x server fatal font error

[Michael Schwendt]

On Thu, 22 Jul 2004 17:38:46 -0700, Austin wrote:

> >>When I boot RH 9, Linux 2.4.20-8 the x server will not start, and the 
> >>monitor cycles on and off. There is a "Fatal server error: could not 
> >>open default font 'fixed'"
> >>
> >>I can get to XF86Config but I've mucked around with the font paths here 
> >>before with no luck. Does any anyone know how to fix this problem 
> >>without reinstalling Linux?
> >>    
> >>
> >
> >Not enough information to decide on what has been damaged.
> >Is the font server (xfs) running?  service xfs status
> >If not, enable it and start it before you try to start X again.
> >(chkconfig xfs on ; service xfs start)
> >  
> >
> Yes it is.
> ps -ef | grep xfs
> xfs   3661   1   0   10:12 ? 00:00:00 [xfs]
> 
> There is no /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 backup.  It was working fine 
> yesterday, and when i booted this morning x would not come up.  I might 
> have make some resolution changes yesterday before shutting down.  " rpm 
> -qa --last | tac | tail" shows nothing.

More details needed. What XFree86 packages are installed?

  $ rpm -qa 'XFree86*'

Verify all of them:

  $ rpm -qa 'XFree86*' | xargs rpm -V

Post your /etc/X11/fs config file, too.

Then still the fonts.dir and fonts.alias files might be damaged.