(In reply to Tarik ROKHSANE from comment #0)
> The abattis-cantarell-fonts package in fc44 is significantly behind upstream.
> Fedora ships 0.301 (December 2020) while upstream is at 0.311 (January 2026),
> skipping four releases:
> 
>   0.302 — variable font made the default; statics still available
>   0.303 — PostScript name fix for 0.302
>   0.310 — ss01 ligature improvements, autohinting fixes, new translations
>   0.311 — ss01 variant for the "fl" ligature
> 
> Upstream release notes for 0.310 include a packagers note:
> 
>   "I recommend installing only the VF by default to avoid duplicate font
>   entries (VF and statics have the same family name). When apps have
>   issues with just the VF, please report them upstream."
> 
> Full changelog: https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/cantarell-fonts/-/tags
> 
> Thanks
> 
> Reproducible: Always

After digging into the full dependency chain, the upstream fontconfig transition is already done — Fedora just needs to follow through.

fontconfig 2.16.1 (shipped in Fedora as 2.17.x) already added:
- 60-latin.conf: system-ui prefer chain is now Adwaita Sans → Cantarell → Noto Sans UI → Segoe UI
- 45-latin.conf: both Adwaita Sans and Cantarell registered as system-ui fonts

However, Fedora's own 31-cantarell.conf re-asserts Cantarell as the sole prefer target for system-ui, overriding what upstream fontconfig already set correctly. This is why fc-match system-ui still returns Cantarell on a fully updated fc43/fc44 system.

The remaining work is:

1. abattis-cantarell-fonts: drop or strip the prefer block from 31-cantarell.conf — the generic assignment (Cantarell → system-ui) is already covered by 45-latin.conf

2. default-fonts-core-sans: switch dep from abattis-cantarell-vf-fonts → adwaita-fonts

3. plymouth: three files need updating (upstream issue #289, open and unassigned for 11 months):
   - spinner.plymouth.desktop
   - bgrt.plymouth.desktop
   - keymap-render.py (the LUKS passphrase on-screen keyboard — font failure here is a real UX issue at boot)

Items 2 and 3 need to move together — the current dep chain (fontconfig → cairo → gnome-shell) makes Cantarell unremovable until default-fonts-core-sans is updated, as confirmed by dnf:

  Problem: installed package fontconfig requires font(:lang=en), but none of the providers can be installed
  - installed package default-fonts-core-sans requires abattis-cantarell-vf-fonts

Arch Linux completed this transition in October 2025. No new fontconfig conf work is needed — fontconfig upstream already did it all in 2.16.1.