After installing a few font packages, my situation is improved with respect to this bug, though it is not fixed. Weirdly enough - after I purged all of the font packages I just installed, nothing changed.
I installed exactly the following packages: t1-xfree86-nonfree ttf-larabie-deco ttf-larabie-straight ttf-larabie-uncommon ttf-sjfonts ttf-xfree86-nonfree xfonts-efont-unicode xfonts-efont-unicode-ib bitmap-mule xfonts-bitmap-mule mule-ucs Now the situation is as follows: - I no longer get the "Warning" message when I start emacs. - Some, but not all, of the text is visible on the initial splash screens of emacs (before, nothing was visible except the graphic). - Regular buffers do not work until I change the frame font, as before. - Using the mouse set font command, all fonts now work except Default. - Using the set-frame-font function, all fonts that I have tried now work. - After changing the frame font, "Customize Emacs" now works. - When I put a set-frame-font command in my startup files in /etc/emacs21, all of the text in the splash screens is now visible. - Pop-up "tool tip" baloons still do not work, even after setting the font. As mentioned above, this situation remains even after I purged (not just deleted) the font packages that I installed. I did not revert to the worse situation described in my previous post. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]