fonts path mixed up /usr/share/fonts/X11 /usr/share/X11/fonts

I'm having the exact same problem here. There are 2 threads on the forum which seem to be related:
http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=1264361#post1264361
http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=76046&page=5

Doing
apt-get install xfs
apt-get install --reinstall xfonts-base

seems to fix the problem for some people but i'm having no succes so far..

the problem is resolved here by doing a
sudo aptitude install xserver-xorg

After upgrading to edgy, NX stops working due to the same problem.

The only solution to the problem is to symlink the directories as mentioned in the original description. Obviously this is not ideal as future updates could cause problems due to this.

Is this a nx problem to be reported to the maintainer or a generic issue that has been worked around in the xserver? (X11 works now, NX doesn't)

I can confirm this bug. After upgrading from dapper to edgy, emacs only showed empty squares as characters under X11. However, X11 started normally after the upgrade.

Moving the defective fonts directory away and replacing it with the symlink mentioned in this bug report, fixed this problem for me.

This is the "Files" section of my /etc/X11/xorg.conf:

Section "Files"
        FontPath "/usr/share/X11/fonts/misc"
        FontPath "/usr/share/X11/fonts/cyrillic"
        FontPath "/usr/share/X11/fonts/100dpi/:unscaled"
        FontPath "/usr/share/X11/fonts/75dpi/:unscaled"
        FontPath "/usr/share/X11/fonts/Type1"
        FontPath "/usr/share/X11/fonts/100dpi"
        FontPath "/usr/share/X11/fonts/75dpi"
        FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/misc"
        # path to defoma fonts
        FontPath "/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/TrueType"
EndSection

The problem is simply that xorg.conf expects the fonts under /usr/share/X11/fonts/*, which does not exists on Edgy. Instead, the fonts can be found at /usr/share/fonts/X11/*. Swapping "fonts" and "X11" in xorg.conf solves the problem.

Could someone report if this same problem occurs under Feisty and/or Gutsy? The font paths have been changed recently, so it would be useful to know if this bug has been resolved in newer versions of Ubuntu.

Hi,

Can confirm this is still happening in Feisty (found this bug report while looking for a solution).

Running the latest FreeNX from seveas (repository: http://seveas.ubuntulinux.nl/feisty-seveas all)

Running Windows NX client from NoMachine (2.1.0-17)

I have not attempted swapping directories or building symlinks yet, as Bryce mentioned the dirs are already set up this way in Feisty.

For the moment, I'm doing a work-around that is okay:

  emacs -fn fixed

... but still getting errors because my .emacs file specifies a few faces. Also changing the font size using the S-M1 font menu will reproduce the squares.

if you regenerate your xorg.conf (7.10 ->) it no longer has a Files section, instead it uses what the server provides.