Debian + Gnome 2.4 + Fonts not working.
 

Hey can someone help me? I just got Debian installed with knoppix and then used apt-get to install gnome 2.4 which I love. However, I can change all the font settings EXCEPT the window title font. It's set at Serif 10 and is grayed out I can't change it. It's so big and ugly I can't stand it, can anyone help?

This is exactly what I am going through. I just switched from red hat to debian and got done installing gnome 2.4 and am noticing the same thing.

Make sure you install all the true type fonts and also the package xfs-xtt

Here's the font portion from my XF86Config-4
Section "Files"
RgbPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/rgb"
FontPath "unix/:7110" # local font server
# if the local font server has problems, we can fall back on these
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/truetype"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/TrueType"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/CID"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/Speedo"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/misc"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/cyrillic"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/Type1"
EndSection

Did you actually get yours fixed yet by using those lines in the config file or does it still not work? The default font is so ugly and big I'm about to format if this doesn't work!

Yes, everything looks great except for xmms (still has big fonts in that menu) and VMWare's font seems a bit big on the menu. I'm not sure if they were this size or not when i was using red hat, so my eyes may just be fooling me.

Other than that, the desktop and all other gtk apps seem perfect!

Hi I tried pounding out the old stuff and putting what you have but it doesn't work. I've installed microsoft true type fonts and then that package you said. Heres my fonts section:

Section "Files"
RgbPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/rgb"
FontPath "unix/:7110" #local font server
ModulePath "/usr/X11R6/lib/modules"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Speedo"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/PEX"
# Additional fonts: Locale, Gimp, TTF...
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/cyrillic"
# FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/latin2/75dpi"
# FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/latin2/100dpi"
# True type and type1 fonts are also handled via xftlib, see /etc/X11/XftConfig!
# FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Type1"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/TrueType"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/CID"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/Speedo"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/misc"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/cyrillic"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/Type1"
# FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/ttf/western"
# FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/ttf/decoratives"
# FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/truetype"
# FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/truetype/openoffice"
# FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/truetype/ttf-bitstream-vera"
# FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/latex-ttf-fonts"
# FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/defoma/CID"
# FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/defoma/TrueType"
EndSection

Actually you can ignore what I just wrote, I erased everything from my files section and put exactly what yours has and the window title font is still grayed out. I haven't rebooted or anything just restarted the X server. I must be missing some package or something?

Do you have xfs-xtt installed and running? It is the true type font daemon.

Also, the order in which they are listed shows the priority that they are used. Move the true type fonts to the top of the list and put the 100dpi ones second to last followed by the 75dpi ones.

I moved them to the top still no go. I installed xfs-xtt using apt-get install xfs-xtt but I don't know if it's running. How do I get it to run?

It should have automatically started running after installation. You can make sure by just doing an /etc/init.d/xfs-xtt start as root.

Basically I just did an apt-cache search font | grep [Tt]rue to find all the true typefonts I could, then installed them (except the foreign language ones, as I haven't had a use for them, yet).

So basically:

fonttools
gfontview
libgltt2c102
libttf2
ttf-freefont
ttmkfdir
xfs-xtt
xfstt
msttcorefonts
gfontview
xfonts-scalable
libgltt2

Also, you did go into your fonts preferences on the gnome menu and see if maybe it wasn't just set to something crazy, right?

Something crazy like what? I've been clicking applications on the top left corner, then going to desktop preferences and then fonts. And under window title it's set as sans 10 and is grayed out I can't change it.

Okay, I should have paid better attention to what you were saying.

By default gnome 2.4 doesn't allow you to edit this. I'm not sure why.

Open gconf-editor and go to apps -> nautilus -> preferences

Look for a key that references not being able to change the font.

There is a way to enable the option. I beleive the settings are overridden by the theme you choose, so unless it specifies something about the desktop font, nautilus assumes that means it doesn't want you changing the font or something like that.

Found it.

It's under apps -> metacity -> general.

Uncheck the box labelled "titlebar uses system font".