Font Viewer doesn't launch from GUI.

[fishnet37222]

I just installed Linux Mint 18 Cinnamon in Parallels on my Mac today. One of the first things I like to do after installing Mint or any OS that's not Windows is install the Consolas font for use with coding. With Linux Mint 17 I could just double-click on the .ttf files and the Font Viewer would launch and allow me to install the font. With Linux Mint 18, however, I get the spinning mouse pointer for a while and no new windows appear.

I was able to install the font files by launching the Font Viewer from the terminal and passing in each .ttf file. I should not have to do that in Linux Mint.

[Cosmo.]

Do you use the beta or the final release?
There where several complaints about that issue during beta-testing. I have had not enough time until now to install the final release, so I cannot judge, if it is solved.

What you can do (also in beta): press alt-F2 to open the command-line and enter gnome-font-viewer. Probably it is slower to start.

[fishnet37222]

I'm using the final release that was published yesterday.

[Cosmo.]

That sounds bad.

[revdjenk]

I have noticed this same problem, Mint 18 cinnamon 64bit.
opening gnome-font-viewer, as suggested, only allows "viewing" not installing new fonts.

EDIT: I have installed Font Manager from the repo, and it works.

[Cosmo.]

in the mean time I can confirm the problem in the final release.

I remember, that the first problem (not starting from the menu) had been reported during the beta tests and Clem answered, that he cannot reproduce it. This might explain, why this has not been solved, but obviously it is a problem at least in Cinnamon. (I don't know, if the problem exists in Mate also.)

The program does also not open, if you double-click a font-file and consequently it cannot be used to install fonts.

You can use font-manager to install fonts as user, but that shows another problem. If you now open the font-viewer and try to display this font, the font-viewer silently crashes. (The same font in LM 17.3 can get displayed with the font-viewer, so this does not look like a font-specific problem.)

[JosephM]

I can reproduce this on Cinnamon and Mint18. It opens fine from the terminal though. I'll see if I can figure out what is going on.

[Cosmo.]

It opens fine from the terminal though.

Hi Jospeh,

I would like to read how fast. For me the program window opens at once, but completely empty (just a white pane), than it takes about 10 seconds until I can see the generic(!) icons and even more time until the fonts itself are visible.

[JosephM]

Cosmo

Same here the first time. But opening it again after that is much faster so it must cache something after it's opened that first time.

[Cosmo.]

@JosephM:
I confirm the usage of a cache.
I use a VM, where I did create a snapshot after completing the installations and updates; no additional software at this time except the VB guest additions.

After my last usage yesterday I did reset the VM to the snapshot and measured the time today, when I started the font-viewer for the first time (via terminal).
GUI opens with a blank white page immediately.
Displaying the generic icons for the fonts takes 10 seconds.
Time needed until all generic icons are replaced with their fonts: 30 seconds.

Closed the viewer and opened it again: In between 4 to 5 seconds the viewer opened with all fonts showing as they should (no generic icons in between).

[Fpooi5]

Hi,

I have the same problem.
The font viewer GUI does not open when I launch it from the Mint menu and I can't even install any font.
How can I solve it?

Thanks

[Cosmo.]

You cannot.

But you can use font-manager instead, as I already wrote above.

[Bixbyte]

MY True Type Fonts do not load for the new Version of LINUX 18
AND the Font Viewer fails to open.
IMHO, This new LINUX 18 is not ready for distribution.
Here is a fix that I used and loaded all my fonts to the new LINUX 18.
First create a file on a USB chip called FONT and load all your Fonts in the File called FONT.
Now, open Places>Downloads
And open the USB Chip and see the file called FONT.
With your mouse scroll the file FONT to the Download Folder.
Now OPEN TERMINAL and use the following command in Terminal.
NOTE YOUR NAME OF COMPUTER SHOULD BE THE NAME ON TERMINAL>
Have your password handy too.

FIX--->>LM 18 WORKED to ADD FONTS from download folder:

cd /usr/share/fonts/truetype
sudo mkdir font-name
sudo cp /home/ THE NAME OF YOUR COMPUTER HERE NO SPACES /Downloads/Font/*.ttf font-name/.
sudo fc-cache -fv

Takes a long time for 300 fonts and answer all questions with "ALL" and enter

[JosephM]

So we know the source of the issue but haven't yet managed a fix for it. I know it's not ideal but there is a workaround until this is fixed. Find it in the menu and right click and choose "Add to panel". Once you have done so, right click the font viewers icon on the panel and choose "Edit" from the menu. Close the dialog that opens and now the application will launch from the panel.

[palo]

I see the same problem starting Font Viewer from the menu entry in Sarah Cinnamon - ie it doesn't start. The work around suggested in post #3 here of commenting out the line DBusActivatable=true works but the suggested Font Manager alternative seems to be even better - the first run takes an eternity to run but afterwards loads quick as a brown fox.

In the XFCE version the problem is slightly different. Right click on a selected font and choose open in Font Viewer gives a busy cursor but Font Viewer doesn't open. On the other hand Font Viewer will open from the menu and after it is open the r click on a font option works. No experience with Mate.

Regards

[kyphi]

A recommendation was made in the Linux Mint Blog http://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=3051, comment 284, to delete the line "DBusActivatable=true" in /usr/share/applications.

That location is incorrect for Linux Mint 18 and should read ".local/share/applications/org.gnome.font-viewer.desktop".

It works but with a delay as described by Cosmo.

[palo]

A recommendation was made in the Linux Mint Blog http://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=3051, comment 284, to delete the line "DBusActivatable=true" in /usr/share/applications.

That location is incorrect for Linux Mint 18 and should read ".local/share/applications/org.gnome.font-viewer.desktop".

My fresh install of Mint 18 Cinnamon does not have the applications folder @ .local/share as you say, and for me the correct file to edit is org.gnome.font-viewer.desktop located @ /usr/share/applications.

So it may be in that location for some.

Regards

[Cosmo.]

If an application with graphical interface gets installed, a desktop file gets created in /usr/share/applications. This file is valid for all user accounts in tthe system. You can change it there (with elevated rights), but you have to be aware, that it gets reset with the next update.

If a user does changes to the menu settings, a copy of this file gets stored in /.local/share/applications, which has these changes stored. If the same file exists in both places, than Linux uses the file in the account (the second pace mentioned above) and ignores the file in the first place. (Not only in the case for desktop files.) Files inside of the user account don't get reverted by an update - that might be as wanted but it can in some cases also be troublesome.

Regarding Font Viewer: The point is, that there is a bug, that should quickly get corrected by the developers - as numerous other bugs also.

[kyphi]

Palo and Cosmo, you were correct. The org.gnome.font-viewer.desktop file becomes visible in /usr/share/applications and editable if accessed via the CLI.

Thank you Cosmo for taking the time to explain the vagaries of desktop configuration files.

However, the change made in ~/.local/share/applications has worked. Not that I really want to access the Font Viewer often.

On a tangent perhaps, I maintain a laptop dedicated to LM 18 Cinnamon 64bit for testing and have come across several malfunctions. These cannot always be duplicated and therefore cannot be notified. It may sound most unscientific but it almost seems as if Linux Mint 18 learns to behave (Clem, you clever man).

[JosephM]

Just a reminder. If you find legitimate bugs in Cinnamon, please open an issue for them on github or search there to see if there is already an open one you can add your input to. Especially if you can provide steps to reproduce them. The devs spend little time here and complaining in a forum isn't going to help accomplish much for anyone. With clear steps to reproduce, bugs are much easier to track down and fix in most cases.