GlancePlus (gpm) font question

[Brian Amstutz]

When I try to run /opt/perf/bin/gpm, I receive the following message:

Could not load default 'variable' font.
Use the resource Gpm*variableFont to select one.

I'm fairly new to the Xwindows world so how do I "use a resource"?

Thanks for any help!
Brian

[Stefan Farrelly]

Use the following command to set it;

echo "Gpm*variableFont: fixed" | xrdb -merge

And that should load this font into your font database (xrdb) and glance should come up ok.

[Brian Amstutz]

Thanks for the response but that still didn't work... Here's a copy of what I entered:

%:echo "Gpm*variableFont: fixed" | /usr/bin/X11/xrdb -merge
%:/opt/perf/bin/gpm
Connecting to Display...
Connected to X Display
Enabling Measurement...
Measurement Enabled
Parse Adviser Syntax...
Syntax Parsed
Could not load default 'variable' font.
Use the resource Gpm*variableFont to select one.

Brian

[Stefan Farrelly]

sorry, looks like you cant use a fixed font instead of a variable one. Try some different variable fonts, TimesNewRoman or Arial, or Tahoma (use these instead of fixed).

[Kofi ARTHIABAH]

Brian:

You can use the xlsfonts command to find out what fonts are installed on your machine and choose one that exists... and proceed like before

[Brian Amstutz]

I ran xlsfonts and got over 2500 fonts including the following that I tried with xrdb

%:echo "Gpm*variableFont: hp8.12x15" | /usr/bin/X11/xrdb -merge
%:echo "Gpm*variableFont: system14" | /usr/bin/X11/xrdb -merge
%:echo "Gpm*variableFont: variable" | /usr/bin/X11/xrdb -merge
%:echo "Gpm*variableFont: user9x17" | /usr/bin/X11/xrdb -merge

I still receive the same error. What am I doing wrong?!?!?

Thanks!

Brian

[Stefan Farrelly]

Hmm, that should have worked which means your problem seems to be a more fundamental one, something wrong with your X setup. What are you using for an X display ? an HP workstation, X-Terminal, X-emulator running on a PC ?? HP-UX version ? VUE or CDE ?

[Stefan Farrelly · Accepted solution]

Im about to go offline, getting late here. Im hoping someone else can pick up this thread and help Brian if hes still having problems after trying some of this;

1. Make sure your HP server where your running gpm from has its font server daemon running. do a> ps -ef | grep fs to see if its running. It needs to be. If no on HP-UX 10 start it by> /usr/bin/X11/fs -daemon On HP-UX 11 start it by;
vi /etc/rc.config.d/xfs
change RUN_X_FONT_SERVER=0 to 1
save it
/sbin/init.d/xfs start

2. If your on an X-Terminal you may need to modify its setup to point to your font server;
To get the Xterms to use [the font server], you need to go into the configuration screens on the X stations (press and hold F12 while logged in or go to Configuration Menus during bootup) and get into the Server area. Here you can specify your font path. To use the server, make your font path the following:
tcp/IP_Address_of_Server:Port_Number eg. tcp/:7000

3. If your on a PC running Exceed (X-emulator) then there is a long list of things to do to get it pointing to the font server on your HP box. Check out this link to a large document on how to do this;
http://www.dutchworks.nl/htbin/hpsysadmin?h=3&dn=49850&q=font%20server&fh

4. If your using Reflections on a PC then you need to do the same as 3. but the procedure will be different. Im afraid I havent come across a document to do this.

5. Dont forget to restart your X session after trying some of things above before retrying gpm.

Good luck.

[Alex Glennie]

Sounds like stefan is on the ball wrt setting up a font server ..... if your using X emulation via a PC read on ...

GPM fails with Reflection X
DocId: KBRC00000634 Updated: 6/14/00 2:04:56 PM

PROBLEM

Trying to run GPM from a system running 11.0. GPM under Reflection X on a PC will not run correctly. It comes back with the error:


Connected to Xdisplay
Loading config from /var/opt/perf/datafiles.gpm
Config loaded.
Could not load default 'variable' font. Use the resource gpm*variable font.

RESOLUTION

The newer release of GPM apparently requires a font. The large font that Reflection X is using by default is not resizeable and is causing the error. The solution is to make the HP-UX machine a font server and point to it from the Reflection X options menu for font servers, such as:

On the HPUX system, set up a font server on port 7000:

If you are at 11.xx you will most likely be using CDE, you'll need to include the dt-interface fonts (those specific to CDE in the catalog) I'd do a search on font server CDE on the forums, you should see a good Doc I've posted several times that tells you step by step what needs to be done.