[ILUG] Re: x font issue....

[kevin lyda]

www.linux.ie people might want to slap this up as a "fun with fonts on
redhat 6.0" type tutorial.  the last time someone did that they didn't
take credit for the grunt work of htmlizing it.  that's not fair, so
speak up this time.  something along the lines of "htmlized by
paddy apache for that lazy git of an author kevin lyda" would seem
reasonable...

every time i say redhat, i mean redhat 6.0.  older versions of redhat
didn't use a font server by default.

ok, if you run gimp on a redhat system, and you do one of the logo
script-fu's you'll no doubt get a warning: can't find font.

bummer.

so, if you do an rpm -qi gimp you'll find that it lists where to get them.
the relevant lines being:

    Get ftp://ftp.gimp.org/pub/gimp/fonts/freefonts-0.10.tar.gz and
    ftp://ftp.gimp.org/pub/gimp/fonts/sharefonts-0.10.tar.gz if you are
    so inclined.  Alternatively, choose fonts which exist on your system
    before running the scripts.

you can ignore the last bit - normal x fonts just aren't as fun.  :)
snarf the files and then in /usr/lib/X11/fonts do the following as
root:

# tar zxf /path/snarfed/to/freefonts-0.10.tar.gz
# tar zxf sharefonts-0.10.tar.gz

now, *leave the untarred dirs alone*!!!  don't be a moron and delete
the fonts.dir files - mkfontdir won't make it again.  not that i'm
bitter.

there's a chkfontpath utility on redhat systems, butbefriend your
friendly neighborhood text editor with a visit to /etc/X11/fs/config.
this is the x font server config file for those of you who think the
file name is too cryptic.  (you're wrong by the way, but i digress)
just add the /usr/lib/X11/fonts/freefont and the other one to
the file (it's the catalogue section with all the comma delimitted
directories, this isn't rocket science).

still as root you'll need to restart the x font server.  on a redhat
you would type:

# /etc/rc.d/init.d/xfs restart

now you're done.  but if you want some truetype fonts, read on!
(no, i never sold ginsu knives for a living, why do you ask?)

go download the xfstt-0.9.99-2.i386.rpm package from rcontrib.redhat.com
(or a mirror since it's always full).  install it.  if you're running
x you'll need to do this after starting the xfstt server:

% xset fp+ inet/127.0.0.1:7101
% xset fp rehash

but it should work automatically from then on since it gets added to your
XF86Config file.

toss all your .ttf files into /usr/share/fonts/truetype.  stop and start
the server with:

# /etc/rc.d/init.d/xfstt stop
# /etc/rc.d/init.d/xfstt start

and then refresh your x server with:

xset fp rehash

and you're golden.  remember, it's free software, version numbers
change.  you might be able to cut and paste package names out of
this, but you might not.

kevin