Unable to install ttf-mscorefonts in Xubuntu 16.04's LibreOffice
 

I really need the Times New Roman font in LibreOffice so this what I did:

I got this:

sudo apt-get install ttf-mscorefonts-installer

in Synaptic.

Then I didn't have the fonts in LO so I ran this:

sudo apt-get install ttf-mscorefonts

Still didn't have them, so I ran:

sudo apt-get --reinstall install msttcorefonts
and
sudo apt-get --reinstall install ttf-mscorefonts-installer

and I still don't have them.

Please help me install this. (I really need the Times New Roman font in Libreoffice.)

Thanks.

Gregg,

Try this again and make sure you agree to the EULA by pressing the Tab key (above Caps Lock), then using Arrow key to select Yes and press Enter.

Failing that, see post #2:
https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2347693

Have you tried closing LibreOffice and relaunching it again since installing the fonts? Failing that, logging out and logging in again? Failing that, rebooting?

If you still don't have the fonts in LibreOffice, enter the following on the command line and paste the output:

sudo apt-get install ttf-mscorefonts-installer

Can I just point out for the future that if you had pasted the output here from all the commands you mentioned that you ran above, it would have been very useful in pinpointing the problem. Merely saying that a command hasn't worked doesn't give us that much information. Cheers.

Thanks Beachboy2. Couldn't get it. Here are the results.

That did it, hydrurga. Thanks. Yeah, just doing the sudo apt-get install ttf-mscorefonts-installer worked this time. (When I did it before it didn't give me the EULA acceptance (like Beachboy2 referenced). This time it gave it to me and I just checked and the fonts are installed.) Appreciate it!

Great! I have to say though that your packages are in a bit of a mess given the output you posted above, with all those non-upgraded packages and orphan dependencies. You really need to keep on top of them with sudo apt-get update, sudo apt-get upgrade and sudo apt-get autoremove or problems will arise. Please make a system backup first though.

Thanks but you're opening up a can of worms for me! I backup my important files in BACK IN TIME but it's not a system backup. How do I do that? And as for the rest of it: do I just run those three commands consecutively? Thanks!

Hi Gregg...

Rockin, I'm glad it worked! If you would, please mark this thread as "SOLVED." :)

Regards...

Hey ardvark. I left it open because I asked hydrurga some questions and figured if I marked it 'solved' he might not check back.

That's cool, hope you're doing well. :)

Regards...

Ah, I've never used Back in Time. When you say "important files", do you mean your data files, or do you back up your entire root directory structure? A backup of your root partition using e.g. Clonezilla would do the trick but if you've never done that before then it would entail a separate thread.

Anyway, please run:

sudo apt-get update

followed by

sudo apt-get upgrade

to update the software on your system, and paste here any errors that may occur.

Thanks a lot, hydrurga. Here's what I got. (I didn't know how to identify the errors.) It's the same data, just I guess the Hastebin highlights certain stuff.

Does running the upgrade fix the errors pretty much? Thanks.

http://pastebin.com/dTiA2QQG

https://hastebin.com/ebapomutil.sql

P.S. Should I repeat the process (of running those two commands) on my other computer?

If your other system is Debian-based (Ubuntu, Mint etc.), then yes, you should run these commands together fairly often to keep your system up-to-date. However, don't do that machine yet until we've finished with this one.

The only error I see is a possible one with your sources ("AppStream cache update completed, but some metadata was ignored due to errors.") but we can look at that later.

Can you now please reboot your system (there have been kernel changes) and, if all goes ok, run sudo apt-get autoremove and paste the output here.

Wow, thanks Hydrurga. Everything looked great after the re-boot. (I even had my icons that were jpgs displaying on my Desktop. (they hadn't been)). And now I just ran the sudo apt-get autoremove. It seemed like a massive housecleaning. 141 items removed and I counted about fifteen kernels. (The state of my computer is just showing how little I know about it. I so often run all kinds of commands trying to figure things out. Some of the commands are from trusted people like you, but many are moonshots from Googling around in the middle of the night.) Anyway, thanks so much for the help getting this computer back in shape! Here's the results:

Hastebin: https://hastebin.com/wafazomuya.sql

Pastebin: http://pastebin.com/9tGjenTq

That looks great, thanks Gregg.

Just a note for the future. Partly to avoid all these orphaned dependencies (dependencies that were installed because they are required by a package but which are no longer needed because that package has since been removed), I use sudo apt-get --purge autoremove package every time I want to remove a package that I no longer need.

What this command does is to (i) remove the package, (ii) remove the package's system configuration files (--purge), and (iii) remove any orphaned dependencies remaining on the system from whatever package.

This keeps things nice and clean. What you should note however is that it doesn't remove any user configuration files that may have been created in your home directory (possibly hidden with a . as the first letter of the filename). It is up to you to remove these manually if you want to (but you have to be fairly certain what you're doing - I tend to not worry about these as they will disappear when I do a fresh install every couple of years).

If you're still up for this mini-journey, there are some other things we can do, including purging all the package system configuration files that remain on your system, but first, to see what the current situation is, can you please paste the output from:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get upgrade

I may seem a bit anal about this, but if you keep on top of updates, you can avoid a great deal of problems. You don't want to see any errors or warnings for sudo apt-get update, and here's what you want to see every time after sudo-apt upgrade (unless you have intentionally held back any packages i.e. told apt that you don't want them considered for updating, which you haven't):

The above output is my nirvana. ;-)

Thanks hydrurga. Phew. All this stuff makes me a little nervous thinking about doing it on my own but I'm learning little by little. It seems to me a plan for the future might be what you said in an earlier post:

That I could do. But I'm a little leery of sudo apt-get --purge autoremove package because I don't know what you mean by a package. Like if I want to remove Shutter (screen capture tool). Is that considered removing a package?

