Unable to load any usable iso8859 font
I typically update my Cygwin installations about once a month, and rarely run into any difficulties. However, this morning after updating I could no longer start any X applications due to some apparent font problems. Please note that I successfully installed the *new* Cygwin/X a couple of months ago, and previously resolved some of the seemingly more common font problems (like "boxes" showing up in emacs). This time, I was getting "Unable to load any usable iso8859 font" errors anytime I'd try to start xterm. I searched the FAQs and the web, but was unable to find any suggestions that led to a solution. At one point, while trying to fix the problem, I also got the "could not open default font 'fixed'" error, but none of the solutions listed in the FAQ were applicable (either the problem described was obviously not a match, or the solution, like re-installing all fonts, had already been tried). As a last resort, I used the Cygwin setup log to figure out which packages had been updated, and rolled them all back to the versions I was previously using. Now my X applications are working fine again, so something in one of the updated packages definitely triggered this problem. Incidentally, the only unusual messages in XWin.0.log were the typical "Could not init font path element" warnings that I always get (for /usr/share/fonts//TTF, /usr/share/fonts/OTF, and /usr/share/fonts/Type1). Sorry, I failed to save a copy of the XWin.0.log when I was having these problems. Although, I don't know if it would have been any help, because the X server itself seemed to be starting fine. Here is the list of packages that I updated to this morning (taken from the Cygwin setup log): compface/compface-1.5.2-1.tar.bz2 libapr1/libapr1-1.3.3-3.tar.bz2 nas/libaudio2/libaudio2-1.9.1-2.tar.bz2 X11/freetype2/libfreetype-devel/libfreetype-devel-2.3.8-1.tar.bz2 X11/freetype2/libfreetype2-devel/libfreetype2-devel-2.3.8-1.tar.bz2 X11/freetype2/libfreetype26/libfreetype26-2.3.8-1.tar.bz2 X11/freetype2/libfreetype6/libfreetype6-2.3.8-1.tar.bz2 gmp/libgmp3/libgmp3-4.2.4-1.tar.bz2 X.Org/libX11/libX11-devel/libX11-devel-1.1.5-2.tar.bz2 X.Org/libX11/libX11_6/libX11_6-1.1.5-2.tar.bz2 util-linux/util-linux-2.14.1-1.tar.bz2 xemacs/xemacs-21.4.22-1.tar.bz2 xemacs/xemacs-emacs-common/xemacs-emacs-common-21.4.22-1.tar.bz2 X.Org/xinit/xinit-1.1.1-1.tar.bz2 X.Org/xorg-server/xorg-server-1.5.3-5.tar.bz2 X11/xterm/xterm-238-1.tar.bz2 _update-info-dir/_update-info-dir-00796-1.tar.bz2 -- Unsubscribe info: http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple Problem reports: http://cygwin.com/problems.html Documentation: http://x.cygwin.com/docs/ FAQ: http://x.cygwin.com/docs/faq/
Unable to load any usable ISO8859 font
I have installed the latest version of Cygwin + X11 under Longhorn/Vista Ver 6.0 Build 6001 Service Pack 1, running under WOW64 on AMD64. Cygcheck says that "Longhorn/Vista (not yet supported!)" but things seem to work, so far. I have downloaded the lot today, Feb 18, 2009, and the version numbers on X11 are: xorg-cf-files 1.0.2-7 xorg-docs 1.4-1 xorg-scripts 1.0.1-1 xorg-server 1.5.3-6 xorg-sgml-doctools 1.2-1 xorg-util-macros 1.2.1-1 xorg-x11-base 7.4-1 xorg-x11-bin-dlls 7.4-1 The installation and post-install all went smoothly, but on trying to start X11, xterm, as invoked by startxwin.sh, would say "Unable to load any usable ISO8859 font" and exit. X11 would run though and xterm -fn fixed would come up just fine, sic. I have eventually tracked the problem to... there not being any fonts.dir files in the /usr/share/fonts subdirectories. After I had made these manually with mkfontdir the problem went away. Looks like a bug in post-install. But... I did not have this problem on XP, on which I had installed Cygwin and X11 yesterday only. So, it seems to be Vista specific. Another Vista post-install difference: there are no X11 entries in the start menu. Happy hacking all, Zdzislaw Meglicki, OVPIT, Indiana University -- Unsubscribe info: http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple Problem reports: http://cygwin.com/problems.html Documentation: http://x.cygwin.com/docs/ FAQ: http://x.cygwin.com/docs/faq/
Re: Unable to load any usable iso8859 font
