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sajro

Member

Registered: 2008-03-02

Posts: 56

OpenOffice fonts issue - searched to no avail

Sorry for my 2nd newbie topic in one day!

I just installed OpenOffice (openoffice-base, stable)  and no text shows up. Whenever I open an OO.o application, I just get a bunch of rectangles, no letters.

Everything I've found related to this only covers certain fonts like TTF or Unicode, etc. I also checked the wiki - no help.

Has anyone else had this issue?

amranu

Member

Registered: 2008-09-25

Posts: 94

Re: OpenOffice fonts issue - searched to no avail

Are you using a strange font as your application font? I had an issue like this before

fwojciec

Member

Registered: 2007-05-20

Posts: 1,411

Re: OpenOffice fonts issue - searched to no avail

Try starting openoffice from the terminal and see if it prints any error messages -- maybe it'll help you troubleshoot.

Sir_Hearse

Member

Registered: 2009-02-18

Posts: 6

Re: OpenOffice fonts issue - searched to no avail

I've been having the same issue.  Installed openoffice-base, appeared to install fine, but now has rectangles for all characters.  The original error was:

I18N: Operating system doesn't support locale "en_US"

I've tried two solutions, no avail:

Attempt 1:
# cd /usr/share/locale
# ln -s en_US.ISO8859-15 en_US

Attempt 2
vim /etc/locale.gen
sudo locale-gen
setting rc.conf LOCALE="en_US.iso88591" (also tried en_US.utf8, for that matter).

The first attempt did nothing, the second attempt got rid of the error message, but not the error.  Any suggestions?

Ranguvar

Member

Registered: 2008-08-12

Posts: 2,563

Re: OpenOffice fonts issue - searched to no avail

The locale needs to have a - between 8859 and 1, but that shouldn't matter.

Suggestions? What fwojciec said, most apps print a message if they can't find a font they want.

Sir_Hearse

Member

Registered: 2009-02-18

Posts: 6

Re: OpenOffice fonts issue - searched to no avail

Sorry, should've specified that I did it with what i believe to be the correct name (en_US.ISO8859-1?  something like that), not that command, but it didn't help.  And it actually doesn't display any errors to the terminal anymore (besides complaining about monitors, unimportant), so I'm just at a loss of ideas atm.

Ranguvar

Member

Registered: 2008-08-12

Posts: 2,563

Re: OpenOffice fonts issue - searched to no avail

Huh. Try installing all the font packages you can get (ttf-ms-fonts, ttf-bitstream-vera, ttf-dejavu, ttf-liberation, ttf-linux-libertine, ttf-freefont, and ttf-cheapskate I always install).

This could also be a config issue - .gtkrc or similar. Try making a new user and doing it as that user - that'll ensure it's not a personal config problem.

Last edited by Ranguvar (2009-02-18 21:47:02)

Sir_Hearse

Member

Registered: 2009-02-18

Posts: 6

Re: OpenOffice fonts issue - searched to no avail

Yeah, getting ttf-ms-fonts took care of it.  Should've searched these forums a bit better, Solved already. 

That said, wouldn't it make sense to set the default font to a more standard font?  (I say that with little-no experience of the implications of that statement, of course).  Thanks.

Ranguvar

Member

Registered: 2008-08-12

Posts: 2,563

Re: OpenOffice fonts issue - searched to no avail

Agreed. There should be a bug about this - they should either default to something standard, like ttf-bitstream-vera, which could then be listed as a dependency, or ttf-ms-fonts should be a dependency (that's not very nice though).

Glad you got it Please mark thread as SOLVED.

Sir_Hearse

Member

Registered: 2009-02-18

Posts: 6

Re: OpenOffice fonts issue - searched to no avail

Dragged up someone else's recent problem, can't mark as solved.  Considering that others have had this error though, wouldn't marking it as a dependency (perhaps with a note, or optional) make some sense though?

AndyRTR

Developer

From: Magdeburg/Germany

Registered: 2005-10-07

Posts: 1,642

Re: OpenOffice fonts issue - searched to no avail

OOo is compiled not to stick to a certain font and gives you the freedom of choice to use a system font you prefer and that fits your locale (think of Asia, India, ...). But a least one has to be installed...