slackware 10: fonts suck

synaptical · 06-28-2004, 11:13 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by gargamel
So what about trying the non-FB xorg.conf with 1024x768? Do the fonts look as good as with the frame buffer configuration file?

i didn't write down the errors from the non-FB (i assume you mean the xorg.conf-vesa?), but they were similar to fbdev. maybe this will help:

with xorg.conf-fbdev at DefaultDepth 16 or 24, i get kicked back to the console with:

(EE) FBDEV(0): FB IOPUT_VSCREEN INFO: Invalid Argument
(EE) FBDEV(0): Mode init failed

at the default 8 bit, it starts as i said, but i was mistaken about the fonts. i think they just seemed to look better because the resolution was bigger making the fonts look "fatter." but when i looked at them more closely this time, they look the same spindly as they do normally, only bigger.

iirc, with xorg.conf-vesa, i get similar errors that i didn't write down, e.g., (EE) VESA(0): etc. no matter what depth or resolution. so that is confusing, to me at least.

p.s. ran fc-cache -f about a zillion times. i haven't even installed any fonts yet, i'm still trying to get the stock ones to work. one thing at a time, this is hard enough!

coffeedrinker · 06-28-2004, 03:44 PM

I know I said this before but please at least try this. I had the same problem on my wife's computer with ugly fonts. My laptop is fine. It was not enough to use freetype. You have only said you ran fc-cache. I don't believe that is sufficient to rebuid the font metrics. You are still using the ugly ones even though you have the new software. This is what cleared things up for me.

#! /bin/sh

/usr/X11R6/bin/mkfontscale /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/TTF/
/usr/X11R6/bin/mkfontdir /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/TTF/
/usr/X11R6/bin/mkfontdir -e /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/encodings
/usr/X11/bin/fc-cache

synaptical · 06-28-2004, 04:33 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by coffeedrinker
I know I said this before but please at least try this. I had the same problem on my wife's computer with ugly fonts. My laptop is fine. It was not enough to use freetype. You have only said you ran fc-cache. I don't believe that is sufficient to rebuid the font metrics. You are still using the ugly ones even though you have the new software. This is what cleared things up for me.

#! /bin/sh

/usr/X11R6/bin/mkfontscale /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/TTF/
/usr/X11R6/bin/mkfontdir /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/TTF/
/usr/X11R6/bin/mkfontdir -e /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/encodings
/usr/X11/bin/fc-cache

i should have specified that i followed that shortly after you posted it, apologies. i'm not sure i did it right, though, maybe that's the problem. what i did is copy that text into a file, named it "freetype.scr", and then chmod +x freetype.scr. then i typed ./freetype.scr, and it seemed to execute, but no change.

appreciate the suggestion, though -- i might even try it again as at least it didn't seem to break anything.

i have the system up and running, at least, and slack 10 is really a joy, but unless i did the freetype script wrong, i think i need to install the Ati drivers and see if that works. unless anyone else has any ideas, i don't know what else to try at this point.

appreciate

synaptical · 06-29-2004, 10:13 PM

update
no luck yet trying everything in the book.

i installed slack10 on my laptop and it looked pretty good, but i couldn't get it into 1400x1050 resolution to really check it out properly.

i'm starting to wonder if this might not be more of a hardware problem. i keep getting these two errors in the log when i start X:

Code:

(WW) RADEON(0): Failed to set up write-combining range (0xe0000000,0x4000000)

and:

Code:

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

i've searched for the first one so far, but i haven't found anything that helps. i recompiled the kernel with a few different configurations, but none fixed the problem and a few messed up my console fonts.

for the second, i checked and i do have a CID directory. i changed the permissions for the user just to make sure, and i even added some fonts in there to give it something to do.

i was getting that message with /fonts/local, too, but now i am not for some reason.

i've tried compiling the radeon drivers, but i'm getting all kinds of error messages. i'll have to sort that out as a separate issue. something is weird, b/c i patched them and afaik i have all my kernel options set correctly (the same as last time i installed the drivers on 2.4.x, at least).

i have an old matrox card that was causing lockups in windows, but maybe that was a windows problem. it doesn't have DVI, but i guess i could try hooking it up with a new kernel and running non-digital just to see what it looks like.

any other ideas?

appreciate.

flieslikeabeagl · 10-15-2004, 02:30 PM

synaptical, I can see you're pretty frustrated. I would be too, in your situation. A suggestion: if you decide to go to Debian, you might try downloading the SimplyMepis Live CD iso, burning it to CD, and doing a hard-disk install. It's very quick and painless, and leaves you with a beautifully configured Debian system, with the full power of apt-get waiting for you to add any packages you might desire from the Debian repositories. When I tried it, it automagically used the Nvidia drivers for my Geforce FX5200, and included beautiful antialiased fonts and niceties like browser plugins already installed and configured. Installation is one of the quickest and simplest I have seen from any Linux distro.

Try http://distrowatch.com/index.php?dis...h=all&year=all for info on Mepis, or go straight to http://www.mepis.org

Good luck!
-Flieslikeabeagle