Dan Moulding wrote: > > I typically update my Cygwin installations about once a month, and > rarely run into any difficulties. However, this morning after updating > I could no longer start any X applications due to some apparent font > problems. Please note that I successfully installed the *new* Cygwin/X > a couple of months ago, and previously resolved some of the seemingly > more common font problems (like "boxes" showing up in emacs). > > This time, I was getting "Unable to load any usable iso8859 font" > errors anytime I'd try to start xterm. > I was getting exactly the same problem after updating today. Some googling found this post: http://gaoithe.livejournal.com/19556.html Which suggested that it could be fixed by updating some packages like fonts which are not currently automatically updated by setup.exe. After some time spent reading the information linked to by that post, I still couldn't work out exactly what packages were missing. So I just ticked to update every single thing under X11, and ran it. Walnut... sledgehammer... worked. Can I plead for developers, please please don't make setup.exe broken? I am sure there are many many users like me who don't expect to have to be monitoring some random mailing lists in order to work out what else you need to do when running setup.exe with default options. Fine, if you make a mistake with dependencies. But I think there must be a lot of other people out there like me who are tech savvy enough to need cygwin but not tech savvy enough for it to be a walk in the park when this happens, so surely it's not OK to deliberately alter cygwin so that setup.exe no longer installs everything you need for the most basic purpose, i.e. opening an xterm window? Cheers! Ben -- View this message in context: http://www.nabble.com/Unable-to-load-any-usable-iso8859-font-tp21793574p21809430.html Sent from the cygwin-xfree mailing list archive at Nabble.com. -- Unsubscribe info: http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple Problem reports: http://cygwin.com/problems.html Documentation: http://x.cygwin.com/docs/ FAQ: http://x.cygwin.com/docs/faq/
Re: Unable to load any usable iso8859 font
Dan Moulding wrote: This time, I was getting "Unable to load any usable iso8859 font" errors anytime I'd try to start xterm. I searched the FAQs and the web, but was unable to find any suggestions that led to a solution. At one point, while trying to fix the problem, I also got the "could not open default font 'fixed'" error, but none of the solutions listed in the FAQ were applicable (either the problem described was obviously not a match, or the solution, like re-installing all fonts, had already been tried). This is really strange. "Unable to load any usable ISO8859 font" comes from Xt, when it has failed to load the requested font, it tries a fallback of "-*-*-*-R-*-*-*-120-*-*-*-*-ISO8859-*", which should always match the built-in font "-misc-fixed-medium-r-semicondensed--13-120-75-75-c-60-iso8859-1" (aka fixed, which the server should refuse to start if it can't find) As a last resort, I used the Cygwin setup log to figure out which packages had been updated, and rolled them all back to the versions I was previously using. Now my X applications are working fine again, so something in one of the updated packages definitely triggered this problem. xorg-server-1.5.3-5 made a change to the way the built-in font-path element is made available, I suspect this is somehow causing problems. -- Unsubscribe info: http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple Problem reports: http://cygwin.com/problems.html Documentation: http://x.cygwin.com/docs/ FAQ: http://x.cygwin.com/docs/faq/
Re: Unable to load any usable iso8859 font
On Tue, Feb 03, 2009 at 05:04:08AM -0800, amorphia wrote: >Can I plead for developers, please please don't make setup.exe broken? I am >sure there are many many users like me who don't expect to have to be >monitoring some random mailing lists in order to work out what else you need >to do when running setup.exe with default options. Fine, if you make a >mistake with dependencies. But I think there must be a lot of other people >out there like me who are tech savvy enough to need cygwin but not tech >savvy enough for it to be a walk in the park when this happens, so surely >it's not OK to deliberately alter cygwin so that setup.exe no longer >installs everything you need for