Fresh Slackware 10, messed up fonts in X

Hello,

After a fresh install of slackware 10 and configuring X server i loaded into KDE and changed the font size a couple of times. I logged in and out of KDE and restarted a couple of times. I went to log into KDE again and my fonts were all small and thin looking. I figured a restart may fix the issue and when i closed KDE there was this code:

Could not init font path element /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/local, removing from list!
Could not init font path element /usr/local/share/fonts, removing from list!
Could not init font path element /usr/share/fonts, removing from list!
Could not init font path element /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts, removing from list!
Could not init font path element /usr/share/fonts/default, removing from list!
xset:  bad font path element (#64), possible causes are:
    Directory does not exist or has wrong permissions
    Directory missing fonts.dir
    Incorrect font server address or syntax
xset:  bad font path element (#64), possible causes are:
    Directory does not exist or has wrong permissions
    Directory missing fonts.dir
    Incorrect font server address or syntax

I checked to make sure that the directories did exist and they did have write and read permissions on them. I tried logging into Gnome and the fonts looked just as bad. I tried logging in as root in both environments and the font looked the same. I tried google'ing some of the errors but all i found was people having issue with X not starting up at all showing those errors. I figured a quick re-install of slack would fix it and it did. Then after changing the fonts in KDE the same issues came up again. Any help would be greatly appreciated !! Also any good website references to how X server works would be wonderful seeing as i have no idea what would be causing this problem! Thanks for your time!

I think this might give the help you need, though it's not exactly what
you asked for -> http://jmccoy.sdf-us.org/slackware10...onts/fonts.php

Thanks for the link, gave me a better understanding of the font system!

Still having issues with it though. It seems pretty random, sometimes everything is fine other times i load kde up and the fonts look small and thin again.
Seems to have now been isolated to one folder and only getting this error:

Could not init font path element /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/local, removing from list!
xset:  bad font path element (#64), possible causes are:
    Directory does not exist or has wrong permissions
    Directory missing fonts.dir
    Incorrect font server address or syntax

i looked in that folder and there where no fonts there at all. Does anyone know if there is supposed to be fonts there?
I'm going to keep working on this. Any additional help would be appreciated!

Thanks for all your help!

You might want to try running the fc-cache command (as root) to re-initialize/re-create your font configuration. It seems that things have become a bit confused somewhere along the way.

Originally posted by FiLiY Thanks for the link, gave me a better understanding of the font system! Still having issues with it though. It seems pretty random, sometimes everything is fine other times i load kde up and the fonts look small and thin again. Seems to have now been isolated to one folder and only getting this error: Could not init font path element /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/local, removing from list! xset: bad font path element (#64), possible causes are: Directory does not exist or has wrong permissions Directory missing fonts.dir Incorrect font server address or syntax i looked in that folder and there where no fonts there at all. Does anyone know if there is supposed to be fonts there? I'm going to keep working on this. Any additional help would be appreciated! Thanks for all your help!

First, have you restarted the x server? I'm assuming you have since you've reloaded KDE.

No fonts in that directory here in Slack-10.0 either. And I did restart the whole box last
night, so my font server is okay - and fwiw it is owned by root on my system. You do
need to run fc-cache if you've added fonts to your system, but either restarting the X
server, or rebooting (which restarts X), will do this for you. Fc-cache creates an index
of FreeType font files in a directory, but if none are given, each directory is scanned for
font files readable by FreeType. Did you notice that
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/local/"
is the first one in your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file? So that directory is scanned when X starts.

Now my uneducated suggestion would be to comment (put # in front of) that line in your
/etc/X11/xorg.conf file and see if the error disappears. It will take much more reading
for me to learn if we need that directory. I'll try the same and only post back if I have
negative results.

Another mention is I use Fluxbox, not KDE, so you can be having some specific KDE bug
or error that I wouldn't detect running Flux.

