Layout broken on Arch Linux by missing Xorg misc font

[sergeykish]

Problem Description

Initial investigation in xmonad/xmonad#225

I follow https://hackage.haskell.org/package/xmonad-contrib-0.13/docs/XMonad-Layout-Tabbed.html

ER: it shows tabs
AR: one fullscreen window

Fix - set fontName (even on non existent).

Toggling between with and without fontName:

Mod-q (reload) does not affect
Shift-Mod-q (quit), startx affects

$ startx 2> errors
user error (createFontSet)
user error (createFontSet)
user error (createFontSet)
user error (createFontSet)
user error (Error in function getWindowAttributes)
user error (createFontSet)
user error (Error in function getWindowAttributes)
user error (createFontSet)
user error (Error in function getWindowAttributes)

Caused by default fontName

xmonad-contrib/XMonad/Layout/Decoration.hs

Line 106 in a58c1a6

, fontName = "-misc-fixed-*-*-*-*-10-*-*-*-*-*-*-*"

Arch Linux does not recommend installing xorg-fonts-misc maybe caused by

Note: pango 1.44 dropped support for FreeType in favor of HarfBuzz thus losing support for traditional BDF/PCF bitmap fonts

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Fonts#Bitmap

Configuration File

import XMonad
import XMonad.Layout.Tabbed

myTabConfig = def { inactiveBorderColor = "#FF0000"
                  -- , fontName = "xft:foo"
                  , activeTextColor = "#00FF00"}
myLayout = tabbed shrinkText myTabConfig

main = do
    xmonad $ def
        { layoutHook  = myLayout }

Not limited to Tabs Layout

Same problem with https://hackage.haskell.org/package/xmonad-contrib-0.16/docs/XMonad-Layout-DwmStyle.html

ER: DWM style - like Tall with name in top right corner
AR: fullscreen window

import XMonad
import XMonad.Layout.DwmStyle

myDWConfig = def { inactiveBorderColor = "red"
                 --, fontName = "xft:foo"
                 , inactiveTextColor   = "red"}

myL = dwmStyle shrinkText myDWConfig (layoutHook def)
main = xmonad def { layoutHook = myL }

Checklist

• I've read CONTRIBUTING.md

• I tested my configuration with xmonad-testing

I've installed git versions, reproduced

xmonad $ git show
commit 40466b2be266e50e941f2fcc53b7526f1cfc71be (HEAD -> master)
xmonad-contrib $ git show
commit 6c60740f7e6bffd44072784fdf855cd42ccc7f84 (HEAD -> master)

Proposed fix

--- a/XMonad/Layout/Decoration.hs
+++ b/XMonad/Layout/Decoration.hs
@@ -103,7 +103,7 @@ instance Default Theme where
           , activeTextColor     = "#FFFFFF"
           , inactiveTextColor   = "#BFBFBF"
           , urgentTextColor     = "#FF0000"
-          , fontName            = "-misc-fixed-*-*-*-*-10-*-*-*-*-*-*-*"
+          , fontName            = "-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*"
           , decoWidth           = 200
           , decoHeight          = 20
           , windowTitleAddons   = []

It is really messy issue. Xmonad does not crash, Mod-q does not affect, startx stderr is not visible (X displayed on same TTY, trimmed on quit) unless explicitly checked, no errors in ~n.xmonad/xmonad.errors, no errors in ~/.local/share/xorg/Xorg.*, xfontsel requires X restart, -fuse_xft does not affect, fc-match matches another foundry and family.

I'll prepare Pull Request and will hope I'm last who investigated this