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Bug 1018126

Summary: Font *helvetica* not seen by fc-list or in system-preferences-appearance.
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Reporter: amit yadav <ayadav>
Component: xorg-x11-fontsAssignee: Peter Hutterer <peter.hutterer>
Status: CLOSED WONTFIX QA Contact: Desktop QE <desktop-qa-list>
Severity: medium Docs Contact:
Priority: medium    
Version: 6.4CC: ayadav, tpelka
Target Milestone: rc   
Target Release: ---   
Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version: Doc Type: Bug Fix
Doc Text:
Story Points: ---
Clone Of: Environment:
Last Closed: 2014-12-08 09:35:50 UTC Type: Bug
Regression: --- Mount Type: ---
Documentation: --- CRM:
Verified Versions: Category: ---
oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team: --- Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:
Bug Depends On:    
Bug Blocks: 1075802    

Description amit yadav 2013-10-11 09:49:16 UTC 
Description of problem:

All required "xorg-x11-fonts" font packages are installed on the system but helvetica fonts can't be used in following commands/applications:

# fc-list

or by

# system-preferences-appearance

or by

# gnome-terminal     (In profile font settings)

Above applications are not displaying this font in settings, so unable to select them.


Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
xorg-x11-fonts*

How reproducible:
Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Make sure following packages are installed on the system

xorg-x11-fonts-100dpi-7.2-9.1.el6.noarch
xorg-x11-fonts-75dpi-7.2-9.1.el6.noarch
xorg-x11-fonts-ISO8859-9-100dpi-7.2-9.1.el6.noarch
xorg-x11-fonts-ISO8859-1-75dpi-7.2-9.1.el6.noarch
xorg-x11-fonts-ISO8859-2-75dpi-7.2-9.1.el6.noarch
xorg-x11-fonts-ISO8859-15-75dpi-7.2-9.1.el6.noarch
xorg-x11-fonts-ISO8859-15-100dpi-7.2-9.1.el6.noarch
xorg-x11-fonts-ISO8859-1-100dpi-7.2-9.1.el6.noarch
xorg-x11-fonts-ISO8859-2-100dpi-7.2-9.1.el6.noarch
xorg-x11-fonts-ISO8859-9-75dpi-7.2-9.1.el6.noarch
xorg-x11-fonts-ISO8859-14-100dpi-7.2-9.1.el6.noarch
xorg-x11-fonts-ISO8859-14-75dpi-7.2-9.1.el6.noarch

2. Run  below command:

   # fc-list| grep -i hel


Actual results:

It will not display helvetica fonts

Expected results:

It should display helvetica fonts

Additional info:

[Workaround]

By manually defining fonts in /etc/fonts/fonts.conf file with these lines:

<snip>

<dir>/usr/share/X11/fonts/75dpi</dir>
    <dir>/usr/share/X11/fonts/100dpi</dir>

</snip>

and excuting below commands it can be listed in those applications:

 # fc-cache -f -v
Comment 1 RHEL Program Management 2013-10-13 23:00:55 UTC 
This request was evaluated by Red Hat Product Management for
inclusion in the current release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
Because the affected component is not scheduled to be updated
in the current release, Red Hat is unable to address this
request at this time.

Red Hat invites you to ask your support representative to
propose this request, if appropriate, in the next release of
Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
Comment 6 Peter Hutterer 2014-12-03 00:19:57 UTC 
local workaround: 
Save the following snippet as /etc/fonts/conf.d/01-xorg-x11-fonts.conf

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd">
<fontconfig>
	<dir>/usr/share/X11/fonts/75dpi</dir>
	<dir>/usr/share/X11/fonts/100dpi</dir>
</fontconfig>

Then run fc-cache -fv, verify the font is listed with fc-list | grep Helvetica

Dropping this file into the directory is simpler than editing the fonts.conf file and scriptable for multiple deployments.

Note that enabling fontconfig to find these files has undesirable impact on other applications. For example, if Helvetica is listed Firefox prefers that font over the nicer-looking aliased ones. This gives a number of websites a distinctively 80s look. Reproducible by running the above commands, then opening a html file containing:

<html>
    <body>
        <p style="font-family:helvetica">How does this text look?</p>
    </body>
</html>
Comment 8 RHEL Program Management 2014-12-08 09:35:50 UTC 
Development Management has reviewed and declined this request.
You may appeal this decision by reopening this request.