the most basic purpose, i.e. opening an >xterm window? Huh? This should be a typical scenario wherein you report a *problem* and hope that someone will be available to help you fix it. Once it is fixed, then theoretically it will no longer be a problem. Characterising this as somehow intentional or as the result of inattention is insulting and counterproductive. As you've found, the expectations that you can just blindly update to a major new release and expect that there will not be any problems and that you will not have to do any homework are obviously not working for you. You can try, if you want, to put the onus of perfection on the people providing you with (free) software but you're going to be fighting a losing battle. If any of this bothers you then maybe you should investigate using a commercial product where you can castigate the people you pay when their installation experiences hiccups and is not a "walk in the park". cgf -- Unsubscribe info: http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple Problem reports: http://cygwin.com/problems.html Documentation: http://x.cygwin.com/docs/ FAQ: http://x.cygwin.com/docs/faq/
Re: Unable to load any usable iso8859 font
Christopher Faylor-8 wrote: > > On Tue, Feb 03, 2009 at 05:04:08AM -0800, amorphia wrote: >>Can I plead for developers, please please don't make setup.exe broken? I am >>sure there are many many users like me who don't expect to have to be >>monitoring some random mailing lists in order to work out what else you need >>to do when running setup.exe with default options. Fine, if you make a >>mistake with dependencies. But I think there must be a lot of other people >>out there like me who are tech savvy enough to need cygwin but not tech >>savvy enough for it to be a walk in the park when this happens, so surely >>it's not OK to deliberately alter cygwin so that setup.exe no longer >>installs everything you need for the most basic purpose, i.e. opening an >>xterm window? > > Huh? This should be a typical scenario wherein you report a *problem* > and hope that someone will be available to help you fix it. Once it is > fixed, then theoretically it will no longer be a problem. > Characterising this as somehow intentional or as the result of > inattention is insulting and counterproductive. > > Apologies for causing offence. I have the utmost respect and gratitude for developers of free software, and I've never come across another scientific researcher who includes such acknowledgements in articles for publication, as I do. As I wrote: if this was a mistake, then fair enough. I reckoned it probably wasn't a mistake, because in the release notes for the package: http://cygwin.com/ml/cygwin-xfree-announce/2008-11/msg0.html it clearly states that the package doesn't provide everything it needs to work. I assumed that whoever incorporated the package into setup.exe would have carefully read those notes. I might be wrong, or I might have misunderstood something else, if so I apologise. But if I'm not wrong, then this was rather careless. Please note when judging me that the main point of my post was to provide an (albeit inelegant) solution to a problem. The plea was made in passing. Cheers, Ben -- View this message in context: http://www.nabble.com/Unable-to-load-any-usable-iso8859-font-tp21793574p21826787.html Sent from the cygwin-xfree mailing list archive at Nabble.com. -- Unsubscribe info: http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple Problem reports: http://cygwin.com/problems.html Documentation: http://x.cygwin.com/docs/ FAQ: http://x.cygwin.com/docs/faq/
Re: Unable to load any usable iso8859 font
Dan Moulding wrote: > > I typically update my Cygwin installations about once a month, and > rarely run into any difficulties. However, this morning after updating > I could no longer start any X applications due to some apparent font > problems. Please note that I successfully installed the *new* Cygwin/X > a couple of months ago, and previously resolved some of the seemingly > more common font problems (like "boxes" showing up in emacs). > > This time, I was getting "Unable to load any usable iso8859 font" > errors anytime I'd try to start xterm. > I had the exact same problem, and a couple of others including missing "adobe" fonts. Here are the packages I installed, to get