Just a heads-up I'm going out of town for my nephew's wedding so I won't be around till Tuesday. (But I'll be here all today.) I just didn't want you to think I was apathetic about this. ;) I'm not. It's great stuff. Thanks.

And I post the Pastebin and Hastebin with the same data. Do you prefer one over the other? From what I've read the Hastebin displays the code better (I guess with the highlighting).

IMHO the upgrade is MUCH less extensive than the last time. Last time it took a really long time. This time it was a relative flash.

Hastebin: https://hastebin.com/oyowubuzox.sql

Pastebin: http://pastebin.com/16NJb5Fu

Thanks!

That's cool. We can take a break if you want.

Hastebin is all that I need - much easier to read (I like it!).

Generally, each program or application has an official package name, used by apt-get and the other package management tools. Usually this name is the same as or close to the program's common name.

If you want to see if you have shutter installed on your system and its official package name, then:

dpkg -l *shutter* should do the trick.

In this case, the package name is indeed shutter.

So, to completely remove that package, including its configuration files and any residual dependencies, you would type:

sudo apt-get --purge autoremove shutter

Job done.

What I would suggest is that you go over this thread and apply what you've learned to your other computer so that we can get that into a clean state too.

Cool. Thanks. Okay, I'm thinking about what to do to the other computer. (I won't do it till Tuesday though as I'll be gone.) Would that be these commands:

1)sudo apt-get update

2) sudo apt-get upgrade

3)sudo apt-get autoremove

And for this computer you had me run #1 and #2 and then report the results first before running #3. So would it be the same process with the other computer or just run all three consecutively?

Consecutively, except if you encounter errors, in which case stop there and report back.

Enjoy the wedding!

Thanks, hydrurga, the wedding was fun (and in sunny Ft. Lauderdale). Now it's back to the grind.

Okay, I ran the first command and only saw a lame-looking 'warning' so I ran the next command, which ran way less than when I ran it on the other computer so I'm assuming this computer is much less screwed up. I was going to run the 'remove' command but then I looked back at an old post and you said to reboot the computer because there were kernel changes and I don't know if that is the case with this computer (I know there's a lot of unnecessary kernels on this one, though) but to be on the safe side I'm going to reboot before I run it.

Here's the results from the first two commands.

https://hastebin.com/foxibiwoqo.sql

Back soon. :)

Okay, it removed a lot of kernels. It seemed to me all good. The terminal results didn't go all the way back to the start, though.

And before I re-started the computer there was a large software update, which I ran. And then I re-booted and now that it's back up it's telling me to re-boot again, which I shall do forthwith.

Here's the 'remove' results:https://hastebin.com/duhizeweku.sql

Thanks.

Back soon.

Okay, latest re-boot done. Everything looks good to me!

Excellent. Glad you enjoyed it, Gregg, and glad the computer cleaning went well.

There are some other actions that we could take regarding the removal of "orphaned" configs, but to be honest with you they're not of such importance and as your systems are both running well I think we should leave it there.

To keep on top of things from now on, all you need to do is a regular:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get upgrade

and if/when you want to remove a package at any point:

sudo apt-get --purge autoremove package, substituting the real package name for the word "package".

That's it. Have fun!

Great! Thanks hydrurga! Yeah, this gives me a good way to go for the future. I have a question though. When I do the

sudo apt-get update and

sudo apt-get upgrade

commands and should I have some things that need to be removed, do I re-boot and then run that sudo apt-get autoremove command?

Sorry for not getting back to you sooner on this, Gregg.

I should clarify. The commands

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get upgrade

are separate from the command

sudo apt-get --purge autoremove package

You should run the former two on a fairly regular basis in order to keep your system up-to-date as well as to highlight any potential package management related problems early.

The latter should be run when you want to remove a package.

The only time you should need to reboot is when the kernel was updated during the apt-get upgrade or, for some other fundamental system packages, when the output from the apt-get upgrade command recommends that you do so.

Thanks hydrurga. I get what you're saying. The thing is I was wondering about if there are all kinds of things to be removed after I run the sudo apt-get upgrade command. (Like in that first computer's cleansing.)Then I ran the sudo apt-get autoremove command, not the sudo apt-get --purge autoremove package command. (screenshot)

And can you give me a ballpark estimate of what a 'fairly regular basis' might be? I'm not that computer intensive but I do tend to use them every day.

Once a week sounds reasonable for the update/upgrade. It should take virtually no time at all.

autoremove is a strange option for apt-get in that it removes all orphaned dependencies, whether you use it by itself or whether you use it in a command removing a specific package. When we initially used it, we weren't removing any packages, so we just used the general sudo apt-get autoremove to remove all the orphaned dependencies that had built up to-date.

However, from now on, you can use it as part as sudo apt-get --purge autoremove package every time that you remove a package, That means effectively that you are keeping on top of the orphaned dependencies each single time you remove a package - they're not getting a chance to build up at all. Orphaned dependencies only get created when a package is removed or purged and one or more packages which were installed along with it as dependencies are left installed with no other packages needing them. So, if you do that, you should never have to run the generic sudo apt-get autoremove again.

There's no need to remove anything after sudo apt-get upgrade. The only reason that we carried out the autoremove after we had carried out the initial upgrade was because a number of orphaned dependencies had built up over time. It was a separate issue to the upgrade.

Does that make sense?

It makes perfect sense, hydrurga. Thanks so much for all the AWESOME help. I think I better call this one solved to free you up to help somebody else. Thanks again!!