"T.V Raman" writes: correction: earlier Xresources did not include ftcrhb as a font back-end which is what caused the error. I found the right value ftcrhb,ftcr,x from the elisp info manual -- it's documented in frame.texi found by grepping the git logs. The > Robert Pluim writes: > I ran into a similar issue over the weekend after building emacs from > Git. > > I had inherited these lines in .Xresources from way back: > Emacs.FontBackend: ftcrhb,xft,x > Emacs*font: -adobe-Utopia-normal-normal-normal-*-*-*-*-*-*-0-iso10646-1 > > After the update/build, emacs refused to start in GUI mode, -- emacs -nw > worked, and it displayed the font backend error when started as emacs > under X. > > I worked around the problem by commenting out the emacs.font line and it > started with Adobe Courier. > > This morning, I updated the font backend line as suggested by you, and > now I get over 3,000+ fonts -- and uncommenting the Adobe Utopia line > does not cause the error. > > Could we update the News file with details on what font backends are > now recommended? > > >>>>>>> On Mon, 20 Jan 2020 14:52:34 +0100, Robert Pluim said: >> Robert> If all else fails, can you run 'strace emacs' with your normal config >> Robert> to see if itʼs loading some site-specific configuration files? Those >> Robert> might be messing with the font setup. >> >> In fact, looking through Andreas' package repo, I see it includes an >> app-defaults.Emacs that does: >> >> Emacs.FontBackend: xft,x >> >> which is going to cause problems on a cairo-enabled build. Is it >> possible for you to remove that setting, or try something like >> >> Emacs.FontBackend: ftcrhb,xft,x >> >> or >> >> Emacs.FontBackend: ftcrhb,x >> >> >> Robert >> --