Error when starting X: "couldn't open default font 'fixed'"

by Jeff Coo » Tue, 27 Apr 1999 04:00:00

Hey all. I've just installed XFree86 3.3.3.1 over my Red Hat 4.1. I have a
Matrox Millenium 2 (4Mb) card, and I ran Xconfigurator to create my
XF86Config file.

When trying to run startx, I get the following message:

Couldn't load XKB keymap, falling back to pre-XKB keymap
failed to set default font path '/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc/,
/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Type1, /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Speedo,
/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/'
Fatal server error:
couldn't open default font 'fixed'

After looking at some documentation on the XF86Config file, I checked to
make sure all of the directories
misc, Type1, Speedo, and 75dpi existed, and they did. After more
reading, I ran mkfontdir on each of these directories.

Still no luck...

Any suggestions? Thanks for your help!!

ALSO! I was going to try running XF86Setup, however, it gives me an error
telling me to set an environment variable for XWINHOME equal to the parent
directory of XFree86's bin directory. How do I do that so that I can run
XF86Setup?

Thanks again!

- Jeff M. Coon

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1. Help: XFree86 startx error "could not open default font 'fixed'"

I get the error message "could not open default font 'fixed'"

right after starting startx.

The screen dump is as follows:
----------------------------
root!screamer: /usr/X11R6/lib/X11> startx

XFree86 Version 3.1.1 / X Window System
(protocol Version 11, revision 0, vendor release 6000)
Operating System: Linux
Configured drivers:
Mach64: accelerated server for ATI Mach64 graphics adaptors (Patchlevel 0)
(using VT number 7)

XF86Config: /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/XF86Config
(**) stands for supplied, (--) stands for probed/default values
(**) Mouse: type: Microsoft, device: /dev/mouse, baudrate: 1200
(**) Mach64: Graphics device ID: "m"
(**) Mach64: Monitor ID: "My Monitor"
Warning: The directory "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Type1/" does not exist.
Entry deleted from font path.
Warning: The directory "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Speedo/" does not exist.
Entry deleted from font path.
(**) FontPath set to "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc/,/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/,/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi/"
(--) Mach64: card type: PCI
(--) Mach64: Number of Clocks: 32
(--) Mach64: clocks: 50.35 56.64 63.00 72.00 40.00 44.90 49.50 50.00
(--) Mach64: clocks: 0.00 110.00 126.00 135.00 0.00 80.00 75.00 65.00
(--) Mach64: clocks: 25.18 28.32 31.50 36.00 20.00 22.45 24.75 25.00
(--) Mach64: clocks: 0.00 55.00 63.00 67.50 0.00 40.00 37.50 32.50
(--) Mach64: Maximum allowed dot-clock: 80.000 MHz
(**) Mach64: Mode "640x480": mode clock = 25.175, clock used = 25.175
(**) Mach64: Mode "800x600": mode clock = 36.000, clock used = 36.000
(**) Mach64: Mode "1024x768": mode clock = 44.900, clock used = 44.900
(**) Mach64: Mode "1280x1024": mode clock = 80.000, clock used = 80.000
(**) Mach64: Virtual resolution: 1280x1024
(--) Mach64: videoram: 4096k
(--) Mach64: Using hardware cursor
(--) Mach64: Using 4 MB aperture
(--) Mach64: Ramdac is IMS-G173/SC1148[368]
(--) Mach64: Using 6 bits per RGB value
(--) Mach64: Aperture mapped to 0x7c000000
(--) Mach64: Pixmap cache: 2 256x256 slots, 8 128x128 slots, 32 64x64 slots
(--) Mach64: Font cache: 16 fonts