Re: [gentoo-user] HP9000 laptop complete (almost)

[Alan McKinnon <alan@linuxholdings.co.za>]

On Wednesday 01 August 2007, James wrote:
> Hello,
>
> First of all, I'd like to thank everyone that has endured and
> answered my emails over the past few days related to the
> installation of an hp laptop. It is finally working fine.
>
> Looking a /var/log/Xorg.0.log there are numerous problems with
> fonts. Since I always seem to be moving over (word) documents
> from windows, I need as many fonts installed as possible, related
> to what one might expect from word documents. Additionally, I need
> to maintain a robust set of gentoo/linux centric fonts.
>
> <snip>
> (WW) `fonts.dir' not found (or not valid) in "/usr/share/fonts/util".
>         Entry deleted from font path.
[snip more WW]

These don;t matter, as all of them just say that X is to look for a font 
in a dir which doesn't exist. It's just cruft on the screen

> For now I have these fonts listed in my xorg.conf file on most gentoo
> systems I maintain:
>
> Section "Files"
>         FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/util"

[snip long FontPath]

>
> Now looking at /usr/portage/media-fonts I do not see a one to one
> naming convention between what is listed in the
> /usr/portage/media-fonts dir and the gentoo ebuild  names (eix
> fonts). Neither of those correspond either to what is listed in
> xorg.conf.

Well, the ebuild names displayed by eix must be the same as those 
in /usr/portage/media-fonts, otherwise portage can't be working.

eix's default behaviour is to search for the argument in the *ebuild* 
name. It looks like you are expecting it to find the search string in 
the *category* name as well, which it won't do. So, 'eix dejavu' won't 
find media-fonts/dejavu.

The dirs listed in xorg.conf can come from a variety of sources - stuff 
you put there yourself, stuff that got put there by old outdated 
ebuilds, etc, etc, etc. You will probably always need to verify those 
settings by hand in real life.

> Is there a 'fonts-meta' package? <it's rhetorical question>....

No. I doubt there will ever be one as very very few people will ever 
need or want every font available in portage. The thing to do is to 
emerge each set of fonts that you do want individually.

> So how does one go about systematically installing and maintaining
> a complete set of fonts on  a gentoo system, particularly those
> related to a variety of windows generated document fonts

The main problem you will run into in your case is probably license 
issues with the font. Some cannot be installed just anywhere you want 
and some may only be run on Windows. As long as you are licensed to use 
the fonts, simpy have the .ttf be placed in the correct location per 
the wiki pages you mention below. That's all you need to do.

Sadly, it is a manual process to continually ensure you have all the 
fonts you need.

alan



-- 
Optimists say the glass is half full,
Pessimists say the glass is half empty,
Developers say wtf is the glass twice as big as it needs to be?

Alan McKinnon
alan at linuxholdings dot co dot za
+27 82, double three seven, one nine three five
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