Arch Linux

dimich

Member

From: Kharkiv, Ukraine

Registered: 2009-11-03

Posts: 380

[SOLVED] fontconfig: Terminus font disappeared

After fontconfig upgraded to 2:2.17.0-1 Terminus font disappeared from registered system fonts. Applications render some default ugly one instead.
E.g. xterm with fontconfig-2:2.16.2-1:

fontconfig-2:2.17.0-1:

Font for xterm is specified in ~/.Xresources:

XTerm.vt100.faceName: Terminus:size=10:antialias=false

The same for fbrun tool where font is specified in command line:

fbrun -font "Terminus:style=bold" -nearmouse -w 320

fc-list output before upgrade:

$ fc-list Terminus
/usr/share/fonts/misc/ter-u22n.otb: Terminus:style=Regular
/usr/share/fonts/misc/ter-u20n.otb: Terminus:style=Regular
/usr/share/fonts/misc/ter-u22b.otb: Terminus:style=Bold
/usr/share/fonts/misc/ter-u20b.otb: Terminus:style=Bold
/usr/share/fonts/misc/ter-u24n.otb: Terminus:style=Regular
/usr/share/fonts/misc/ter-u32n.otb: Terminus:style=Regular
/usr/share/fonts/misc/ter-u28n.otb: Terminus:style=Regular
/usr/share/fonts/misc/ter-u24b.otb: Terminus:style=Bold
/usr/share/fonts/misc/ter-u18n.otb: Terminus:style=Regular
/usr/share/fonts/misc/ter-u12n.otb: Terminus:style=Regular
/usr/share/fonts/misc/ter-u16n.otb: Terminus:style=Regular
/usr/share/fonts/misc/ter-u14n.otb: Terminus:style=Regular
/usr/share/fonts/misc/ter-u12b.otb: Terminus:style=Bold
/usr/share/fonts/misc/ter-u16b.otb: Terminus:style=Bold
/usr/share/fonts/misc/ter-u14b.otb: Terminus:style=Bold
/usr/share/fonts/misc/ter-u18b.otb: Terminus:style=Bold
/usr/share/fonts/misc/ter-u32b.otb: Terminus:style=Bold
/usr/share/fonts/misc/ter-u28b.otb: Terminus:style=Bold

After upgrade 'fc-list Terminus" output is empty.

I remember I was struggling a year or two ago to get Terminus font usable due to permanent renaming it from "Terminus" to "xos4 Terminus" and back. Seems recent changes broke something again.

Last edited by dimich (2025-07-03 00:20:38)

dimich

Member

From: Kharkiv, Ukraine

Registered: 2009-11-03

Posts: 380

Re: [SOLVED] fontconfig: Terminus font disappeared

Well, solution from Font configuration wiki article seems fixed the issue. Just changed /etc/fonts/conf.avail/ to /etc/fonts/conf.d/

dimich

Member

From: Kharkiv, Ukraine

Registered: 2009-11-03

Posts: 380

Re: [SOLVED] fontconfig: Terminus font disappeared

Not solved yet. Solution from wiki fixes xterm and fbrun, but some other apps still don't see Terminus font. Examples of such apps are tilda and pluma.

seth

Member

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 66,004

Re: [SOLVED] fontconfig: Terminus font disappeared

rm /usr/share/fontconfig/conf.default/70-no-bitmaps-except-emoji.conf

I guess…

Ceterum censeo: fuck emojis.

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dimich

Member

From: Kharkiv, Ukraine

Registered: 2009-11-03

Posts: 380

Re: [SOLVED] fontconfig: Terminus font disappeared

rm /usr/share/fontconfig/conf.default/70-no-bitmaps-except-emoji.conf

I guess…

You guessed it!
Non-volatile variant:

# ln -s /dev/null /etc/fonts/conf.d/70-no-bitmaps-except-emoji.conf

Thank you.

Marking as solved. Maybe this could be fixed in Arch fontconfig package, but I won't even try to report the issue to the freedesktop upstream.   

Ceterum censeo: fuck emojis.