over font related issues. I may have installed a few extra ones. font-adobe-dpi100 - To fix the "adobe" font issues font-adobe-dpi75 - To fix the "adobe" font issues font-bitstream-dpi100 - Just in case font-bitstream-dpi75 - Just in case font-bitstream-type1 - Just in case font-bitstream-vera-ttf - Just in case font-misc-misc - I think I read something somewhere on the internet which led me to install this. Don't remember. xorg-scripts - I had trouble with xinit - (specifically the X Win Server shortcut not working from D drive which I've mentioned in another post) I don't think I installed anything else other than the default upgrade options. If someone can tell me how to retrieve a list of all installed packages on my system, I can send that over too. Rajesh -- Unsubscribe info: http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple Problem reports: http://cygwin.com/problems.html Documentation: http://x.cygwin.com/docs/ FAQ: http://x.cygwin.com/docs/faq/
Re: Unable to load any usable iso8859 font
Rajesh Advani wrote: If someone can tell me how to retrieve a list of all installed packages on my system,... This link is a hint: Problem reports: http://cygwin.com/problems.html But if you just want a list (with versions), "cygcheck -cd" is what you're looking for. -- Larry Hall http://www.rfk.com RFK Partners, Inc. (508) 893-9779 - RFK Office 216 Dalton Rd. (508) 429-6305 - FAX Holliston, MA 01746 -- Unsubscribe info: http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple Problem reports: http://cygwin.com/problems.html Documentation: http://x.cygwin.com/docs/ FAQ: http://x.cygwin.com/docs/faq/
Re: Unable to load any usable iso8859 font
I hope this isn't a double post, my 1st msg was bounced for having some sort in inline html. Anyway, I'm having the same issue. I upgraded and now X doesn't start, and has the same error. I tried reinstalling fonts, adding additional fonts, etc. Even renaming my cygwin and download dirs and creating a fresh (unless there were registry hooks from beyond the grave) install, same issue.I read the upgrade info, but to my limited understanding the known issue were around custom startup scripts, while I just use the vanilla stuff that's provied. If I start the server from the start menu icon, the server loads, but no x apps load. If, for example, from bash I try and start xterm, I get a msg about display not set, which I fix, and then: $ xterm Warning: Unable to load any usable ISO8859 font Error: Aborting: no font found - Here's the error when I use startx instead: (and log file at the bottom). $ startx xauth: creating new authority file /home/mstave/.serverauth.9888 /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc: line 47: twm: command not found /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc: line 48: xclock: command not found Warning: Unable to load any usable ISO8859 fontWarning: Warning: Unable to load any usable ISO8859 font Error: Aborting: no font foundError: Aborting: no font found Aborting: no font found waiting for X server to shut down . - Here's what I have installed - my apologies if there's more here than's needed. Cygwin Package Information Package Version _update-info-dir 00796-1 alternatives 1.3.30c-2 ash 20040127-4 autossh 1.4b-1 base-files 3.7-1 base-passwd 2.2-1 bash 3.2.48-21 bash-completion 20060301-2 bzip21.0.5-2 coreutils6.10-2 crypt1.1-1 csih 0.1.8-1 cygrunsrv1.34-1 cygutils 1.3.2-1 cygwin 1.5.25-15 cygwin-doc 1.4-4 diffutils2.8.7-1 e2fsprogs1.35-3 editrights 1.01-2 expat2.0.1-1 findutils4.4.0-3 font-adobe-dpi1001.0.0-1 font-alias 1.0.1-1 font-bh-dpi100 1.0.0-1 font-encodings 1.0.2-1 fontconfig 2.6.0-1 gawk 3.1.6-1 grep 2.5.3-1 groff1.19.2-2 gzip 1.3.12-2 inetutils1.5-4 less 382-1 libbz2_1 1.0.5-2 libdb4.5 4.5.20.2-2 libexpat12.0.1-1 libexpat1-devel 2.0.1-1 libfontconfig1 2.6.0-1 libfontenc1 1.0.4-2 libfreetype262.3.8-1 libfreetype6 2.3.8-1 libgdbm4 1.8.3-8 libGL1 7.2-2 libICE6 1.0.4-2 libiconv21.12-1 libintl2 0.12.1-3 libintl3 0.14.5-1 libintl8 0.17-3 libncurses8 5.5-3 libpcre0 7.8-1 libpixman1_0 0.12.0-1 libpopt0 1.6.4-4 libreadline6 5.2.13-11 libSM6 1.1.0-1 libwrap0 7.6-4 libX11_6 1.1.5-2 libXau6 1.0.4-1 libXaw7 1.0.5-1 libxcb-xlib0 1.1-2 libxcb1 1.1-2 libXdmcp61.0.2-3 libXext6 1.0.4-1 libXft2 2.1.13-1 libxkbfile1 1.0.5-2 libXmu6 1.0.4-1 libXmuu1 1.0.4-1 libXpm4 3.5.7-2 