[R] X11, fonts, R-2.0.1, R-2.2.1 and R-devel

[Prof Brian Ripley]

The issue here is that you are using a UTF-8 locale (you sent this message 
in UTF-8), and you need appropriately encoded X11 fonts.  R-2.0.1 did not 
support UTF-8, and so you got incorrect output for non-ASCII characters.

It *is* an X11 installation/fontpath problem.

On Thu, 23 Mar 2006, Xavier Fernández i Marín wrote:

> Hello,
>
> I am having some problems with the X11 display in a gentoo linux laptop
> with R compiled manually.
> (https://stat.ethz.ch/pipermail/r-help/2006-March/089701.html)
>
>
> Whether I can open the X11 device and use it when I am using 'ion' as a
> window manager, I can't open it using 'gnome', due to a problem related to
> fonts:
> -----8<---------------
> Error in X11() : could not find any X11 fonts
> Check that the Font Path is correct.
> -----8<---------------
>
> I have tried and compiled R-2.0.1 and _it works_.
> With the latest stable version of R it does not work.
> And with the latest development (22 march 06) it does not work, neither.
>
>
> It is not due to the Xorg installation, because the display is opened when
> using other window manager different from gnome (and other version of R)
>
> It is not something related to the compilation options, for the same
> reason.
>
> So my last option is that it seems to be a problem with R, X11 and gnome,
> specifically.
>
> Any ideas or suggestions?
>
>
> I have googled and somebody in the FreeBSD lists talked about more or less
> the same problems, but it seems that without success:
> http://www.archivum.info/freebsd-ports@freebsd.org/2005-06/msg00313.html
> http://www.archivum.info/freebsd-ports@freebsd.org/2005-06/msg00307.html
>
> I paste the sessions and the errors, if it helps:
> -----8<---------------
> R-2.0.1 $ ./bin/R
>
> R : Copyright 2004, The R Foundation for Statistical Computing
> Version 2.0.1  (2004-11-15), ISBN 3-900051-07-0
>
> R is free software and comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
> You are welcome to redistribute it under certain conditions.
> Type 'license()' or 'licence()' for distribution details.
>
> R is a collaborative project with many contributors.
> Type 'contributors()' for more information and
> 'citation()' on how to cite R or R packages in publications.
>
> Type 'demo()' for some demos, 'help()' for on-line help, or
> 'help.start()' for a HTML browser interface to help.
> Type 'q()' to quit R.
>
> WARNING: UTF-8 locales are not currently supported
>
>> X11()
>> q()
> Save workspace image? [y/n/c]: n
> -----8<---------------
>
> Works. The display is opened.
>
> -----8<---------------
> R-2.2.1 $ ./bin/R
>
> R : Copyright 2005, The R Foundation for Statistical Computing
> Version 2.2.1  (2005-12-20 r36812) ISBN 3-900051-07-0
>
> R is free software and comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
> You are welcome to redistribute it under certain conditions.
> Type 'license()' or 'licence()' for distribution details.
>
> R is a collaborative project with many contributors.
> Type 'contributors()' for more information and
> 'citation()' on how to cite R or R packages in publications.
>
> Type 'demo()' for some demos, 'help()' for on-line help, or
> 'help.start()' for an HTML browser interface to help.
> Type 'q()' to quit R.
>
>> X11()
> Error in X11() : could not find any X11 fonts
> Check that the Font Path is correct.
>> q()
> -----8<---------------
>
> Doesn't work.
>
>
> -----8<---------------
> deu R-devel $ ./bin/R
>
> R : Copyright 2006, The R Foundation for Statistical Computing
> Version 2.3.0 Under development (unstable) (2006-03-22 r37566)
> ISBN 3-900051-07-0
>
> R is free software and comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
> You are welcome to redistribute it under certain conditions.
> Type 'license()' or 'licence()' for distribution details.
>
> R is a collaborative project with many contributors.
> Type 'contributors()' for more information and
> 'citation()' on how to cite R or R packages in publications.
>
> Type 'demo()' for some demos, 'help()' for on-line help, or
> 'help.start()' for an HTML browser interface to help.
> Type 'q()' to quit R.
>
>> X11()
> Error in X11(display, width, height, pointsize, if (is.null(gamma)) 1 else
> gamma,  :
>        invalid 'width' or 'height'
>> x <- rnorm(50)
>> y <- rnorm(50)
>> plot(x,y)
> Error in X11(display, width, height, pointsize, if (is.null(gamma)) 1 else
> gamma,  :
>        invalid 'width' or 'height'
>> X11(width=200, height=200)
> Error in X11(width = 200, height = 200) : could not find any X11 fonts
> Check that the Font Path is correct.
>
> -----8<---------------
>
>
>

-- 
Brian D. Ripley,                  ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk
Professor of Applied Statistics,  http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/
University of Oxford,             Tel:  +44 1865 272861 (self)
1 South Parks Road,                     +44 1865 272866 (PA)
Oxford OX1 3TG, UK                Fax:  +44 1865 272595