Yes!

damnbug

Member

Registered: 2012-09-18

Posts: 86

Re: [SOLVED] fontconfig: Terminus font disappeared

Aaaaand it's gone. Terminus also disappeared from xfce4-terminal. Is this a bug? Will it be fixed? I'm downgrading fontconfig for the moment.

Fusion916

Member

Registered: 2024-05-18

Posts: 49

Re: [SOLVED] fontconfig: Terminus font disappeared

I had the same issue. I was using Terminus bitmap font in various places and the 70-no-bitmaps-except-emoji.conf addition removed it. For now I'm just switching to Terminess Nerd Font even though it isn't exact the same as Terminus.

seth

Member

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 66,004

Re: [SOLVED] fontconfig: Terminus font disappeared

Did you take care of /etc/fonts/conf.d/70-no-bitmaps-except-emoji.conf ?

https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/fontconf … type=heads doesn't say "we hate all bitmap fonts, only hail t o emojis" - so I assume it's an upstream bug (nothing obvious has changes in the PKGBUILD)
https://gitlab.archlinux.org/archlinux/ … 1db2f59cd3

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Fusion916

Member

Registered: 2024-05-18

Posts: 49

Re: [SOLVED] fontconfig: Terminus font disappeared

Or you can try:

https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/terminus-font-ttf

this works for me

seth

Member

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 66,004

Re: [SOLVED] fontconfig: Terminus font disappeared

This isn't only terminus and also people tend to use the bitmap font for a reason.

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seth

Member

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 66,004

Re: [SOLVED] fontconfig: Terminus font disappeared

https://gitlab.archlinux.org/archlinux/ … -/issues/2

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dimich

Member

From: Kharkiv, Ukraine

Registered: 2009-11-03

Posts: 380

Re: [SOLVED] fontconfig: Terminus font disappeared

https://gitlab.archlinux.org/archlinux/ … -/issues/2

Cool. I got my popcorn.

Indeed, "non-volatile variant" doesn't work as expected. Fontconf doesn't like empty files:

Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/70-no-bitmaps-except-emoji.conf", line 1: no element found

seth

Member

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 66,004

Re: [SOLVED] fontconfig: Terminus font disappeared

Arch maintainer is gonna decide whether to restore the status-quo ante, force yes-bitmap or keep the default setting as new status quo. Then we will all live on.
Maybe add a comment to the wiki.

But not by me.
I'd go on a tangent how incredibly silly it is to face "Help, I installed a font I don't like and now I'm seeing it" and respond to that "Let's just disable all fonts of the category of the one font you don't like, except emojis. I like emojis." instead of preferring Liberation or whatever over Helvetica or just not cluttering your disk with stuff you don't want in the first place. Then I'd go on ranting over emojis, the downfall of human civilization and how this entire episode is emblematic of our overall course towards an idiocracy. Fuck emojis.

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Hanabishi

Member

Registered: 2020-08-07

Posts: 42

Re: [SOLVED] fontconfig: Terminus font disappeared

What's the problem? Simply

# rm /etc/fonts/conf.d/70-no-bitmaps-except-emoji.conf

It's not part of the package, it would not be recreated.

seth

Member

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 66,004

Re: [SOLVED] fontconfig: Terminus font disappeared

https://archlinux.org/packages/extra/x86_64/fontconfig/ - it very much /is/ now part of fontconfig 2:2.17.0-1 - that's the "problem". Well, "objection".

Edit: not the etc copy, of course - the "problem" is essentially that this gets added by default now which might be unexpected and undesirable - and Idk how this acts if you already have another 70-* config in place.

Last edited by seth (2025-06-29 10:14:50)

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Hanabishi

Member

Registered: 2020-08-07

Posts: 42

Re: [SOLVED] fontconfig: Terminus font disappeared

Umm, no it's not? See in your own link. I guess you guys simply have no idea how the package works.

New default symlinks in /etc/fonts/conf.d/ are created dynamically only once after installation. Fontconfig do not read files from /usr/share/fontconfig/ by its own.

seth

Member

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 66,004

Re: [SOLVED] fontconfig: Terminus font disappeared

See my edit.

