fatal X server error

[Rikki Hall <rikki@gar.net>]

X is failing thusly:

Fatal server error:
could not open default font 'fixed'

Others have had this problem and solved it by reinstalling xfonts
packages, but I have done a forced reinstall ('apt-get --reinstall install
...') of xfonts-base, xfonts-100dpi, xfonts-75dpi, and xfonts-scalable,
and it hasn't helped.

When I reinstalled xfonts-scalable, it complained "Running xftcache in
Type1 font directory...cannot open file "/etc/X11/XftConfig"".  That file
does not exist.  Also the X server complains, "error opening security
policy file /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xserver/SecurityPolicy", another
non-existent file.  Should these files exist?

>From X server output: (**) FontPath set to
"/usr/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi,/usr/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi,/usr/lib/X11/fonts/Type1,
/usr/lib/X11/fonts/Speedo,/usr/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi/:unscaled,
/usr/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/:unscaled,/usr/lib/X11/fonts/misc"

This tells me that all these directories are acceptable to the server, yet
it can't find the default font for some reason.  Any idea why?  Is it
possible to change the default font to something else?

I'm using the xfont packages from sid and running a 2.4.12 kernel.  I
think I'll go try the woody packages instead . . .

Thank you,
Rikki Hall