Quoting Bob Rowe ([EMAIL PROTECTED]): > I had the problem quoted below on the 430CDT after the base installation. I > tried the apt-get statement cited in this email response--apt said the > task-x-window-system-core was installed. I did apt-cache show to see if > there were fixed fonts of any description on the machine and there were > not. I also did a find with the same result. So I did apt-get update, then > tried apt-cache show again. Nothing. I tried apt-get search xfonts* and > still came up with nothing. Nichego. Nada.
A lot of these general error messages from X can be quite misleading, as they describe symptoms, not causes. > Today or tomorrow I will try RH7. That one, RH7, installed without a hitch > on my home machine. Why is that? Why should one distribution install and > another one will not? I presented my problems to this list and got some > well-thought-out responses, but they didn't help. Unfortunately it seems common for people to select their distribution on the basis that it happens to install hitch-free; not the best in my opinion. > > >in my trying to apt all the right files for my laptop to run x, i seem to > > >have missed somthing. > > > > > >when i attemt to run x... > > > > > >"Fatal Server error: > > >could not open default font 'fixed'" > > > > > >what does this mean, and what do i need to do to fix it? > > > >It means you've neglected to install a necessary font package. The > >simplest solution may be to 'apt-get install task-x-window-system-core' > >which *should* pull in everything you need. You can get this error message even with all your font packages installed perfectly; for example, with a faulty XF86Config file. The critical font package is xfonts-base, and IIRC the critical files are in /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc/. In this directory, fonts.alias should contain the line fixed -misc-fixed-medium-r-semicondensed--13-120-75-75-c-60-iso8859-1 and this should correspond to fonts.dir's line 6x13.pcf.gz -misc-fixed-medium-r-semicondensed--13-120-75-75-c-60-iso8859-1 which should in turn mean that an entry -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4232 Jul 3 2000 /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc/6x13.pcf.gz exists in that directory. If you have no xfs daemon running, and no lines like FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc/" in /etc/X11/XF86Config, then the X server should run, with a warning that it is using the compiled-in default fontpaths (and you can read the X server's messages more easily by starting X with a line like /usr/bin/X11/startx 2>$HOME/.startx.stderr). If you now make sure that XF86Config contains AT LEAST the FontPath line above (again assuming you're not running a font server), then the X server should find a fixed font. Cheers, -- Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Tel: +44 1908 653 739 Fax: +44 1908 655 151 Snail: David Wright, Earth Science Dept., Milton Keynes, England, MK7 6AA Disclaimer: These addresses are only for reaching me, and do not signify official stationery. Views expressed here are either my own or plagiarised.