[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?

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.