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error: could not find font. Try using a full description

Open qwelyt opened this issue 8 years ago • 9 comments

qwelyt@machine ~ % sflock
error: could not find font. Try using a full description.  

I have no idea what to do with this message. What font? What description?

I'm using Arch Linux and installed the AUR package ( https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/sflock-git/ ). It has worked previously. I'm guessing some update in core or extra did 'something' which broke sflock. But the error message is not really useful and I have no idea how to resolve it.

qwelyt avatar Nov 02 '16 09:11 qwelyt

Hi Filip,

The default font is dejavu, which had a non trivial package update (see Arch Linux news). It could be that this is the cause of the issue. I will check if it works on my pc. For the moment, you can always supply a manual font using the -f flag.

Op wo 2 nov. 2016 10:29 schreef Filip Bellander [email protected]:

qwelyt@machine ~ % sflock error: could not find font. Try using a full description.

I have no idea what to do with this message. What font? What description?

I'm using Arch Linux and installed the AUR package ( https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/sflock-git/ ). It has worked previously. I'm guessing some update in core or extra did 'something' which broke sflock. But the error message is not really useful and I have no idea how to resolve it.

— You are receiving this because you are subscribed to this thread. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/benruijl/sflock/issues/20, or mute the thread https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AARGGTtbfCPlFOJEUOs2WBW6Chrf43nDks5q6FfrgaJpZM4KnBPG .

benruijl avatar Nov 02 '16 09:11 benruijl

I followed the instructions on https://www.archlinux.org/news/ttf-dejavu-237-will-require-forced-upgrade/ but the problem persists.

How exactly should you use the -f flag? I've tried different ways

Given

qwelyt@machine ~ % fc-list | grep "Mono"      
/usr/share/fonts/OTF/NimbusMonoPS-BoldItalic.otf: Nimbus Mono PS:style=Bold Italic
/usr/share/fonts/OTF/NimbusMonoPS-Italic.otf: Nimbus Mono PS:style=Italic
/usr/share/fonts/noto/NotoMono-Regular.ttf: Noto Mono:style=Regular
/usr/share/fonts/TTF/DroidSansMono.ttf: Droid Sans Mono:style=Regular
/usr/share/fonts/TTF/DejaVuSansMono.ttf: DejaVu Sans Mono:style=Book
/usr/share/fonts/OTF/NimbusMonoPS-Regular.otf: Nimbus Mono PS:style=Regular
/usr/share/fonts/OTF/NimbusMonoPS-Bold.otf: Nimbus Mono PS:style=Bold
/usr/share/fonts/TTF/DejaVuSansMono-Oblique.ttf: DejaVu Sans Mono:style=Oblique
/usr/share/fonts/TTF/DejaVuSansMono-Bold.ttf: DejaVu Sans Mono:style=Bold
/usr/share/fonts/TTF/DejaVuSansMono-BoldOblique.ttf: DejaVu Sans Mono:style=Bold Oblique

What here is a 'full description'? Examples on what I've tried

 % sflock -f DroidSansMono.ttf
 % sflock -f Droid Sans Mono
 % sflock -f 'Droid Sans Mono'
 % sflock -f xft:Droid Sans Mono
 % sflock -f 'xft:Droid Sans Mono'
 % sflock -f Noto
 % sflock -f NotoMono-Regular.ttf
 % sflock -f Noto Mono
 % sflock -f 'Noto Mono'
 % sflock -f 'DejaVu Sans Mono'
 % sflock -f DejaVuSansMono.ttf
 % sflock -f 'DejaVuSansMono.ttf'
 % sflock -f /usr/share/fonts/TTF/DroidSansMono.ttf
 % sflock -f '/usr/share/fonts/TTF/DroidSansMono.ttf'
 % sflock -f DejaVu Sans Mono:style=Book
 % sflock -f 'DejaVu Sans Mono:style=Book'

All of which result in error: could not find font. Try using a full description.

qwelyt avatar Nov 02 '16 10:11 qwelyt

You have to use the X font description: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/X_Logical_Font_Description

For example: sflock -f "-microsoft-webdings------------"

Op wo 2 nov. 2016 om 11:46 schreef Filip Bellander <[email protected]

:

I followed the instructions on https://www.archlinux.org/news/ttf-dejavu-237-will-require-forced-upgrade/ but the problem persists.

