X won't load fonts

Xorg.0.log:

Could not init font path element /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/TTF/, removing from list! Could not init font path element /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Speedo/, removing from list! Could not init font path element /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Type1/, removing from list! Could not init font path element /usr/local/share/fonts/truetype, removing from list!

as you can see, it won't read some of the default directories, or the one i made in /usr/local/share/fonts. the fonts are not available to my applications. does anyone have any idea of what might be going on? fresh slack 10 install, xorg 6.7. thx.

Your /tmp directory might be full

I don't know if this is the reason, but it could be, especially if you are like me and always filling up your drive with interesting downloads.

Otherwise have a look in /var/log/X* to see if the path is okay.

Try removing your .xinitrc file from home directory and start x again. Did you install yahoo messenger rpm or other corrupted rpm after installation.

check XF86Config. to use these fonts modules freetype, speedo and type1 should be loaded :
Section
...
Load "freetype"
Load "type1"
Load "speedo"
...
EndSection

thanks for the suggestions, i checked all of them but no success. it's a fresh install, so the /tmp directory was okay, and i think it's emptied on every reboot anyway. no rpm installs. i took everything out of .xinitrc except exec fluxbox, then i deleted .xinitrc altogether, neither of those worked. and all those modules are loading in xorg.conf.

i noticed there was an entry in xorg.conf for /usr/share/fonts/ms that wasn't getting the "can't init, removed from list" error. i checked and there was no ms directory there, so i made one, copied in some ttf fonts, added /usr/share/fonts to /etc/fonts/local.conf, ran fc-cache -f, and restarted X, and then that was "removed from list," too.

wtf? all the directory and font permissions are exactly the same as for the directories that are getting loaded.

What's the "-f" option for? I didn't think fc-cache used any options beyond directory names, so maybe it's failing to create a font index and therefore X is not seeing any fonts.

The only time i've seen that message is when there are no fonts in the specified directory.

Originally posted by mikshaw What's the "-f" option for? I didn't think fc-cache used any options beyond directory names, so maybe it's failing to create a font index and therefore X is not seeing any fonts. The only time i've seen that message is when there are no fonts in the specified directory.

-f means to force the scan.

  -f, --force          scan directories with apparently valid caches

i guess it's reading the fonts as invalid/corrupted for some reason. ? i redid mkfontdir and mkfontscale a few times, didn't work. i'll try it later with fresh bitstream fonts, see if that fixes it.

Is there a file named fonts.dir in the directory? I think X needs this to successfully load a font directory.

It should contain the filenames of the fonts in that directory together with a description conataining lots of -dashes-. You can create this using mkfontdir (should be included in the X distribution).

Debian has also a tool called update-fonts-dir to facilitate this (and a central font registry called defoma that I still don't grok)

yes, i redid the mkfontdir and mkfontscale a number of times without success. getting new fonts also didn't help.

anyone? it's really sucky not being able to add new fonts. (edit: fixed network problem)

one last bump.

check your fonts.dir file ,the content is right?