libXrender1 0.9.4-2 libXt6 1.0.5-2 login1.9-8 luit 1.0.3-1 man 1.6e-1 minires 1.02-1 mkfontdir1.0.4-1 mkfontscale 1.0.5-1 ncftp3.2.1-1 openssh 5.1p1-10 openssl 0.9.8j-1 perl 5.10.0-5 ping 1.0-1 rebase 2.4.4-1 rgb 1.0.3-1 rsync3.0.4-1 run 1.1.10-1 sed 4.1.5-2 tar 1.21-1 termcap 20050421-1 terminfo 5.5_20061104-1 texinfo 4.8a-1 tzcode 2008h-1 util-linux 2.14.1-1 which2.20-1 X-start-menu-icons 1.0.4-1 xauth1.0.3-1 xcursor-themes 1.0.1-1 xinit1.1.1-1 xkbcomp 1.0.5-1 xkeyboard-config 1.4-1 xman 1.0.3-3 xmodmap 1.0.3-1 xorg-server 1.5.3-5 xrdb 1.0.5-1 xterm238-1 zlib 1.2.3-2 zsync0.5-1 - XWin.0.log: Welcome to the XWin X Server Vendor: The Cygwin/X Project Release: 1.5.3.0 (20090121) Contact: cygwin-xfree@cygwin.com XWin was started with the following command line: /usr/bin/X :0 -auth /home/mstave/.serverauth.9888 ddxProcessArgument - Initializing default screens win
Re: Unable to load any usable iso8859 font
On Mon, Feb 2, 2009 at 12:04 PM, Dan Moulding wrote: > I typically update my Cygwin installations about once a month, and > rarely run into any difficulties. However, this morning after updating > I could no longer start any X applications due to some apparent font > problems. Please note that I successfully installed the *new* Cygwin/X > a couple of months ago, and previously resolved some of the seemingly > more common font problems (like "boxes" showing up in emacs). > > This time, I was getting "Unable to load any usable iso8859 font" > errors anytime I'd try to start xterm. I searched the FAQs and the > web, but was unable to find any suggestions that led to a solution. At > one point, while trying to fix the problem, I also got the "could not > open default font 'fixed'" error, but none of the solutions listed in > the FAQ were applicable (either the problem described was obviously > not a match, or the solution, like re-installing all fonts, had > already been tried). > I updated to the latest packages today (2/10/09) because I was hopeful that some of the recent font-related X.org fixes would have solved this problem. After updating, I still received the "Unable to load any usable iso8859 font" error. I decided to uninstall *all* X11 related packages from my system, and then reinstall a new X.org installation by selecting just those things I knew I would need (e.g. fonts) and things I'd want (e.g. emacs-X11, xterm, etc.). I did exactly that and it seems to have worked. I no longer get the "Unable to load any usable iso8859 font" error when trying to start xterm. On a side note, during this process it became apparent that the plain emacs package depends on xemacs-emacs-common which depends on xemacs which depends on a bunch of X.org stuff. This seems to imply that you can no longer install emacs without also installing X. This doesn't seem right, but to be honest, I can't remember if, prior to the major X.org update, installing emacs without X worked because I've always used them both. Cheers, -- Dan Moulding -- Unsubscribe info: http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple Problem reports: http://cygwin.com/problems.html Documentation: http://x.cygwin.com/docs/ FAQ: http://x.cygwin.com/docs/faq/
SOLUTION: Unable to load any usable iso8859 font
Rajesh Advani wrote: > > I had the exact same problem, and a couple of others including missing > "adobe" fonts. > Here are the packages I installed, to get over font related issues. I may > have installed a few extra ones. > > font-adobe-dpi100 - To fix the "adobe" font issues > font-adobe-dpi75 - To fix the "adobe" font issues > font-bitstream-dpi100 - Just in case > font-bitstream-dpi75 - Just in case > font-bitstream-type1 - Just in case > font-bitstream-vera-ttf - Just in case > font-misc-misc - I think I read something somewhere on the internet which > led me to install this. Don't remember. > xorg-scripts - I had trouble with xinit - (specifically the X Win Server > shortcut not working from D drive which I've mentioned in another post) > My solution was, at the very least, to re-run setup.exe and to install the package "font-misc-misc". Once I did that, XWin stopped hanging and xterm and xclock ran without a hitch. I found this nugget of information buried deep in the http://www.nabble.com/forum/Reply.jtp?post=21828473 Cygwin/X FAQ page , section 9.4, sub-item 1. To quote: "You do not