can't find fonts

[Jake Stowell <js8319@csc.albany.edu>]

Hi all,

I am having a problem gettin the new X to start.  I had it up and
running yesterday, but when I rebooted this morning, I received the
following error:
Fatal server error:

could not open default font 'fixed'

When reporting a problem related to a server crash, please send
the full server output, not just the last messages.
This can be found in the log file "/var/log/XFree86.0.log".
Please report problems to debian-x@lists.debian.org.

X connection to :0.0 broken (explicit kill or server shutdown).



I made sure that xfs was running and I also tried update-font-alias to
no avail.  Below is the last few lines of an "strace startx" file:

open("/usr/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/fonts.alias", O_RDONLY) = 7
fstat(7, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0644, st_size=103, ...}) = 0
fstat(7, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0644, st_size=103, ...}) = 0
old_mmap(NULL, 4096, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_ANONYMOUS,
-1, 0) = 0x40018000
read(7, "!! fonts.alias -- automatically "..., 4096) = 103
read(7, "", 4096)                       = 0
close(7)                                = 0
munmap(0x40018000, 4096)                = 0
brk(0x87c6000)                          = 0x87c6000
brk(0x87cc000)                          = 0x87cc000
write(2, "\nFatal server error:\n", 21
Fatal server error:
) = 21
write(0, "\nFatal server error:\n", 21) = 21
write(2, "could not open default font \'fix"..., 35could not open
default font 'fixed') = 35
write(0, "could not open default font \'fix"..., 35) = 35
write(2, "\n", 1
)                       = 1
write(0, "\n", 1)                       = 1
write(2, "\nWhen reporting a problem relate"..., 117
When reporting a problem related to a server crash, please send
the full server output, not just the last messages.
) = 117
write(0, "\nWhen reporting a problem relate"..., 117) = 117
write(2, "This can be found in the log fil"..., 60This can be found in
the log file "/var/log/XFree86.0.log".
) = 60
write(0, "This can be found in the log fil"..., 60) = 60
write(2, "Please report problems to debian"..., 53Please report problems
to debian-x@lists.debian.org.
) = 53
write(0, "Please report problems to debian"..., 53) = 53
write(2, "\n", 1
)                       = 1
write(0, "\n", 1)                       = 1
unlink("/tmp/.X0-lock")                 = 0
ioctl(4, KDSKBMODE, 0x1)                = 0
ioctl(4, SNDCTL_TMR_START, {B38400 opost isig icanon echo ...}) = 0
ioctl(4, TCGETS, {B38400 opost isig icanon echo ...}) = 0
rt_sigprocmask(SIG_BLOCK, [CHLD], [], 8) = 0
rt_sigaction(SIGCHLD, NULL, {SIG_DFL}, 8) = 0
rt_sigprocmask(SIG_SETMASK, [], NULL, 8) = 0
nanosleep({1, 0}, {1, 0})               = 0
gettimeofday({973620921, 319398}, NULL) = 0
ioctl(4, KDSETMODE, 0)                  = 0
ioctl(4, VT_GETMODE, 0xbffff9d4)        = 0
ioctl(4, VT_SETMODE, 0xbffff9d4)        = 0
ioctl(4, VT_ACTIVATE, 0x1)              = 0
close(4)                                = 0
close(0)                                = 0
_exit(1)                                = ?
shaq-fu[/home/jake]% exit

I am not sure what to try next.  Any help will be much appreciated.

Sincerely, 
jake