Re: Unstable X can't find font "fixed" dies immediately.
On Tue, Oct 23, 2001 at 05:21:12AM -0500, Branden Robinson wrote:
> > X installation working. You could stretch a point and say that
> > the x-window-system-core metapackage really should be installed by
> > anyone trying to install X.
>
> You could, but I wouldn't.
Good...
> > However, although the description for x-window-system-core suggests that
> > window managers etc. should depend on it, none does:
>
> It says no such thing.
Sorry, misquoted. It actually says:
Higher level metapackages, such as those for desktop environments, can
depend on this package and simplify their dependencies.
Anyway, nothing does depend on it, the point being that if anything
significant did, then the problem with xfonts-base wouldn't happen.
> > So, in the meantime, it looks to me as if xserver-xfree86 or xserver-common
> > should depend on xfonts-base.
> >
> > But I'm prepared to be persuaded otherwise ;)
>
> You're not in the habit of reading package descriptions, are you?
Actually, yes. I am that sad that every now and then I just sit there
scrolling down through dselect's package listings reading the descriptions.
Partly to see whether there's anything new and interesting that I've missed,
and partly just to get to know the whole distribution better.
Also partly because I get very bored sometimes ;)
Anyway, which one(s) were you referring to in particular, if any? Ah, the
xserver-common one... OK, so it says that you should probably install
three font packages.
And the reason it only Suggests: them rather than anything stronger seems
to be the possibility that users will want to save the space and use a font
server.
Fair enough, but from the angle I was coming from there was no indication
that I should do that. I explicitly requested the 75 & 100dpi packages but
forgot about -base. A user less familiar with Debian and X would probably
not have been very likely to figure out what the problem was. Not very
quickly, at any rate.
IMHO the fact that you don't really really really require xfonts-base in
order to have a working system is not sufficient to justify the decision
not to depend on it. There are so many situations in which it will be
required, even for someone who usually uses a font server, and the additional
size when compared to the overall size of an X setup is so small as to justify
a dependency.
So, just a suggestion.
--
Nick Phillips -- nwp@lemon-computing.com
You can rent this space for only $5 a week.
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