[vox-tech] Robin Snyder's problems configuring X4 on workstation

[Peter Jay Salzman]

begin Robin Snyder <resnyder@ucdavis.edu> 


> First, fonts.  I think X can't find some fonts, which means that I'm
> forced to use microscopic fonts.  I believe this because startx gives me
> the error message
> 
> Could not init font path element /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Speedo/,
> removing from list!
 
this is a very non-fatal message.  i don't even know what speedo fonts
are; you can safely ignore this message.   my log says the same thing,
and i'm happy with my font situation.

if you have microscopic fonts, i suspect the real culprit is your screen
resolution.  anyone can set a monitor to 1600x1200, but if your
monitor has a diagonal length of 15", you ain't gonna see much no matter
what font you use.

i could be wrong, but i suspect you're using a resolution that just
unrealistic for the monitor size.   do a:

dpkg -l "*font*" | grep -v description

and see what's installed.  here's what i have installed:

ii  fonter         1.7-8          Interactive font editor for the console
ii  fonty          1.0-12         Fonts on Linux console.
ii  fonty-dev      1.0-12         Tools for developing fonts on Linux console.
ii  freefont       0.10-11        Freeware font selection for X11
ii  gfontview      0.5.0-0.2      A font viewer for Type 1 and TrueType fonts
ii  gsfonts        6.0-2          Fonts for the ghostscript interpreter
ii  gsfonts-other  6.0-3          Additional fonts for the ghostscript interpr
ii  gsfonts-x11    0.16           Make Ghostscript fonts available to X11.
ii  msttcorefonts  1.0.1          Installer for Microsoft TrueType core fonts
ii  psfontmgr      0.11.1         PostScript font manager -- part of Defoma, D
ii  sharefont      0.10-12        Shareware font selection for X11
ii  unifont        1.0-1          X11 dual-width GNU unicode font
ii  x-ttcidfont-co 13             Configure TrueType and CID fonts for X.
ii  xfonts-100dpi  4.1.0-17       100 dpi fonts for X
ii  xfonts-75dpi   4.1.0-17       75 dpi fonts for X
ii  xfonts-abi     1.0.2+cvs.2002 Some fonts shipped with AbiWord
ii  xfonts-base    4.1.0-17       standard fonts for X
ii  xfonts-gimpers 1.8            X11 fonts created by Artwiz, TigerT, and Dan
ii  xfonts-greek-p 1.1-5.1        a rich collection of X11 Greek fonts
ii  xfonts-greek-p 1.1-5.1        a rich collection of X11 Greek fonts
ii  xfonts-greek-p 1.1-5.1        a rich collection of X11 Greek fonts
ii  xfonts-greek-p 1.1-5.1        a rich collection of X11 Greek fonts
ii  xfonts-pex     4.1.0-17       fonts for minimal PEX support in X
ii  xfonts-scalabl 4.1.0-17       scalable fonts for X

install the ones you don't already have installed.

> (I think it complains about another font as well--I forget which.)  I have
> checked and Speedo is where it is supposed to be.
 
this can be fixed with mkfontdir, update-font-dir or something like
that.  i forget.  you should be able to google for this problem pretty
easily.

or perhaps someone here knows font stuff on debian?  i'm pretty clueless
on the topic.

> I have no idea what's up with netscape, although my instinct tells me that
> this problem may have more to do with netscape than with my configuration.
 
uninstall netscape immediately.  there's no good reason i can think of
to have netscape at all.

get yourself a real browser like the non-free opera (www.opera.com) or
mozilla (apt-get install mozilla).


answer the rest later.

pete