KDE No Longer Starts After the Installation of Fonts in the Control Center

Support knowledgebase (sndirsch_urw_fonts)
Applies to

SuSE Linux: Version 7.3

Symptom:

You have installed new fonts in the KDE Control Center under System/Font Installer, and clicked on the option "Save Changes" in the "Anti Alias" section. From that moment on, KDE programs start no longer and when you try to start them in the konsole, you obtain the following error messages:


KCrash: crashing.... crashRecursionCounter = 2
KCrash: Application Name = kedit path =  pid = 29150

When you log out, you cannot log in to the system again, either; only a small konsole window is displayed.

Cause:

When clicking on "Save Changes", the KDE font installer changes the system-wide configuration file


/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/XftConfig 
and adds the directory
/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/URW 
with Type1 fonts

to the paths listed there.

Since this directory does not only contain Type1 fonts, an error in the freetype2 library causes all started KDE applications to crash. This bug has already been eliminated in freetype2 version 2.0.7.

Solution:

Overwrite the configuration file /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/XftConfig with the current version. The procedure is the following:


- Switch to a text konsole with Ctrl-Alt-F1 and log in as root
  by entering the root password.

- Insert the SuSE Linux DVD or CD1 in the corresponding drive.

- Enter the following commands:

mount /cdrom

cd /

rpm2cpio /cdrom/suse/x1/xf86.rpm | cpio -iu *XftConfig

umount /cdrom

exit

FOR EXPERIENCED USERS ONLY: If you do not want to give up the fonts located in URW, you can try the following alternative method:


- Remove the link /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/URW.

- Create a subdirectory named /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/URW.

- From this directory, create a link to each of the font files in /usr/share/ghostscript/fonts
  leaving all fonts ending with ".gsf" out. These fonts cause KDE/Qt applications to crash
  when they are loaded.


Keywords: KDE, CONTROL CENTER, FONTS, CONTROLCENTRE

Categories: Window Manager

SDB-sndirsch_urw_fonts, Copyright SuSE Linux AG, Nürnberg, Germany - Version: 13. Feb 2002
SuSE Linux AG - Last generated: 14. Feb 2002 by ip (sdb_gen 1.40.0)