have a font package which provides the default font ('fixed') installed. This is rarely the problem; but in the event that it is the problem, just rerun Cygwin's setup.exe, select the font-misc-misc package and install it." I find the phrase "This is rarely the problem" to be ironic, considering that it seems to be the most common, based on what I've read. The problem (lately) is that font-misc-misc is a prerequisite, but it is not (no longer?) flagged as one by setup.exe when you choose the various xorg packages. The packages I installed were... + xauth + xclock + xcursor-themes + xhost + xinit + xkbcomp + xkeyboard-config + xmodmap + xorg-server + xrdb + xterm None of these flagged font-misc-misc, but when I installed the font package manually, the above packages all started working. BUG! -- View this message in context: http://www.nabble.com/Unable-to-load-any-usable-iso8859-font-tp21793574p21964005.html Sent from the cygwin-xfree mailing list archive at Nabble.com. -- Unsubscribe info: http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple Problem reports: http://cygwin.com/problems.html Documentation: http://x.cygwin.com/docs/ FAQ: http://x.cygwin.com/docs/faq/
Re: Unable to load any usable ISO8859 font
Zdzislaw Meglicki wrote: I have installed the latest version of Cygwin + X11 under Longhorn/Vista Ver 6.0 Build 6001 Service Pack 1, running under WOW64 on AMD64. Cygcheck says that "Longhorn/Vista (not yet supported!)" but things seem to work, so far. I have downloaded the lot today, Feb 18, 2009, and the version numbers on X11 are: xorg-cf-files 1.0.2-7 xorg-docs 1.4-1 xorg-scripts1.0.1-1 xorg-server 1.5.3-6 xorg-sgml-doctools 1.2-1 xorg-util-macros1.2.1-1 xorg-x11-base 7.4-1 xorg-x11-bin-dlls 7.4-1 The installation and post-install all went smoothly, but on trying to start X11, xterm, as invoked by startxwin.sh, would say "Unable to load any usable ISO8859 font" and exit. X11 would run though and xterm -fn fixed would come up just fine, sic. I have eventually tracked the problem to... there not being any fonts.dir files in the /usr/share/fonts subdirectories. After I had made these manually with mkfontdir the problem went away. Looks like a bug in post-install. But... I did not have this problem on XP, on which I had installed Cygwin and X11 yesterday only. So, it seems to be Vista specific. This problem probably depends on which font packages you had installed, which I can't tell. Can you check /var/log/setup.log to see if the post-install scripts for the font packages ran successfully or not? Another Vista post-install difference: there are no X11 entries in the start menu. This should be installed by the xinit package, which I can't tell if you've installed or not. If you have, perhaps you could check the setup.log similarly. -- Unsubscribe info: http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple Problem reports: http://cygwin.com/problems.html Documentation: http://x.cygwin.com/docs/ FAQ: http://x.cygwin.com/docs/faq/
Re: Unable to load any usable ISO8859 font
et Sent: Thursday, February 19, 2009 6:03:13 PM Subject: Re: Unable to load any usable ISO8859 font Zdzislaw Meglicki wrote: > I have installed the latest version of Cygwin + X11 under Longhorn/Vista Ver > 6.0 Build 6001 Service Pack 1, > running under WOW64 on AMD64. Cygcheck says that "Longhorn/Vista (not yet > supported!)" but things seem > to work, so far. I have downloaded the lot today, Feb 18, 2009, and the > version numbers on X11 are: > > xorg-cf-files 1.0.2-7 > xorg-docs 1.4-1 > xorg-scripts 1.0.1-1 > xorg-server 1.5.3-6 > xorg-sgml-doctools 1.2-1 > xorg-util-macros 1.2.1-1 > xorg-x11-base 7.4-1 > xorg-x11-bin-dlls 7.4-1 > > The installation and post-install all went smoothly, but on trying to start > X11, xterm, as invoked by startxwin.sh, would say "Unable to load any usable > ISO8859 font" and exit. X11 would run though and xterm -fn fixed would come > up just fine, sic. I have eventually tracked the problem to... there not > being any fonts.dir files in the /usr/share/fonts subdirectories. After I had > made these manually with mkfontdir the problem went away. > > Looks like a bug in post-install. But... I did not have this problem on XP, > on which I had installed Cygwin and X11 yesterday only. So, it seems to be > Vista specific. This problem probably depends on which font packages you had installed, which I can't tell. Can you check /var/log/setup.log to see if the post-install scripts for the font packages ran successfully or not? > Another Vista post-install difference: there are no X11 entries in the start > menu. This should be installed by the xinit package, which I can't tell if you've installed or not. If you have, perhaps you could check the setup.log similarly. -- Unsubscribe info: http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple Problem reports: http://cygwin.com/problems.html Documentation: http://x.cygwin.com/docs/ FAQ: http://x.cygwin.com/docs/faq/
