After years of Dropline Gnome I am trying to break free and switch to Freerock 2.12.1 on my main workstation (Slack 10,2). All has gone well on my fresh install until I needed to add a full set of useful fonts. I decided it would be simple to just copy all the contents of my existing Dropline /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts directory over to replace my Freerock /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts and then run fontconfig.

Tried to re-configure all the font links by using
#/usr/X11R6/bin/fc-cache
#/usr/X11R6/bin/mkfontscale
#/usr/X11R6/bin/mkfontdir
but nothing I do seems to re-write the /etc/fonts/fonts.conf or fonts.dtd files and I never see the new fonts. I do reboot after changes.

Thought I better seek some sage font advice to see if I am on the wrong track here. Is there someplace I can point Gslapt to get MS ttfonts and other expanded font packages that will install clean in Freerock?

I have been very happy with Dropline fonts and rendering - the main reason I used them so long. However, since I upgraded my hardware last Fall (AMD64) Dropline has become less reliable.

Any suggestions would be most appreciated.
Thanks, happyg

Did you try the xorg.conf ?

No, I did not even think about xorg.conf and saw no mention on the various font instruction web sites. I am assuming that some font config utility writes all the necessary links and updates config files. I am hesitant to start making manual modifications when I know fonts are linked to bits and pieces all over.

So, is a simple xorg.conf edit my 'magic bullet' that makes everything work?

Thanks, happyg

You had the commands right, you just need to tell them where the stuff is.

mkfontscale /path/to/fonts
mkfontdir /path/to/fonts
fc-cache

You can put your fonts anywhere you want, run those commands, and then make sure that you add that path to the "Section Files" section of your xorg.conf. Here is what mine looks like:

Section "Files"

RgbPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/rgb"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/local/"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc/"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi/:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Type1/"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Speedo/"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi/"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/myfonts/"
ModulePath "/usr/X11R6/lib/modules"

EndSection
(I bolded my addition)

[EDIT]Did you try out the 64 bit version of Dropline? Of course you would need to be running SLAMD 64 as well. Just wondering[/EDIT]

HTH,
MMYoung

That worked great - thanks, just what I needed. I was doing the commands in the wrong order... My xorg.conf file is also a copy from my dropline partition - monitor, mouse, resolution, fonts, Slack 10.2 - all the same.

So, in review, I copied my entire dropline fonts directory replacing the freerock fonts directory, copied my dropline xorg.conf into freerock, ran the three commands (mkfontscale, mkfontdir, fc-cache) and I now have all those fonts I need.

slamd64 reply: I've been watching slamd64 and reading the dropline forum posts. Kinda waiting for things to mature a bit. I'm really busy working on a book right now - 14 hr days. Been thinking about adding a second hard drive to play with slamd64 load on hdb someday.

Thanks for the help, am really glad to find a simple way to 'upgrade' fonts.

happyg

Glad to help and glad it worked for you. I have a CD of all my extra Windows fonts that I copy into my /usr/share/fonts/myfonts directory so I can use all my fancy fonts with Linux as well.

Later,
MMYoung

Well, you did it! I started downloading the slamd64 iso's while working - heanet is fast today! Found a 40GB Maxtor on the shelf. Will probably be spending all day Sunday on my x86_64 learning curve.

I'll try Diffie's dlg64 and see how far I get. Thanks for the nudge ;-)

happyg
_________________________
"Even a slight hint of slamd64 can make the mightest Slack nut go crazy"
(scrambled paraphrase)