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Hanabishi

Member

Registered: 2020-08-07

Posts: 42

Re: [SOLVED] fontconfig: Terminus font disappeared

of course - the "problem" is essentially that this gets added by default now which might be unexpected and undesirable

That's another question. Although, default configuration is not considered a problem for Arch Linux, afaik. What matters is that it's easily configurable.

Idk how this acts if you already have another 70-* config in place.

See the linked script again. It does not overwite existing files.

seth

Member

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 66,004

Re: [SOLVED] fontconfig: Terminus font disappeared

That's the point, resp. the question: what if you already have 70-yes-bitmap.conf and now get blessed w/ 70-no-bitmaps-except-emoji.conf (alphabetic precedence? You'll run into a conflict w/ either 70-no-bitmaps.conf or 70-yes-bitmap.conf)

That's another question.

Arch maintainer is gonna decide whether to restore the status-quo ante, force yes-bitmap or keep the default setting as new status quo. Then we will all live on.
Maybe add a comment to the wiki.

The point of the bug report is to at least raise awareness of the situation w/ the maintainers, since this is very much an unannounced change by upstream (hidden by the introduction of a config which has defaults that fundamentally changed the previous defaults)
Sorry for bothering, I guess. Ignorance is bliss.

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Hanabishi

Member

Registered: 2020-08-07

Posts: 42

Re: [SOLVED] fontconfig: Terminus font disappeared

That's the point, resp. the question: what if you already have 70-yes-bitmap.conf and now get blessed w/ 70-no-bitmaps-except-emoji.conf (alphabetic precedence? You'll run into a conflict w/ either 70-no-bitmaps.conf or 70-yes-bitmap.conf)

The script is smart, old defaults are removed/replaced automatically. So this update actually removes 70-yes-bitmap.conf if present and places 70-no-bitmaps-except-emoji.conf instead.

Last edited by Hanabishi (2025-06-29 10:41:15)

Hanabishi

Member

Registered: 2020-08-07

Posts: 42

Re: [SOLVED] fontconfig: Terminus font disappeared

But actually I'm wrong about the last part. Peeked into the old version, 70-yes-bitmap.conf was not enabled by default, so it would not be removed by this update.
Which means it only could be there if user enabled it. And I guess it remains the user's responsibility to resolve the conflict.

Hanabishi

Member

Registered: 2020-08-07

Posts: 42

Re: [SOLVED] fontconfig: Terminus font disappeared

P.S. I added a troubleshooting step to the fontconfig wiki article. And also placed a warning into the fonts.

dimich

Member

From: Kharkiv, Ukraine

Registered: 2009-11-03

Posts: 380

Re: [SOLVED] fontconfig: Terminus font disappeared

P.S. I added a troubleshooting step to the fontconfig wiki article. And also placed a warning into the fonts.

Thank you for your effort.

I figured out why removing the symlink worked first but then the issue raised again: I downgraded fontconfig to 2:2.16 and upgraded it back to 2:2.17, so the symlink was re-created.

It's not part of the package, it would not be recreated.

Until upstream decide to "fix" something for "regular users" again.

I think the problem lies quite deeper. Fontconfig as an engine (universal entity) is shipped with pre-defined configurations (customizable entities) which may not meet all user's preferences. (The same problem with systemd, BTW).
Code and data separation is a useful paradigm in programming, the same should be applied to packaging as well, IMHO.

boltronics

Member

Registered: 2015-12-25

Posts: 3

Re: [SOLVED] fontconfig: Terminus font disappeared

P.S. I added a troubleshooting step to the fontconfig wiki article. And also placed a warning into the fonts.

Thanks everyone. I was going to go mad today if I couldn't have Terminus in Terminator.

Hanabishi

Member

Registered: 2020-08-07

Posts: 42

Re: [SOLVED] fontconfig: Terminus font disappeared

Fixed in 2.17.1 on Arch package side. It does not install the rule by default now.