FS#74374 - [xterm] Some font (opt)dependencies are missing

Attached to Project: Arch Linux
Opened by Neven Sajko (Neven) - Wednesday, 06 April 2022, 20:27 GMT
Last edited by David Thurstenson (thurstylark) - Sunday, 01 May 2022, 14:04 GMT
Task Type Bug Report
Category Packages: Extra
Status Closed
Assigned To Andreas Radke (AndyRTR)
Architecture All
Severity Low
Priority Normal
Reported Version
Due in Version Undecided
Due Date Undecided
Percent Complete 100%
Votes 0
Private No

Details

xterm was displaying unicode characters with blank glyphs until I did

pacman -S xorg-font-util xorg-fonts-100dpi xorg-fonts-75dpi xorg-fonts-cyrillic xorg-fonts-misc xorg-fonts-type1

Futhermore, I wasn't able to change font size until I did this.
This task depends upon

Closed by  David Thurstenson (thurstylark)
Sunday, 01 May 2022, 14:04 GMT
Reason for closing:  Won't implement
Additional comments about closing:  Update Wiki with necessary information instead.
Comment by Neven Sajko (Neven) - Wednesday, 27 April 2022, 21:28 GMT
Update: I think that xorg-fonts-75dpi is actually unnecessary when xorg-fonts-100dpi is installed, don't know whether the other ones (cyrillic, misc, type1) are necessary. Another required dependency (for changing the font size at runtime) is xorg-mkfontscale.
Comment by Neven Sajko (Neven) - Wednesday, 27 April 2022, 21:30 GMT
And, a clarification: this whole issue is about the default, bitmap fonts; however xterm also supports TrueType fonts (TTF), and those are better than bitmap fonts anyway.
Comment by Neven Sajko (Neven) - Wednesday, 27 April 2022, 21:33 GMT
So this issue is relevant for the *default* xterm experience, it basically doesn't matter once xterm is properly (modernly) configured (with .Xresources).
Comment by Andreas Radke (AndyRTR) - Saturday, 30 April 2022, 13:36 GMT
I'm not sure if it makes sense to suggest some specific font here. Other distributions also don't seem to suggest a specific font or suggest the misc-misc Xorg font.
Comment by Neven Sajko (Neven) - Saturday, 30 April 2022, 14:13 GMT
I suggest:

1) adding xorg-mkfontscale to optdepends for those that want non-scalable fonts for some reason

2) adding an install message pointing to the Wiki, suggesting to setup TrueType scalable fonts using an .Xresources file
Comment by Neven Sajko (Neven) - Saturday, 30 April 2022, 14:31 GMT
TBH after a little experiment (uninstalling some of the xorg packages) it seems like xorg-mkfontscale isn't necessary for changing font size after all.

So ignore point 1.
Comment by Andreas Radke (AndyRTR) - Saturday, 30 April 2022, 15:23 GMT
Then feel free to add your suggestions to our wiki page and and let's close this issue here.

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