Arch Linux

These urw fonts are included in the gsfonts package, so they should be a dependency for this package.

It seems they are not in the gsfonts package..
Here is the content of this package:
gsfonts /usr/
gsfonts /usr/share/
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/a010013l.afm
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/a010013l.pfb
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/a010013l.pfm
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/a010015l.afm
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/a010015l.pfb
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/a010015l.pfm
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/a010033l.afm
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/a010033l.pfb
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/a010033l.pfm
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/a010035l.afm
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/a010035l.pfb
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/a010035l.pfm
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/b018012l.afm
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/b018012l.pfb
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/b018012l.pfm
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/b018015l.afm
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/b018015l.pfb
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/b018015l.pfm
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/b018032l.afm
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/b018032l.pfb
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/b018032l.pfm
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/b018035l.afm
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/b018035l.pfb
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/b018035l.pfm
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/c059013l.afm
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/c059013l.pfb
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/c059016l.afm
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/c059016l.pfb
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/c059033l.afm
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/c059033l.pfb
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/c059036l.afm
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/c059036l.pfb
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/d050000l.afm
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/d050000l.pfb
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/n019003l.afm
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/n019003l.pfb
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/n019003l.pfm
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/n019004l.afm
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/n019004l.pfb
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/n019004l.pfm
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/n019023l.afm
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/n019023l.pfb
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/n019023l.pfm
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/n019024l.afm
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/n019024l.pfb
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/n019024l.pfm
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/n019043l.afm
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/n019043l.pfb
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/n019044l.afm
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/n019044l.pfb
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/n019063l.afm
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/n019063l.pfb
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/n019064l.afm
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/n019064l.pfb
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/n019064l.pfm
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/n021003l.afm
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/n021003l.pfb
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/n021003l.pfm
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/n021004l.afm
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/n021004l.pfb
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/n021004l.pfm
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/n021023l.afm
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/n021023l.pfb
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/n021023l.pfm
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/n021024l.afm
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/n021024l.pfb
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/n021024l.pfm
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/n022003l.afm
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/n022003l.pfb
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/n022004l.afm
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/n022004l.pfb
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/n022023l.afm
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/n022023l.pfb
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/n022024l.afm
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/n022024l.pfb
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/p052003l.afm
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/p052003l.pfb
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/p052004l.afm
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/p052004l.pfb
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/p052023l.afm
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/p052023l.pfb
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/p052024l.afm
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/p052024l.pfb
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/s050000l.afm
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/s050000l.pfb
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/z003034l.afm
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/z003034l.pfb
gsfonts /usr/share/fonts/Type1/z003034l.pfm

So, no urw fonts.. Anyway, xfig keeps complaining: "Can't find -urw-nimbus roman no9 l-medium-r-normal--13-*-*-*-*-*-ISO8859-*, using 6x13
"...

What font are you trying to use? Did installing gsfonts fixed it? I could only reproduce your bug by removing gsfonts and trying either the zapf or dingbats fonts. So gsfonts should be a depends of xfig. When gsfonts is installed, all fonts I tried works fine.

I try to use the default font (Times Roman I think), just by clicking with the text tool anywhere in the view, right after lauching xfig.
I did install gsfonts but it didn't change a thing..

Try using another font instead of the default one. There is no nimbus related font in xfig's font menu. Are you using the nimbus font as your system default font? Is so, that might be the problem when using xfig default font as there might not be any urw nimbus font.

Have you looked at the patch in the xfig package? There is a patch about fonts: http://repos.archlinux.org/wsvn/packages/xfig/repos/extra-i686/xfig-3.2.5-urwfonts.patch
And you can see, default times font is replaced by urw-nimbus, even if there is no nimbus related font in xfig's font menu...

I am aware about the patch. I have the urw fonts on my system. I don't really know why installing gsfonts doesn't fix the problem for you. Do you have:
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/Type1"
in your xorg.conf?

I'll check this on monday at work cause that where I encounter the problem. Though on my home computer, it is working (I have gsfonts installed and I don't have any xorg.conf).

I had that problem when I installed xfig and gsfonts without restarting, even "xset fp rehash" did not help. xfontsel can't find urw fonts.

The problem went away after restarting the computer. xfig does not complain about missing urw fonts and xfontsel correctly finds the urw fonts.

I don't why but it is working now (maybe the reboot solution mentioned by Lawrence did the trick).
I guess you can close the bugreport then.
Thank you anyway ;)