emacs & xfontsel: "Unable to load any usable ISO8859 font"

[Adam Funk]

I just upgraded from dapper to edgy and now when I run emacs as an X
application (i.e. not in the console or xterm) I see only boxes. When
I run it from (but not in) xterm I get the following errors, and
something similar from xfontsel:

/home/adam $ emacs
Warning: Cannot convert string
"-*-courier-medium-r-*-*-*-120-*-*-*-*-iso8859-*" to type FontStruct
Warning: Unable to load any usable ISO8859 font
Warning: Cannot convert string
"-*-helvetica-medium-r-*--*-120-*-*-*-*-iso8859-1" to type FontStruct
Warning: Unable to load any usable ISO8859 font
Warning: Unable to load any usable ISO8859 font

/home/adam $ xfontsel
Warning: Unable to load any usable ISO8859 font
Warning: Missing charsets in String to FontSet conversion
Warning: Unable to load any usable fontset
Error: Aborting: no font found


I've commented out my old emacs.font line in .Xdefaults and restarted
gdm, and I still have this problem. I would appreciate any
suggestions for fixing it.

Thanks,
Adam

[Roland Turcan]

<<< 09.11.2006 13:31 - Adam Funk "a24061 at yahoo.com" >>>
AF> I just upgraded from dapper to edgy and now when I run emacs as an X
AF> application (i.e. not in the console or xterm) I see only boxes. When
AF> I run it from (but not in) xterm I get the following errors, and
AF> something similar from xfontsel:

AF> /home/adam $ emacs
AF> Warning: Cannot convert string
AF> "-*-courier-medium-r-*-*-*-120-*-*-*-*-iso8859-*" to type FontStruct
AF> Warning: Unable to load any usable ISO8859 font
AF> Warning: Cannot convert string
AF> "-*-helvetica-medium-r-*--*-120-*-*-*-*-iso8859-1" to type FontStruct
AF> Warning: Unable to load any usable ISO8859 font
AF> Warning: Unable to load any usable ISO8859 font

AF> /home/adam $ xfontsel
AF> Warning: Unable to load any usable ISO8859 font
AF> Warning: Missing charsets in String to FontSet conversion
AF> Warning: Unable to load any usable fontset
AF> Error: Aborting: no font found


AF> I've commented out my old emacs.font line in .Xdefaults and restarted
AF> gdm, and I still have this problem. I would appreciate any
AF> suggestions for fixing it.

AF> Thanks,
AF> Adam


I don't know if it helps you, but in our cases with locale problems
this command is the solution:

sudo locale-gen de_DE

of course, exchange our language and contry in command.

[Adam Funk]

Post by Roland Turcan
I don't know if it helps you, but in our cases with locale problems
sudo locale-gen de_DE
of course, exchange our language and contry in command.

Hmm, I was thinking of this as a "fonts problem" rather than a "locale
problem", but it could be both. Now I've got these:

$ locale -a
C
en_AU.utf8
en_BW.utf8
en_CA.utf8
en_DK.utf8
en_GB
en_GB.iso885915
en_GB.utf8
en_HK.utf8
en_IE.utf8
en_IN
en_NZ.utf8
en_PH.utf8
en_SG.utf8
en_US
en_US.utf8
en_ZA.utf8
en_ZW.utf8
fr_BE.utf8
fr_CA.utf8
fr_CH.utf8
fr_FR
fr_FR.utf8
fr_LU.utf8
POSIX
ro_RO.utf8

$ env |sort
...
LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
LANGUAGE=en_GB:en
...

and I'm still getting the same thing!

[Adam Funk]

Post by Roland Turcan
AF> I just upgraded from dapper to edgy and now when I run emacs as an X
AF> application (i.e. not in the console or xterm) I see only boxes. When
AF> I run it from (but not in) xterm I get the following errors, and
I don't know if it helps you, but in our cases with locale problems
sudo locale-gen de_DE
of course, exchange our language and contry in command.

It turns out this (bug # 70740) is a duplicate of bug #63408 (which
also has duplicates #73602 and probably #35330). I fixed it by adding
some FontPath lines to xorg.conf.

[Adam Funk]

Post by Adam Funk
/home/adam $ emacs
Warning: Cannot convert string
"-*-courier-medium-r-*-*-*-120-*-*-*-*-iso8859-*" to type FontStruct
Warning: Unable to load any usable ISO8859 font
Warning: Cannot convert string
"-*-helvetica-medium-r-*--*-120-*-*-*-*-iso8859-1" to type FontStruct
Warning: Unable to load any usable ISO8859 font
Warning: Unable to load any usable ISO8859 font

I've tried to dig a little further:

$ xlsfonts -fn -*-helvetica-medium-r-*--*-120-*-*-*-*-iso8859-1
-adobe-helvetica-medium-r-normal--12-120-75-75-p-0-iso8859-1
-adobe-helvetica-medium-r-normal--12-120-75-75-p-0-iso8859-1
-adobe-helvetica-medium-r-normal--12-120-75-75-p-0-iso8859-1
-adobe-helvetica-medium-r-normal--12-120-75-75-p-0-iso8859-1
-adobe-helvetica-medium-r-normal--12-120-75-75-p-67-iso8859-1
-adobe-helvetica-medium-r-normal--12-120-75-75-p-67-iso8859-1
-adobe-helvetica-medium-r-normal--12-120-75-75-p-67-iso8859-1
-adobe-helvetica-medium-r-normal--17-120-100-100-p-88-iso8859-1
-adobe-helvetica-medium-r-normal--17-120-100-100-p-88-iso8859-1
-adobe-helvetica-medium-r-normal--17-120-100-100-p-88-iso8859-1

$ emacs -fn -adobe-helvetica-medium-r-normal--12-120-75-75-p-0-iso8859-1
No fonts match `-adobe-helvetica-medium-r-normal--12-120-75-75-p-0-iso8859-1'

$ emacs -fn -adobe-helvetica-medium-r-normal--12-120-75-75-p-67-iso8859-1
Font `-adobe-helvetica-medium-r-normal--12-120-75-75-p-67-iso8859-1' is not defined


Why does xlsfonts list fonts that don't exist or don't work?