TrueType)). Reinstalled X with those and all was fine! (it still complains about fonts/local and fonts/CID, though, but I don't really care now!)

I don't remember having read the need for the instalation of these files in the IceWM documentation but then again maybe it it obvious and I'm just a newbie...

Thanks anyway for the help!

Glad to hear it's working! I also got those /fonts/local and /fonts/CID errors with my default configuration. It is safe to comment them out, if the extra two lines in the log bother you. :)
Look in the "Files" section of XF86Config for the part with the FontPaths to find them.