When upgrading from Sarge to Etch, and XFree86 to Xorg 7, many of us wind up with font problems. Has anyone written a reliable, easy to follow font Howto for Xorg 7?

I have a fresh install of etch but I have a problem of that sort too.

I cant run base-config either.

I get several versions of "(WW) `fonts.dir' not found (or not valid) in "/usr/share/fonts/truetype/ttf-bitstream-vera".
Entry deleted from font path."

and several more of "Could not init font path element /var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/CID"

As well, fonts which I used to have are no longer available, even though they look to be there.

Your problem is different, you have a localisation problem.

and select the ones you're interested

I have been through that Wiki, including the last step, without success. There's some legasy instructions hanging around in my machine.

Ok
What do you mean by legasy instructions hanging around?

Try this and restart X window:

Maybe these directories don't exist on your system?
Try this:

This install started out as Libranet 2.8.0 several years ago. I've done my apt-get upgrades many times. I can't find any Libranet at this point, but who can guess what links are left behind.


If they don't exist, why is it looking?

I thought that last instruction would work, but here's what I got:

What exactly are your problems? Because these messages are warnings! I also have one or two of these and have no problem whatsoever.Anyway.

Because its in your xorg configuration file

1)For /usr/share/fonts/truetype/ , have a look there:
http://packages.debian.org/cgi-bin/s...sting&arch=all
you should download for example the package ttf-bitstream-vera

2)
On testing, the package I adviced you doesn't contain the file:
http://packages.debian.org/cgi-bin/s...sting&arch=all
While it does on unstable:
http://packages.debian.org/cgi-bin/s...table&arch=all
So no real clue for this one, I'm using unstable.

3)
Remove all references to /usr/share/fonts/X11/ in xorg.conf

Other solution:
Have a look at your xorg configuration file, there could be some advice on the first line on how to reconfigure xorg.
You seem to have the configuration file of unstable on an etch system.

The reason I got into this is that my aterm was coming up all boxes because the fonts didn't work. I found a font that works, but figured that I would try to straighten out the mess.

I thought that xorg 7 used /usr/share/fonts/X11/.

My xorg.conf is actually XFree86.conf. For some reason, when I did the upgrade, it just renamed the old config.

And you are right . (hence the fonts.dir inside for X11) Sorry for the wrong advice. Remove only the reference to the three lines you mentionned
Humm I think the difference is only on the font directories, before they were using /usr/X11R6 I think.
So do it yourself or use the automatic reconfigure tool:
dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg

Thankyou for your replies.

I think the xorg96 to 7 Wiki is incomplete. Judging from my Google responses, there are frequent problems with fonts when migrating up. As usual, the documentation is lagging behind the changes. I'm trying to sort mine out now partly because I like a clean install and partly because future upgrades will build upon what I have.

You can use dselect to reinstall the fonts. The problem is the soft links get lost, and xorg 7 doesn't keep track of these and put them back properly. So, you have to reinstall the fonts and xorg itself after you upgrade to etch. It's really not that hard. In dselect you hit / to search and \ to repeat search.

Hey, it's working better. My aterm can use my fonts again. One of the tips above (I'm not sure which one) has enabled mkfontscale and mkfontdir to do what they are supposed to. Thanks all for the help.