Fontforge crashes when control is pressed

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

It appears that the following workaround works for this and other fontforge issues in Ubuntu 11.10: uninstall fontforge. Clone the latest fontforge source:

$ git clone git://fontforge.git.sourceforge.net/gitroot/fontforge/fontforge

configure, make and make install this version.

Could somebody please post a font file that is known to initiate this crash?

Hi Paul Sladen, just updated to Ubu 11.10 and the Komika Hand font from Apostrophic Labs crashes FF; but it seems to crash simply by pressing the [CTRL] key or the [DOWN] arrow.
Aleksandr, I am not a bash-wiz so I don't know how to follow your directions. What is the actual bash syntax for 'configure, make, and make install'? Since we are talking about one specific program--fontforge--can you just give an exact example of the necessary commands? Thanks.

...follow-up: it looks like Aleksandr's "git" command downloads the source to your home directory, unless you have configured bash pathnames in some unusual way. Assuming that the "git" command has created a "fontforge" directory in your home directory, I think the following commands are:
$ cd fontforge
$ ./configure
$ sudo make install
...however this resulted in a failed compile, in my case. The final lines of the compilation process were:
python.c:35:20: fatal error: Python.h: No such file or directory
compilation terminated.
make[1]: *** [python.lo] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/pietro/fontforge/fontforge'
make: *** [fontforge] Error 2

Pietro: You need to install python-dev before building fontforge:
sudo apt-get install python-dev

Paul: I get seg. fault when:
1, Open a ttf font
2, Double-click a glyph to open glyph editor
3, Select all (Ctrl+A)
4, Transform (Ctrl+\)
->segmentation fault

I also noticed that fontforge will crash even if I open Hinting menu instead of (4).

I had the same issue in Ubuntu 11.10. FontForge version 20110225 works; the older version 20100429 in the Ubuntu repository doesn’t. Aleksandr's workaround worked for me.
1. Remove old FontForge.
2. Make sure that git and pythod-dev are installed.
3. Open a terminal window:

$ git clone git://fontforge.git.sourceforge.net/gitroot/fontforge/fontforge
$ cd fontforge
$ ./configure
$ sudo make install

The executable was at ~/fontforge/fontforge/fontforge

[Expired for fontforge (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

This bug affects me in Ubuntu precise, I can't do anything because this thing crashes as the primary description.

apt-cache policy fontforge
fontforge:
  Instalados: 0.0.20110222-4ubuntu1
  Candidato: 0.0.20110222-4ubuntu1
  Tabla de versión:
 *** 0.0.20110222-4ubuntu1 0
        500 http://mx.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

And is not a font file that produces the crash, it crashes for me with a new file.

fontforge presently unusable in Precise on both my systems under Ubuntu 12.04, gnome 3.
Crashes when alt, ctrl, or shift is pressed while the re-size tool is activated.

To reproduce error:

1. Run fontforge
2. Make new font
3. Open the A character
4. Draw something
5. select all
6. switch to scale/size tool
7. hold the shift, alt, or ctrl key while resizing.

Result:
Segmentation fault: Core Dumped

/usr/bin/fontforge -version
Copyright (c) 2000-2011 by George Williams.
 Executable based on sources from 13:48 GMT 22-Feb-2011-ML.
 Library based on sources from 13:48 GMT 22-Feb-2011.
fontforge 20110222
libfontforge 20110222-ML

I'm on Precise.

1. Edit a character
2. Select all the the character (Ctrl + A)
3. Press any key
4. Crash

==> syslog <==
Jun 23 00:49:19 HAL kernel: [55901.299811] fontforge[10574]: segfault at 438b0018 ip b73d4fdc sp bfb84b98 error 4 in libfontforge.so.1.0.0[b7374000+33f000]

This bug doesn't concern particular letter. I have crashes after several minutes of work, when I push Control. As I don't know, how to send the file to launchpad, here is the link to it:
http://stenografia.pl/launchpad_bugi/Stemi-latin001.sfd
Last crush I had, when I pushed Control over opened window with "p" letter. But before it was over 'k', 'w' and also over signs from Private Area.
Fontforge from Ubuntu repo version 0.0.20110222-4ubuntu1
Linux mycomp 3.2.0-53-generic #81-Ubuntu SMP Thu Aug 22 21:01:03 UTC 2013 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux - xubuntu

It's me again. Fontforge crashes also when Shift is pressed. I still play with the same file.