fontforge PPA / font-patcher script errors

[LaProgramadora]

🎯 Subject of the issue

• Unable to enable glyph icons
• Unable to add the fontforge repository
• Unable to run font-patcher script

Setup: Windows 11 running WSL2 on Ubuntu 20.0403, Bash shell

I have installed b-ryan's powerline-shell prompt and my goal is to enable the icon glyphs included with the package. I tried the method of simply patching an individual font (CascadiaCode) for Microsoft without luck. Ultimately, I cloned the nerd-fonts repository and ran the install.sh script successfully.

Whenever I cache my fonts, it appears to run successfully and showed that roughly 154 fonts were added; however, the fonts do not show up in the /.local/share/fonts directory. At most, I was able to install CascadiaCode from Microsoft's release and change my font face within Properties -> Fonts.

I run into issues when I get to the font-forge and font-patcher steps. When running this command I receive the following output: sudo add-apt-repository ppa:fontforge/fontforge;

Get:1 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-security InRelease [114 kB] Ign:2 http://ppa.launchpad.net/fontforge/fontforge/ubuntu focal InRelease Hit:3 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal InRelease Get:4 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates InRelease [114 kB] Err:5 http://ppa.launchpad.net/fontforge/fontforge/ubuntu focal Release 404 Not Found [IP: 91.189.95.85 80] Get:6 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-backports InRelease [108 kB] Reading package lists... Done E: The repository 'http://ppa.launchpad.net/fontforge/fontforge/ubuntu focal Release' does not have a Release file. N: Updating from such a repository can't be done securely, and is therefore disabled by default. N: See apt-secure(8) manpage for repository creation and user configuration details.

🔧 Your Setup

• Which font are you using (e.g. Anonymice Powerline Nerd Font Complete.ttf)?
• CascadiaCode
• Which terminal emulator are you using (e.g. iterm2, urxvt, gnome, konsole)?
• Ubuntu v 20.04.3 bash shell v. 5.0.17
• Are you using OS X, Linux or Windows? And which specific version or distribution?
• Windows 11 running Windows Subsytem for Linux 2 kernel

★ Optional

[ryanoasis]

The fonts should in either /user/local/share/fonts or ~/.local/share/fonts.

E: The repository 'http://ppa.launchpad.net/fontforge/fontforge/ubuntu focal Release' does not have a Release file.

It seems like the repository is not available for your ubuntu version. Is the issue with the apt commands specifically? If so I don't see how this is an issue with the fonts unless you mean the install doesn't seem to install them?

[icy-comet]

I faced the exact PPA related issue on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. Something seems off with the fontforge's PPA.

I fixed it by installing the python3-fontforge package instead. The issue is not on nerd-fonts' side.

[Finii]

Maybe my question is dumb, I never used WSL. But Ubuntu (20.04) (i.e. focal) does have fontforge as ordinary packet, so why does one need a PPA? https://packages.ubuntu.com/focal/fontforge

[icy-comet]

@Finii FontForge's website mentions adding the PPA for some reason. Package from the official repo also does the trick however.

[Finii]

FontForge's website mentions adding the PPA for some reason

I went out to fix that, but can not find it. https://fontforge.org/ -> Downloads -> GNU+Linux -> Download

Most GNU+Linux distributions have packages for FontForge, but these are often quite outdated. If you want the latest FontForge, these are your options:

• AppImage AppImage is a binary format that has improved to the point where it is generally usable by all GNU+Linux users. With each release, we compile an AppImage. The latest is 2020-11-07. We recommend all users use this method to get the latest release if their distribution has not yet provided it. The Ubuntu PPA, and similar distribution-specific build platforms that put the onus on us, are deprecated and not to be used.
• Compiling [...]

Emphasis is mine

Maybe you can give me the concrete link and/or a screenshot that we can fix that bit of information.

[icy-comet]

@Finii Sorry I mistook FontForge's official site as this one. My bad. It does, however, fall under FontForge's GH organization.

[icy-comet]

@ryanoasis @Finii since the docs clearly mention that the Ubuntu PPA is now deprecated, maybe the issue should be closed as well?

[icy-comet]

Actually, the patcher script also points to designwithforge.com. Here's the error message:

Nerd Fonts: FontForge module is probably not installed. [See: http://designwithfontforge.com/en-US/Installing_Fontforge.html]

It needs to be updated as well, I guess.

[Finii]

Created 2 PRs ;-)

This issue will be autoclosed when merged.

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