[plt-scheme] DrScheme on SunRay, no fonts

> At Tue, 3 Mar 2009 13:12:43 -0500, Jarrett Lee wrote:
>> I am working on setting up DrScheme for use in our SunRay lab. We are
>> using RHEL 5 as an OS and Sun Ray Server Software 4.1.
>>
>> From the server's console (meaning the monitor plugged directly into
>> the server), everything seems to work correctly and there are no  
>> issues.
>> See: http://www.valdosta.edu/~jalee/SunRay_Issue/RHEL_Server_Console.png
>>
>> However, once we enable the SunRay thin clients and go login on one,
>> the program stops displaying fonts. The File, Edit, View, etc. menus
>> are gone except for the underscore and the titles for the Debug Check
>> Syntax, etc. buttons are missing. Literally every where inside the
>> window that there is supposed to be a letter or number, that letter  
>> or
>> number is missing completely. Only the title bar of the window has  
>> any
>> text in it.
>> See: http://www.valdosta.edu/~jalee/SunRay_Issue/RHEL_SunRay.png
>>
>> Even the text in the "Are you sure you want to close" window is gone!
>> See: http://www.valdosta.edu/~jalee/SunRay_Issue/RHEL_SunRay2.png
>>
>> What makes it even more strange is that the program works flawlessly
>> if it is being displayed on a SunRay connected to a Solaris Sun Ray
>> Server, only SunRays connected to Linux have this issue.
>>
>> I have a support ticket with Sun, but they want us to try to find  
>> some
>> sort of way to debug DrScheme. Is this possible? How would I enable
>> such a thing? Any other suggestions for fixing this?
>
On Mar 3, 2009, at 13:58, Matthew Flatt wrote:
> My guess is that when running on a thin-client display, DrScheme
> doesn't find the fonts that it expects, while it does find them on the
> server's console.
>
> From the server-console image, it looks like DrScheme is compiled
> without Xft/Fontconfig support, so it uses old X11 fonts. The thin
> clients may not be configured for old X11 fonts, so that DrScheme  
> needs
> Xft/Fontconfig support to work on the thin clients.
>
> When you run `configure' for the build, what does it say about
> Xft/Fontconfig? The configure script may need help finding the header
> files or libraries.

[root at gargamel src]# grep -i Xft configure_output.txt
Using pkg-config xft...
Xft flags: -I/usr/include/freetype2
Xft libs: -lXft -lXrender -lfontconfig -lfreetype -lX11
[root at gargamel src]# grep -i fontconfig configure_output.txt
Xft libs: -lXft -lXrender -lfontconfig -lfreetype -lX11

I piped the output of ./configure to tee so that I could watch it run  
and get the benefit of having the output stored for later grepping. I  
did not see any strange errors in the output, but if it would help, I  
can paste the entire output.