Re: WORKAROUND: Unable to load any usable iso8859 font
ThinkDifferently wrote: My solution was, at the very least, to re-run setup.exe and to install the package "font-misc-misc". Once I did that, XWin stopped hanging and xterm and xclock ran without a hitch. I found this nugget of information buried deep in the http://www.nabble.com/forum/Reply.jtp?post=21828473 Cygwin/X FAQ page , section 9.4, sub-item 1. To quote: "You do not have a font package which provides the default font ('fixed') installed. This is rarely the problem; but in the event that it is the problem, just rerun Cygwin's setup.exe, select the font-misc-misc package and install it." I find the phrase "This is rarely the problem" to be ironic, considering that it seems to be the most common, based on what I've read. Well, in fact, this FAQ is obsolete. The fixed font is now available built-in to the server, so it starts even when no font packages are installed (to avoid precisely this kind of configuration problem) With 1.5.3-6 xserver, it should never happen that the server fails to start "could not open default font 'fixed'". (In fact, since 1.5.3-3, but there was a bug in libXft which caused it to fail to find 'fixed' after a server restart) The problem (lately) is that font-misc-misc is a prerequisite, but it is not (no longer?) flagged as one by setup.exe when you choose the various xorg packages. The packages I installed were... + xauth + xclock + xcursor-themes + xhost + xinit + xkbcomp + xkeyboard-config + xmodmap + xorg-server + xrdb + xterm None of these flagged font-misc-misc, but when I installed the font package manually, the above packages all started working. BUG! Yes, there is a bug. Installing the "font-misc-misc" package is a workaround. But, no, it's not the obvious packaging error that "font-misc-misc" should be in the dependencies for packages which use the 'fixed' font, as that font is now available 'built-in' to the server and the server starts with no fonts installed. It seems the specific error message quoted "Unable to load any usable ISO8859 font", comes from libXt [1], when it has failed to find the requested font, it tries a fallback of "-*-*-*-R-*-*-*-120-*-*-*-*-ISO8859-*", which should match the always-available, built-in fixed font. I have no problems starting xterm just using the built-in fonts $ xset fp built-ins [or start the server with -fp built-ins, or uninstall all font packages] $ xlsfonts -fn "-*-*-*-R-*-*-*-120-*-*-*-*-ISO8859-*" -misc-fixed-medium-r-semicondensed--12-120-75-75-c-0-iso8859-1 -misc-fixed-medium-r-semicondensed--13-120-75-75-c-60-iso8859-1 $ xterm [starts with no error] So, why some people see this error is a mystery to me. The first post in this thread seems to pin the blame on something which changed recently, possibly xserver 1.5.3-5, but I can't reproduce it and can't see any changes which seem likely suspects... Entered into bugzilla http://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=9839 [1] http://cgit.freedesktop.org/xorg/lib/libXt/tree/src/Converters.c -- Unsubscribe info: http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple Problem reports: http://cygwin.com/problems.html Documentation: http://x.cygwin.com/docs/ FAQ: http://x.cygwin.com/docs/faq/
Re: WORKAROUND: Unable to load any usable iso8859 font
