[R-sig-Fedora] Problem with X11 fonts under Fedora 17. (SOLVED!)

[Rolf Turner]

It turns out that I was kidding myself about "cairo".

I did X11.options(type="cairo") and then did plot(1:10) and got the
unsatisfactory non-textually annotated plot.  What I didn't realize was
that my call to X11.options() had had no effect.  There was no message
to indicate that.  (Shouldn't there be one?)

Later I tried doing (I think) X11(type="cairo") and got a message to the
effect "cairo not available, using Xlib".  Then I checked with 
capabilities()
and found that the cairo capability was indeed FALSE.  I hadn't built 
Rpatched
with cairo capability.

So, briefly what I needed to do was:

sudo yum install cairo.x86_64               # Wasn't actually necessary, 
this package was already there.
sudo yum install cairo-devel.x86_64
sudo yum install pango.x86_64
sudo yum install pango-devel.x86_64

Then

     ./configure --with-cairo
     make
     sudo make install

produced an R in which the X11 type was "cairo" by default.

With this latest install plotting all works without error or warning.

My apologies for cluttering up the R lists with what was (in retrospect)
mostly a load of rubbish.

I still find the behaviour of X11 when type is "Xlib" bewildering and 
fundamentally
unacceptable, but I'm not going to waste any more time worrying about it.

     cheers,

         Rolf