Bug 75910 - gnucash fails to start if xorg's bitmapfonts are not installed...
Bug#: 75910 Product:  Gentoo Linux Version: unspecified Platform: x86
OS/Version: Linux Status: RESOLVED Severity: normal Priority: P2
Resolution: FIXED Assigned To: x11@gentoo.org Reported By: pva@gentoo.org
Component: Applications
URL: 
Summary: gnucash fails to start if xorg's bitmapfonts are not installed...
Keywords:  
Status Whiteboard: 
Opened: 2004-12-28 06:25 0000
Description:   Opened: 2004-12-28 06:25 0000
Hello.

Gnucash fails to start if you have not installed 100dpi and 75dpi bitmap fonts for xorg... The error message you can see in console is:

peter@samovar ~ $ gnucash

Gdk-WARNING **: locale not supported by Xlib, locale set to C

Gdk-WARNING **: Missing charsets in FontSet creation


Gdk-WARNING **:     ISO8859-1

Warning: gnucash_style_set_register...(): Cannot load font: -adobe-helvetica-medium-r-normal--*-120-*-*-*-*-*-*


Gdk-WARNING **: Missing charsets in FontSet creation

After repeating of message beginig from 
"Gdk-WARNING **:     ISO8859-1" for more 5 times gnucash fails to start.

I think there should be some kind of test in gnucash ebuild. But maybe fast workaround willbe einfo about this in the end of installaiton.

Thank you for your attention.

Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:

------- Comment #1 From Peter Volkov 2004-12-28 06:27:24 0000 -------
Oh. Fogot to mention.

There is a link to gnucash-user mailing list about this "feature" but with another distribution...

https://lists.gnucash.org/pipermail/gnucash-user/2004-December/012193.html

------- Comment #2 From foser (RETIRED) 2004-12-28 07:04:13 0000 -------
well, the xorg ebuild already warns about disabling bitmap fonts as being a
gtk1 killer. I'm not sure what more we can do, any gtk1 app will probably
suffer.

Those options are there for users with understanding of the implications.

The only thing is that we shouldn't maybe disable installing these fonts by
default, which seems to happen right now (not in base profile). But that is up
to the x11 maintainer.

------- Comment #3 From Peter Volkov 2004-12-28 07:28:13 0000 -------
Hm-m-m. Xorg note only tell us that missing bitmap fonts make our gtk1 apps
look screwy. But issue I've mentioned about tells that it's even more. I can
not start application without it!

Look. In gentoo developers handbook, you can read that the ebuild should
install application ready out of box. But in our case after installation this
is definitly unusable application.

So I think you can check the presence of this fonts, and if user do not have
them show him a big red warning. Somethink like "gnucash now may be
unusable..."

This does not solve the problem, but help's the user to find sollution
faster...

Thank you for fast response.

------- Comment #4 From Donnie Berkholz 2004-12-28 11:35:40 0000 -------
It's not in base because base should be suitable for everyone, including odd
exceptions like embedded. But bitmap-fonts is in almost every profile group.
You can check with a quick grep of /usr/portage/profiles.

------- Comment #5 From Peter Volkov 2004-12-28 23:40:20 0000 -------
Well. I know that bitmap fonts are in my profile. But I think this is a bit
more general problem.

I think that USE flags should only enable/disable some features. But they
should not break packages. My system should work practically with any
combination of USE flags.

There are some exceptions like pam and may be others. But this is the evil,
developers should extirpate one day, I think.

So if you say: "Look you are using not default USE flags so you can break the
system" then I ask you why we need USE flags at all if I can use only default?

Summarising. If it is impossible to find workaround for every gtk+ application
it's better to remove bitmap-fonts USE flag from xorg. If somebody wants this
feature there should be other mechanism to enable it. Something like
environment variable in make.conf. But USE flags should not break the system.

Of course. I'm not the developer, and everything written above is IMHO.

------- Comment #6 From Donnie Berkholz 2004-12-30 13:26:53 0000 -------
Well, I think vapier added some functions, perhaps in flag-o-matic, to check
whether a USE flag is enabled for a given package. Since portage doesn't yet
support USE-flag deps. Perhaps gnucash could use those.

------- Comment #7 From Seemant Kulleen (RETIRED) 2004-12-30 13:57:22 0000 -------
good idea Donnie. done in all the gnucash ebuilds -- no revision bump.

------- Comment #8 From foser (RETIRED) 2005-01-04 09:13:25 0000 -------
imo those functions shouldn't have been added, it gives rise to bad ebuild
practices.

------- Comment #9 From Donnie Berkholz 2005-01-04 14:06:24 0000 -------
It wouldn't be my preference either, but do you have a better idea?