Forwarded to list, unread Please read http://cygwin.com/problems.html#personal-email linked_puffb...@comcast.net wrote: Dear Jon Turney, Today I installed cygwin from scratch on a new laptop with Vista Home Premium. I have gotten the "Unable to load any usable ISO8859 font." message when starting xterm. I would suggest as a workaround that users experiencing this problem try uninstalling the font-alias package. (The version I installed and uninstalled several times is 1.0.1-1.) Uninstalling and reinstalling this eliminated and recreated problems. The last time I reinstalled it, it did not cause the the above problem, but did cause the default path to come up wrong in tcsh and bash. I think the underlying problem may be related to the fact that postinstall scripts do not seem to be running correctly on this machine. For different packages, I see similar messages in setup.log.full along the lines of those shown below. I believe it may be happening for every postinstall script, because they all take a very long time, as if they were timing out. Sincerely, David from setup.log.full 2009/06/14 14:25:07 running: C:\cygwin\bin\bash.exe -c /etc/postinstall/font-alias.sh 5 [main] sh 4436 fork: child -1 - died waiting for longjmp before initialization, retry 10, exit code 0x100, errno 11 1278289 [main] sh 4436 fork: child -1 - died waiting for longjmp before initialization, retry 10, exit code 0x100, errno 11 3492971 [main] sh 4436 fork: child -1 - died waiting for longjmp before initialization, retry 10, exit code 0x100, errno 11 7629204 [main] sh 4436 fork: child -1 - died waiting for longjmp before initialization, retry 10, exit code 0x100, errno 11 15769988 [main] sh 4436 fork: child -1 - died waiting for longjmp before initialization, retry 10, exit code 0x100, errno 11 /etc/postinstall/font-alias.sh: fork: Resource temporarily unavailable 6 [main] sh 3288 fork: child -1 - died waiting for longjmp before initialization, retry 10, exit code 0x100, errno 11 1296137 [main] sh 3288 fork: child -1 - died waiting for longjmp before initialization, retry 10, exit code 0x100, errno 11 3463129 [main] sh 3288 fork: child -1 - died waiting for longjmp before initialization, retry 10, exit code 0x100, errno 11 7628057 [main] sh 3288 fork: child -1 - died waiting for longjmp before initialization, retry 10, exit code 0x100, errno 11 15771513 [main] sh 3288 fork: child -1 - died waiting for longjmp before initialization, retry 10, exit code 0x100, errno 11 /etc/postinstall/font-alias.sh: fork: Resource temporarily unavailable 6 [main] sh 4244 fork: child -1 - died waiting for longjmp before initialization, retry 10, exit code 0x100, errno 11 1247804 [main] sh 4244 fork: child -1 - died waiting for longjmp before initialization, retry 10, exit code 0x100, errno 11 3417015 [main] sh 4244 fork: child -1 - died waiting for longjmp before initialization, retry 10, exit code 0x100, errno 11 7551184 [main] sh 4244 fork: child -1 - died waiting for longjmp before initialization, retry 10, exit code 0x100, errno 11 15694516 [main] sh 4244 fork: child -1 - died waiting for longjmp before initialization, retry 10, exit code 0x100, errno 11 /etc/postinstall/font-alias.sh: fork: Resource temporarily unavailable 6 [main] sh 3628 fork: child -1 - died waiting for longjmp before initialization, retry 10, exit code 0x100, errno 11 1250144 [main] sh 3628 fork: child -1 - died waiting for longjmp before initialization, retry 10, exit code 0x100, errno 11 3401141 [main] sh 3628 fork: child -1 - died waiting for longjmp before initialization, retry 10, exit code 0x100, errno 11 7535070 [main] sh 3628 fork: child -1 - died waiting for longjmp before initialization, retry 10, exit code 0x100, errno 11 15678284 [main] sh 3628 fork: child -1 - died waiting for longjmp before initialization, retry 10, exit code 0x100, errno 11 /etc/postinstall/font-alias.sh: fork: Resource temporarily unavailable 6 [main] sh 4536 fork: child -1 - died waiting for longjmp before initialization, retry 10, exit code 0x100, errno 11 1247102 [main] sh 4536 fork: child -1 - died waiting for longjmp before initialization, retry 10, exit code 0x100, errno 11 3383669 [main] sh 4536 fork: child -1 - died waiting for longjmp before initialization, retry 10, exit code 0x100, errno 11 7518999 [main] sh 4536 fork: child -1 - died waiting for longjmp before initialization, retry 10, exit code 0x100, errno 11 15631750 [main] sh 4536 fork: child -1 - died waiting for longjmp before initialization, retry 10, exit code 0x100, errno 11 /etc/postinstall/font-alias.sh: fork: Resource temporarily unavailable 6 [main] sh 4384 fork: child -1 - died waiting for longjmp before initialization, retry 10, exit code 0x100, errno 11 123