Thank you for all the information, it's been a great help. I have marked this Triaged and passed it on to the developers, you can track it and make comments at https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=36577 . This may be Ubuntu-specific, but the developers I'm sure will know whether that is the case or not. Thank you again for reporting this to us :)
** Bug watch added: freedesktop.org Bugzilla #36577 http://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=36577 ** Changed in: fontconfig (Ubuntu) Importance: Undecided => Medium ** Changed in: fontconfig (Ubuntu) Status: New => Triaged ** Description changed: + Workaround: sudo rm /var/cache/fontconfig/* + + Binary package hint: fontconfig + + This bug still exists in Natty beta 2. To reiterate, here are exact + steps and expected vs observed behavior: + + Preconditions: /etc/fonts/conf.d/70-no-bitmaps.conf is present and the + fontconfig cache has been populated with "fc-cache -s". + + 1. Create a user-specific ~/.fonts.conf containing the following to + enable bitmap fonts for the current user: + + <?xml version="1.0"?> + <!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd"> + <fontconfig> + <selectfont> + <acceptfont> + <pattern> + <patelt name="scalable"><bool>false</bool></patelt> + </pattern> + </acceptfont> + </selectfont> + </fontconfig> + + 2. Optionally do "fc-cache -f" (the following results are the same both + with and without this step). + + 3. Try "fc-list fixed". Expected: A number of entries, including + "Fixed:style=Regular". Observed: No output. (A more real-world severe + effect is that gnome-terminal does not use the fixed font even though + configured for it.) + + 4. sudo rm /etc/fonts/conf.d/70-no-bitmaps.conf + 5. sudo fc-cache -f -s (note that -f is necessary) + 6. Now "fc-list fixed" returns a number of entries, as expected. + 7. sudo ln -s /etc/fonts/conf.avail/70-no-bitmaps.conf /etc/fonts/conf.d/ + 8. "fc-list fixed" still returns a number of entries, as expected due to ~/.fonts.conf. + 9. rm ~/.fonts.conf + 10. "fc-list fixed" returns nothing, as expected. This shows that the system setting takes effect properly in lack of a user local override. + + The bug is present already in step 3. I believe the remaining steps + suggest that the problem is that "fc-cache -s" takes <rejectfont> rules + into account when populating the global cache, which is incorrect since + the fonts thus left out won't be available when a user local + <acceptfont> takes precedence. Also, refreshing the user-local cache + through "fc-cache -f" has no effect. + + Side note: This is a quite old bug by now. I've grown used to do sudo rm + /etc/fonts/conf.d/70-no-bitmaps.conf after every upgrade, so it's only a + mild annoyance to me personally. The full scope of the problem is + probably larger though. + + ============================================== If I have bitmaps fonts disabled (i.e. /etc/fonts/conf.d/70-no- bitmaps.conf exists) while running "sudo fc-cache -r -s -v" to update /var/cache/fontconfig, then I won't get the bitmap fonts in e.g. /usr/share/fonts/X11/misc even if I enable bitmap fonts in my personal ~/.fonts.conf file. Updating the local cache in ~/.fontconfig doesn't make any difference. - Workaround: sudo rm /var/cache/fontconfig/* - Ubuntu Feisty. ** Also affects: fontconfig via http://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=36577 Importance: Unknown Status: Unknown -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/110358 Title: Updating /var/cache/fontconfig with no-bitmaps disables bitmap fonts also for users that enable them -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs