nxagent fails to run with "Could not open default font 'fixed'" about nx-libs

[sunweaver]

The real work to fix this is backporting this X.org patch:
https://cgit.freedesktop.org/xorg/xserver/commit/?id=49b93df8a3002db7196aa3fc1fd8dca1c12a55d6

[sunweaver]

and this one:
https://cgit.freedesktop.org/xorg/xserver/commit/?id=f56cbe1ef24415d0142b9a7d0ab0a031069ccb52

[Ionic]

Reopening, because this doesn't seem to be fixed.

Seen with nightly nx-libs versions on a Devuan Jessie system for some odd reason.

[sunweaver]

Hi Mihai

On Friday, August 18, 2017, Mihai Moldovan wrote: Reopening, because this doesn't seem to be fixed. Seen with nightly nx-libs versions on a Devuan Jessie system for some odd reason.

This is odd, indeed. The code for that error message is gone afair. Please do some more investigation if possible. Thanks, Mike

…

-- Sent from my Fairphone (running Sailfish OS)...

[uli42]

There are still several references to the "fixed" font in the code, e.g. as the default font that is used for font replacement or as the default font that is compiled in:

/nx-X11/programs/Xserver/include/site.h:#define COMPILEDDEFAULTFONT    "fixed"

Also the basic error message is still there:

./nx-X11/programs/Xserver/dix/main.c:       FatalError("could not open default font '%s'", defaultTextFont);

[Bdot42]

The 'Could not open default font 'fixed'' still occurs on OpenSuse, x2goserver-x2goagent: 3.5.99.24 (from x2goserver-x2goagent-4.1.0.7-0.0x2go1.0.git20230823.1996.heuler.x86_64 = latest nightly build).
Is there anything I can do to analyze that further? Is there a workaround to get the server to run?

[MAH69IK]

I too had a similar problem. I was trying to connect to Debian with Manjaro. As it turned out (thanks to stackoverflow!) - remote connection takes local fonts. So I just had to install some packages in Manjaro to get the fonts I needed and update the cache (fc-cache).

[uli42]

It really should not happen anymore. 3.5.99.24 is very old, please update to 3.5.99.26 or .27 Uli МАН69К ***@***.***> schrieb am So., 7. Jan. 2024, 02:13:

…

I too had a similar problem. I was trying to connect to Debian with Manjaro. As it turned out (thanks to stackoverflow!) - remote connection takes local fonts. So I just had to install some packages in Manjaro to get the fonts I needed and update the cache (fc-cache). — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#84 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ABQHBZDBVPHU3S5UAPU64QTYNHZC5AVCNFSM4B4GZZQKU5DIOJSWCZC7NNSXTN2JONZXKZKDN5WW2ZLOOQ5TCOBXHE4TAMZSGI3A> . You are receiving this because you commented.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[MAH69IK]

It really should not happen anymore. 3.5.99.24 is very old, please update to 3.5.99.26 or .27

My nxagent version is 3.5.99.26-5+deb12u1. I connected to the server via SSH, ran nxagent :55 and got the error "Could not open default font 'fixed'" until I found out that the problem was a lack of client-side fonts and installed additional packages. After that, both the nxagent command and the x2goclient call started working for me.

[uli42]

Was referring to the latest comment mention 3.5.99.24. However, you are right, the corresponding code is still existing in recent builds. Hmm.

And it is also still part of the upstream Xserver code - despite various people mentioning the fixed font is not required for current Xservers. Must do some research here, it seems...

See e.g. https://www.x.org/wiki/FAQErrorMessages/#index1h2

[uli42]

On my Debian 12 system I cannot provoke the "could not open default font 'fixed'" even by removing all fonts. You can verify this by running nxagent -ac :55 and then DISPLAY:55 xlsfonts - you will still see the fixed fonts because they are built into libXfont.

So maybe on your system there's something wrong with libXfont?

[MAH69IK]

Debian 12 - is my server. I needed to install fonts on the client, Manjaro, which would solve the problem. I used the command pacman -S xorg-fonts-100dpi xorg-fonts-75dpi xorg-fonts-cyrillic xorg-fonts-type1 xorg-fonts-misc. I think xorg-fonts-misc was sufficient. I had libxfont2 installed, it was fine. 2.0.6 on the client and on the server.

[4d30]

I believe I am experiencing this too

$ nxagent -version 
NXAGENT - Version 3.5.99.27
$ sudo pacman -S xorg-fonts-100dpi xorg-fonts-75dpi xorg-fonts-cyrillic xorg-fonts-type1 xorg-fonts-misc
warning: xorg-fonts-100dpi-1.0.4-2 is up to date -- reinstalling
warning: xorg-fonts-75dpi-1.0.4-1 is up to date -- reinstalling
warning: xorg-fonts-misc-1.0.4-1 is up to date -- reinstalling
resolving dependencies...
looking for conflicting packages...

