xlsfonts is dependant on DISPLAY setting not working on one display with Redhat
 

I have a series of servers but on one of these the fonts do not function
for many applications. For example the printtool "add printer" dialog
displays but with no text and I get a series of messages saying no
valid font can be found.

Upon investigation I have found the following:
xlsfonts *

will list many fonts on my working system but does not list any on
the problem system, instead I get:
xlsfonts: pattern "*" unmatched

I have checked the config for fonts server with the following command:
xset q

It returns as expected:
Font Path:
unix/:7100

I check the fonts server process was running and had not died
and the /tmp directory had the 1777 chmod root:root ownership
required. The checked the stream file device had been created:
/tmp/.font-unix/fs7100

I then checked that the font server was listening:
netstat -a | grep 7100

On the broken server:
unix 2 [ ACC ] STREAM LISTENING 148423135 /tmp/.font-unix/fs7100

On a working Server:
unix 2 [ ACC ] STREAM LISTENING 1609 /tmp/.font-unix/fs7100
unix 3 [ ] STREAM CONNECTED 5077 /tmp/.font-unix/fs7100

I then tried adding the full font paths explicitly but this didnt do anything:
xset -fp /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc:unscaled,/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi:
unscaled,/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi:unscaled,/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc,
/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Type1,/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Speedo,
/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/cyrillic,/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/CID,
/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/local,/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/latin2/Type1,
/usr/share/fonts/default/TrueType,/usr/share/fonts/default/Type1,
/usr/share/AbiSuite/fonts,/usr/share/fonts/ja/TrueType
xset: warning, no entries deleted from font path.


Now if is set my DISPLAY setting to the working server on the broken
server the fonts suddenly work!!! So I try xhost + on the broken server
but it does no good.

I have also tried bouncing the server and the fonts server.

At the moment I have the broken server pointing at a working
servers DISPLAY as a work around. This isnt very satisfactory.

Please help becuase its driving me crazy, Im just a DBA without any
Linux Admin guys!

It was broken when I turned up so I dont know if it has ever worked.


Highest Regards,

Iain Sear