Running emacs-gtk, I have my default font set to 'Monospace 7.5' in gconf which causes emacs to fail to start with the following error message: $ emacs Font `Monospace 7.5' is not defined Emacs is mis-parsing the font name, not allowing for the point size field to contain a decimal point. Here's a patch: diff --git a/src/font.c b/src/font.c index 7657121..cdaa16e 100644 --- a/src/font.c +++ b/src/font.c @@ -1544,7 +1544,7 @@ font_parse_fcname (name, font) int size_found = 1; for (q = p + 1; *q && *q != ' '; q++) - if (! isdigit (*q)) + if (! isdigit (*q) && *q != '.') { size_found = 0; break; In GNU Emacs 23.2.1 (i486-pc-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 2.20.1) of 2010-06-16 on aiko, modified by Debian Windowing system distributor `The X.Org Foundation', version 11.0.10899901 configured using `configure '--build' 'i486-linux-gnu' '--build' 'i486-linux-gnu' '--prefix=/usr' '--sharedstatedir=/var/lib' '--libexecdir=/usr/lib' '--localstatedir=/var/lib' '--infodir=/usr/share/info' '--mandir=/usr/share/man' '--with-pop=yes' '--enable-locallisppath=/etc/emacs23:/etc/emacs:/usr/local/share/emacs/23.2/site-lisp:/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp:/usr/share/emacs/23.2/site-lisp:/usr/share/emacs/site-lisp:/usr/share/emacs/23.2/leim' '--with-x=yes' '--with-x-toolkit=gtk' '--with-toolkit-scroll-bars' 'build_alias=i486-linux-gnu' 'CFLAGS=-DDEBIAN -g -O2' 'LDFLAGS=-g' 'CPPFLAGS='' Important settings: value of $LC_ALL: nil value of $LC_COLLATE: nil value of $LC_CTYPE: en_US.UTF-8 value of $LC_MESSAGES: nil value of $LC_MONETARY: nil value of $LC_NUMERIC: nil value of $LC_TIME: nil value of $LANG: en_US.UTF-8 value of $XMODIFIERS: nil locale-coding-system: utf-8-unix default enable-multibyte-characters: t Major mode: Lisp Interaction Minor modes in effect: diff-auto-refine-mode: t tooltip-mode: t mouse-wheel-mode: t menu-bar-mode: t file-name-shadow-mode: t auto-encryption-mode: t auto-compression-mode: t line-number-mode: t transient-mark-mode: t Recent input: M-x r e p o r t Recent messages: Loading /etc/emacs/site-start.d/50git-core.el (source)...done Loading /etc/emacs/site-start.d/50gtk-doc-tools.el (source)...done Loading /etc/emacs/site-start.d/50lilypond-data.el (source)...done Loading /etc/emacs/site-start.d/50mgp.el (source)...done Loading /etc/emacs/site-start.d/50psvn.el (source)...done Loading /etc/emacs/site-start.d/50python-docutils.el (source)...done Loading /etc/emacs/site-start.d/50w3m-el.el (source)...done Loading /etc/emacs/site-start.d/50w3m-el-snapshot.el (source)...done Connection file "/tmp/emacs1488/server" deleted For information about GNU Emacs and the GNU system, type C-h C-a. Load-path shadows: /usr/share/emacs23/site-lisp/flim/sha1 hides /local/src/debian/emacs23-23.2+1/debian/build-x/lisp/sha1 /usr/share/emacs23/site-lisp/flim/hex-util hides /local/src/debian/emacs23-23.2+1/debian/build-x/lisp/hex-util /usr/share/emacs23/site-lisp/flim/md4 hides /local/src/debian/emacs23-23.2+1/debian/build-x/lisp/md4 /usr/share/emacs23/site-lisp/dictionaries-common/flyspell hides /local/src/debian/emacs23-23.2+1/debian/build-x/lisp/textmodes/flyspell /usr/share/emacs23/site-lisp/dictionaries-common/ispell hides /local/src/debian/emacs23-23.2+1/debian/build-x/lisp/textmodes/ispell /usr/share/emacs23/site-lisp/flim/sasl-ntlm hides /local/src/debian/emacs23-23.2+1/debian/build-x/lisp/net/sasl-ntlm /usr/share/emacs23/site-lisp/flim/hmac-def hides /local/src/debian/emacs23-23.2+1/debian/build-x/lisp/net/hmac-def /usr/share/emacs23/site-lisp/flim/sasl-digest hides /local/src/debian/emacs23-23.2+1/debian/build-x/lisp/net/sasl-digest /usr/share/emacs23/site-lisp/flim/hmac-md5 hides /local/src/debian/emacs23-23.2+1/debian/build-x/lisp/net/hmac-md5 /usr/share/emacs23/site-lisp/flim/sasl hides /local/src/debian/emacs23-23.2+1/debian/build-x/lisp/net/sasl /usr/share/emacs23/site-lisp/flim/sasl-cram hides /local/src/debian/emacs23-23.2+1/debian/build-x/lisp/net/sasl-cram /usr/share/emacs23/site-lisp/flim/ntlm hides /local/src/debian/emacs23-23.2+1/debian/build-x/lisp/net/ntlm /usr/share/emacs/23.2/site-lisp/cmake-data/cmake-mode hides /usr/share/emacs/site-lisp/cmake-mode /usr/share/emacs/23.2/site-lisp/debian-startup hides /usr/share/emacs/site-lisp/debian-startup /local/src/debian/emacs23-23.2+1/debian/build-x/lisp/textmodes/rst hides /usr/share/emacs/site-lisp/rst /local/src/debian/emacs23-23.2+1/debian/build-x/leim/leim-list hides /usr/share/emacs/23.2/leim/leim-list Features: (shadow sort flyspell ispell mail-extr emacsbug uniquify bbdb-com advice help-fns advice-preload bbdb timezone notmuch notmuch-message notmuch-maildir-fcc notmuch-hello notmuch-show notmuch-mua notmuch-address notmuch-wash diff-mode easy-mmode coolj notmuch-query json notmuch-lib message sendmail regexp-opt ecomplete rfc822 mml easymenu mml-sec mailabbrev nnheader gmm-utils wid-edit mailheader canlock sha1 sha1-el hex-util hashcash mail-utils mm-view smime password-cache dig mm-decode gnus-util netrc mm-bodies mm-encode mailcap mail-parse rfc2231 rfc2047 rfc2045 qp ietf-drums mm-util time-date mail-prsvr cl cl-19 server w3m-load devhelp bbdb-autoloads tooltip ediff-hook vc-hooks lisp-float-type mwheel x-win x-dnd font-setting tool-bar dnd fontset image fringe lisp-mode register page menu-bar rfn-eshadow timer select scroll-bar mldrag mouse jit-lock font-lock syntax facemenu font-core frame cham georgian utf-8-lang misc-lang vietnamese tibetan thai tai-viet lao korean japanese hebrew greek romanian slovak czech european ethiopic indian cyrillic chinese case-table epa-hook jka-cmpr-hook help simple abbrev loaddefs button minibuffer faces cus-face files text-properties overlay md5 base64 format env code-pages mule custom widget hashtable-print-readable backquote make-network-process dbusbind system-font-setting font-render-setting gtk x-toolkit x multi-tty emacs)