Packages (5) xorg-fonts-100dpi-1.0.4-2  xorg-fonts-75dpi-1.0.4-1  xorg-fonts-cyrillic-1.0.4-1  xorg-fonts-misc-1.0.4-1  xorg-fonts-type1-1:1.0.4-1

Total Download Size:   23.91 MiB
Total Installed Size:  38.55 MiB
Net Upgrade Size:       3.04 MiB

:: Proceed with installation? [Y/n] 
:: Retrieving packages...
 xorg-fonts-100dpi-1.0.4-2-any                                                          11.9 MiB  1222 KiB/s 00:10 [#####################################################################] 100%
 xorg-fonts-75dpi-1.0.4-1-any                                                           10.3 MiB  1104 KiB/s 00:10 [#####################################################################] 100%
 xorg-fonts-type1-1:1.0.4-1-any                                                       1341.5 KiB  1458 KiB/s 00:01 [#####################################################################] 100%
 xorg-fonts-cyrillic-1.0.4-1-any                                                       378.7 KiB  1857 KiB/s 00:00 [#####################################################################] 100%
 Total (4/4)                                                                            23.9 MiB  1175 KiB/s 00:21 [#####################################################################] 100%
(5/5) checking keys in keyring                                                                                     [#####################################################################] 100%
(5/5) checking package integrity                                                                                   [#####################################################################] 100%
(5/5) loading package files                                                                                        [#####################################################################] 100%
(5/5) checking for file conflicts                                                                                  [#####################################################################] 100%
(5/5) checking available disk space                                                                                [#####################################################################] 100%
:: Processing package changes...
(1/5) reinstalling xorg-fonts-100dpi                                                                               [#####################################################################] 100%
(2/5) reinstalling xorg-fonts-75dpi                                                                                [#####################################################################] 100%
(3/5) installing xorg-fonts-cyrillic                                                                               [#####################################################################] 100%
(4/5) installing xorg-fonts-type1                                                                                  [#####################################################################] 100%
(5/5) reinstalling xorg-fonts-misc                                                                                 [#####################################################################] 100%
:: Running post-transaction hooks...
(1/2) Updating fontconfig cache...
(2/2) Updating X fontdir indices...
$ nxagent -ac :55

NXAGENT - Version 3.5.99.27

Copyright (c) 2001, 2011 NoMachine (http://www.nomachine.com)
Copyright (c) 2008-2017 Oleksandr Shneyder <[email protected]>
Copyright (c) 2011-2022 Mike Gabriel <[email protected]>
Copyright (c) 2014-2022 Ulrich Sibiller <[email protected]>
Copyright (c) 2014-2019 Mihai Moldovan <[email protected]>
Copyright (c) 2015-2016 Qindel Group (http://www.qindel.com)
See https://github.com/ArcticaProject/nx-libs for more information.

Info: Agent running with pid '28216'.
Session: Starting session at 'Fri Mar  1 17:11:38 2024'.
Info: Using alpha channel in render extension.
Info: Not using local device configuration changes.
Warning: Cannot read keystroke file '/home/joey/.nx/config/keystrokes.cfg'.
Info: using keystrokes file '/etc/nxagent/keystrokes.cfg'
Currently known keystrokes:

  close_session         : Ctrl+Alt+t
  switch_all_screens    : Ctrl+Alt+f
  fullscreen            : Ctrl+Shift+Alt+f
  minimize              : Ctrl+Alt+m
  defer                 : Ctrl+Alt+e
  force_synchronization : Ctrl+Alt+j
  resize                : Ctrl+Alt+r
  viewport_move_left    : Ctrl+Shift+Alt+Left
  viewport_move_left    : Ctrl+Shift+Alt+KP_Left
  viewport_move_up      : Ctrl+Shift+Alt+Up
  viewport_move_up      : Ctrl+Shift+Alt+KP_Up
  viewport_move_right   : Ctrl+Shift+Alt+Right
  viewport_move_right   : Ctrl+Shift+Alt+KP_Right
  viewport_move_down    : Ctrl+Shift+Alt+Down
  viewport_move_down    : Ctrl+Shift+Alt+KP_Down
  viewport_scroll_left  : Ctrl+Alt+Left
  viewport_scroll_left  : Ctrl+Alt+KP_Left
  viewport_scroll_up    : Ctrl+Alt+Up
  viewport_scroll_up    : Ctrl+Alt+KP_Up
  viewport_scroll_right : Ctrl+Alt+Right
  viewport_scroll_right : Ctrl+Alt+KP_Right
  viewport_scroll_down  : Ctrl+Alt+Down
  viewport_scroll_down  : Ctrl+Alt+KP_Down
  reread_keystrokes     : Ctrl+Alt+k
  autograb              : Ctrl+Alt+g
  dump_clipboard        : Ctrl+Shift+Alt+cerror opening security policy file /usr/local/share/nx/SecurityPolicy
Info: Keycode conversion auto-determined as on
Error: Aborting session with 'Could not open default font 'fixed''.
Session: Aborting session at 'Fri Mar  1 17:11:38 2024'.
Session: Session aborted at 'Fri Mar  1 17:11:38 2024'

EDIT:
This seems to work:
$ nxagent -ac -fn lucidasanstypewriter-10 -fc lucidasans-24 :55

but not this:
$ nxagent -ac -fn fixed -fc cursor :55

While this workaround gets it to open and run, I don't know how to make x2go call those kwargs so I will have to file this under interesting but not immediately helpful.