Re: X w/ remote font server

[Steven Pritchard <steve@silug.org>]

mwb said:
> On Fri, 8 May 1998, Steven Pritchard wrote:
> 
> > Either edit /etc/{X11/,}XF86Config and add a FontPath like this:
> > 
> >    FontPath   "tcp/fastmachine:7001"
> > 
> > or use "xset +fp tcp/fastmachine:7001" after X is running to point the
> > font path to port 7001 on the system named fastmachine.
> 
> This is what I was trying, but it didn't work (except Debian uses 7100).
> After some more digging, I figured out the xfs wasn't running.  Now that
> I've got it started, the 386 is usable as a X terminal (though very slow).

I never can remember what port xfs uses by default.  I just looked at
my XF86Config to get that number.  I'm actually running two font
servers, xfs and the Gallium font server that comes with Applixware
(which does True Type fonts).  One runs on 7001 and the other runs on
7100.

BTW, xfs doesn't run by default, so you do have to start it up on
boot.  Also, as you might have guessed, xfs isn't the only font server
out there; it's just what comes with XFree.  There are a couple of
derivatives of xfs that will do True Type fonts...  I haven't looked
at them yet, because, after all, I do have a licensed copy of
Gallium's font server.  :-)

> Since I am using xfs for the slow machine, should I use it for the
> fast machine?  And how does xfs now where the fonts are at?

The configuration for xfs is in fs/config under one of the following
directories:

    /etc/X11 (Red Hat & derivatives)
    /usr/X11R6/lib/X11 (default XFree86 location)
    /usr/lib/X11 (I think that was a symlink under Slackware)

And yes, you probably should consider using on the fast machine.  That
way as many fonts as possible are cached before the slow machine
requests them.

Oh, one warning...  Some versions of xfs aren't as stable as they
could be...  I've had it just die after a month or so.

I've attached a sample xfs config file for reference.

Steve
-- 
steve@silug.org           | Linux Users of Central Illinois
(217)698-1694             | Meetings the 4th Tuesday of every month
Steven Pritchard          | http://www.luci.org/ for more info
# font server configuration file
# $XConsortium: config.cpp,v 1.7 91/08/22 11:39:59 rws Exp $

clone-self = on
use-syslog = off
catalogue = /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Type1/,/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Speedo/,/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi:unscaled,/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi:unscaled,/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc:unscaled,/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/,/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi/,/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc/
error-file = /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fs/fs-errors
# in decipoints
default-point-size = 120
default-resolutions = 75,75,100,100