I've read his entire font article (which is very good), but have not gotten as far as actually
changing files - because there are parts of his instructions that are incorrect. This is typical
in my experience with open source documentation. I have been guilty of following instructions
quite verbosely and hosing my system - the last instance being with fcitx.

Therefore, I am reading his article and thoroughly checking my system at the same time. For
example, he says on the Slackware | Notes page: "Below are notes on using Slackware 10."
Then on the Slackware | Font Configuration page: "load "freetype" in the modules section of
/etc/X11/XF86Config" but if you'll check Slack-10.0 ->
mingdao@paul:~$ cat /etc/X11/XF86Config
cat: /etc/X11/XF86Config: No such file or directory
The correct file is "/etc/X11/xorg.conf"

You should also Google those three messages and read what you find. This is what I believe:
Directory does not exist or has wrong permissions <- it exists and permissions are for root
Directory missing fonts.dir <- it does not have this file, so this could be it
Incorrect font server address or syntax <- not sure how to check it, but...
mingdao@paul:~$ which xfs
/usr/X11R6/bin/xfs

EDIT: Commenting FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/local/"
out of /etc/X11/xorg.conf seems to have no effect whatsoever on my box.

Originally posted by Chinaman I've read his entire font article (which is very good), but have not gotten as far as actually changing files - because there are parts of his instructions that are incorrect. This is typical in my experience with open source documentation. I have been guilty of following instructions quite verbosely and hosing my system - the last instance being with fcitx

Did you write to the author and note areas that need correcting? People can't change unless someone tells them that they're wrong in the first place.

Originally posted by motub Did you write to the author and note areas that need correcting? People can't change unless someone tells them that they're wrong in the first place.

Not yet. As we've discussed, "haste makes waste." My fonts weren't the
first priority at the moment. I am reading it, and following his entire posts
about Slackware fonts, and after I've d/led the new stuff, and decided which
route I want to take, then I'll actually "execute a plan" and afterwards, not
only write him about discrepancies, but also discuss my experiences. It is
quite good, and simple to read, information. Thanks for the link!

His site is not the norm for us, especially where he states the following:
"If anything is incorrect or if you know of a better way of doing something,
please email me and let me know." First time I've read anything like that.
What I typically read is this, "Please note that I'm not interested in problems
caused by your distribution being different from mine." or "NOTE: I write the
document to help novices. However, if it didn't, that's your problem, not mime!
Don't complain that I WASTE your time, because nobody has to answer your
questions, and nobody has to write documents to help you! You have been warned."

While those statements are true, they defy the spirit of community that is
what has launched Linux to where it is today.

Could not init font path element /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/local, removing from list!

THis is normal and is not an error after a fresh install. In the future, you may want to add some fonts. A great place to do that would be /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/local. For now, though, there is nothing there. That's all this message is trying to tell you. You can comment out the line in /etc/xorg.conf if you like, but I'd leave it. Then you won't have to remember to unciomment it when you add your own fonts later.

Is your only problem, then, the ugly fonts in KDE. Try enabling anti-aliased fonts (in the KDE control panel, I think). THat will make your fonts look pretty.

Thanks for all your help guys, I do have a better understanding of how the font system works now!
After trying a couple things i think i finally figured out what is going on.
I first made new install cd's because i noticed that the slack 10 cd's i used to install were pretty scratched.
After the install i only got that one error about the /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/local dir. which as shilo said is normal
after a fresh install because there are no fonts there, which makes sense. If i comment out that line in xorg.conf
the error goes away. The fonts still screw up in kde in though when i change the font size then log out of kde and log back in.
It seems that it sets them 1 or 2 font size smaller then what i set it to. This is only happening randomly too and if the fonts
screw up i can just log out then log back in and they go back to the size i set them too. This is isolated to only KDE
now as it was happening in GNOME as well. This is happening with anti-aliasing on or off as well. Just seems to be a glitch
in KDE and is pretty random and doesn't happen very much at all. Again thanks for all your help