How exactly should you use the -f flag? I've tried different ways

Given

qwelyt@machine ~ % fc-list | grep "Mono" /usr/share/fonts/OTF/NimbusMonoPS-BoldItalic.otf: Nimbus Mono PS:style=Bold Italic /usr/share/fonts/OTF/NimbusMonoPS-Italic.otf: Nimbus Mono PS:style=Italic /usr/share/fonts/noto/NotoMono-Regular.ttf: Noto Mono:style=Regular /usr/share/fonts/TTF/DroidSansMono.ttf: Droid Sans Mono:style=Regular /usr/share/fonts/TTF/DejaVuSansMono.ttf: DejaVu Sans Mono:style=Book /usr/share/fonts/OTF/NimbusMonoPS-Regular.otf: Nimbus Mono PS:style=Regular /usr/share/fonts/OTF/NimbusMonoPS-Bold.otf: Nimbus Mono PS:style=Bold /usr/share/fonts/TTF/DejaVuSansMono-Oblique.ttf: DejaVu Sans Mono:style=Oblique /usr/share/fonts/TTF/DejaVuSansMono-Bold.ttf: DejaVu Sans Mono:style=Bold /usr/share/fonts/TTF/DejaVuSansMono-BoldOblique.ttf: DejaVu Sans Mono:style=Bold Oblique

What here is a 'full description'? Examples on what I've tried

% sflock -f DroidSansMono.ttf % sflock -f Droid Sans Mono % sflock -f 'Droid Sans Mono' % sflock -f xft:Droid Sans Mono % sflock -f 'xft:Droid Sans Mono' % sflock -f Noto % sflock -f NotoMono-Regular.ttf % sflock -f Noto Mono % sflock -f 'Noto Mono'

All of which result in error: could not find font. Try using a full description.

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benruijl avatar Nov 02 '16 11:11 benruijl

Thanks! Now it's working

qwelyt@machine ~ % sflock -f "-*-droid sans mono-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*"

Couldn't get DejaVu Sans Mono to work, which might be why just running sflock fails. If I do xlsfonts | grep "dejavu"(DejaVu, dejaVu, Dejavu, etc) I get nothing.

You might want to add an explanation to the error message though, telling how to find the correct name and what a 'full description' means.

qwelyt avatar Nov 02 '16 12:11 qwelyt

I don't even have ttf-dejavu installed, so I am really confused why this error message appears to me?

ashnur avatar Dec 06 '16 14:12 ashnur

Also, why not just not use a font that might cause breakage?

ashnur avatar Dec 06 '16 14:12 ashnur

Also, why not just not use a font that might cause breakage?

I quickly scrolled through the xlsfonts list on my system (ArchLinux) and couldn't find any generic font where you can assume that it is available on most systems. Might be mistaken though.

Do you have any suggestions?

ml- avatar Dec 06 '16 15:12 ml-

I think X includes fonts for many years now (for example "fixed"). I also think that using XListFonts might give a much broader coverage too.

ashnur avatar Dec 06 '16 15:12 ashnur

For people visiting this thread after me, do this in terminal:

xlsfonts | grep -E "^.{1,20}$"
[pick a font name]
sflock -f [font name]

What worked for me is eg. sflock -f lucidasans-8 Note that you don't need to use the long sflock -f *-*-*-fixed-*-* format from above..

I assume sflock throws this error on Debian because xslfonts | grep dejavu returns nothing

sethidden avatar Aug 22 '18 18:08 sethidden