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Description of problem:
I had openoffice (openoffice-1.0.2-4.i386.rpm) installed from RedHat 9 on my
system and I wanted to upgrade to openoffice 1.1 so I removed the following
three packages from my system
rpm -e openoffice
rpm -e openoffice-libs
rpm -e openoffice-i18n
 
and installed the new packages found in the severn beta CD I downloaded:
rpm -Uvh openoffice.org-i18n-1.1.0-2.i386.rpm
rpm -Uvh openoffice.org-libs-1.1.0-2.i386.rpm
rpm -Uvh openoffice.org-1.1.0-2.i386.rpm

The next time I restarted my system X would not start complaining
that it could not find the fontpath "unix/:7100" or some such.

I traced the problem to the fact that xfs was not running and I traced the
reason for that to be that the font server's config file,
/etc/X11/fs/config
had been corrupted by the openoffice.org installation so that now xfs choked on
start up.

In my original config file I had added a few lines to add some font directories
required by my proprietary Mathematica program.  So originally it read something
like
------------------------------------
                     .  .
                     .  .
                     .  .
# where to look for fonts
#
catalogue = /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/korean,
        /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc:unscaled,
        /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi:unscaled,
                     .  .
                     .  .
                     .  .
        /usr/share/fonts/tv-fonts,
# I have added the following font directories for Mathematica 
        /usr/local/mathematica/SystemFiles/Fonts/Type1,
        /usr/local/mathematica/SystemFiles/Fonts/X
# in 12 points, decipoints
default-point-size = 120
                     .  .
                     .  .
                     .  .
-----------------------------------------
Note in particular the comment in the middle of the font directory list.  After
I installed openoffice.org it seems to have choked on the
comment that (I perhaps inadvisedly) put in the middle of the font
directory list (but hey xfs accepted it!)
Openoffice.org placed its font directory right before the comment and placed my
mathematica font directories on their own as follows:
--------------------------------------------
                     .  .
                     .  .
                     .  .
# where to look for fonts
#
catalogue = /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/korean,
        /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc:unscaled,
        /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi:unscaled,
                     .  .
                     .  .
                     .  .
        /usr/share/fonts/tv-fonts,
        /usr/lib/openoffice/share/fonts/truetype
# I added the following font directories for Mathematica 
/usr/local/mathematica/SystemFiles/Fonts/Type1,
/usr/local/mathematica/SystemFiles/Fonts/X
# in 12 points, decipoints
default-point-size = 120
                     .  .
                     .  .
                     .  .
----------------------------------------
As you can see the config file was now broken and I had to go
in manually and fix the list before xfs (and hence X) would work again. 
Admittedly my placing a comment in the middle of the list may not be something
most people do, but since the font server itself is fine with it, the
openoffice.org install ought to admit the possibility and deal with it.

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
openoffice.org-1.1.0-2

How reproducible:
Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Create a goofy font server config file with comments in the font list
2. Install openoffice.org packages
3.
    

Actual Results:  xfs wouldn't start and so X didn't start

Expected Results:  The openoffice.org install should have added its font
directory line in the fs config file without corrupting it so that the
installation worked seamlessly.

Additional info:

Note my personalized fs config file above.  Sorry I don't have the exact
original file (it got corrupted).  I may have had several lines of comment in
the original file and I'm writing this up from memory.  Hopefully this is enough
of a lead to check your code that parses and edits the font server config file.