Suggest add FAQ documents about integrating with other linux distribution.

Suggest add FAQ documents about integrating with other linux distribution.

[Feng Shu]

I use guix to build my own version of emacs-snapshot and sawfish, and
find some integrate-issue, and suggest add a FAQ to deal with,
for example:

1. How to use fonts which is outside guix?
2. How to use fonts config which is outside guix?
3. How to use gtk or qt theme similar with outside guix?
4. ....


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Re: Suggest add FAQ documents about integrating with other linux distribution.

[Ludovic Courtès]

"Feng Shu" <tumashu@163.com> skribis:

> I use guix to build my own version of emacs-snapshot and sawfish, and
> find some integrate-issue, and suggest add a FAQ to deal with,
> for example:
>
> 1. How to use fonts which is outside guix?
> 2. How to use fonts config which is outside guix?
> 3. How to use gtk or qt theme similar with outside guix?
> 4. ....

Good questions!  I drafted a section on how to use Guix on another
GNU/Linux distro, and these are the typical things that need to be
answered in that section:

  http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/guix-devel/2015-05/msg00282.html

Regarding fonts, most GUIs do X11 client-side rendering and rely on
Fontconfig.  So to get fonts working in a GTK+ or Qt application, for
instance, you need to install packages such as ‘gs-fonts’ and
‘font-dejavu’; then you need to ‘guix package -i fontconfig’ and run
‘fc-cache -f’ to update the font cache.  I suspect this may have the
property of unregistering fonts that were installed on the host distro.

Could you report about it?

I don’t know about #3.  Anyone?

Thanks,
Ludo’.

Re: Suggest add FAQ documents about integrating with other linux distribution.

[Ludovic Courtès]

Please keep the list Cc’d.

Feng Shu <tumashu@163.com> skribis:

> ludo@gnu.org (Ludovic Courtès) writes:
>
>> Good questions!  I drafted a section on how to use Guix on another
>> GNU/Linux distro, and these are the typical things that need to be
>> answered in that section:
>>
>>   http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/guix-devel/2015-05/msg00282.html
>>
>> Regarding fonts, most GUIs do X11 client-side rendering and rely on
>> Fontconfig.  So to get fonts working in a GTK+ or Qt application, for
>> instance, you need to install packages such as ‘gs-fonts’ and
>> ‘font-dejavu’; then you need to ‘guix package -i fontconfig’ and run
>> ‘fc-cache -f’ to update the font cache.  I suspect this may have the
>> property of unregistering fonts that were installed on the host distro.
>
> I find a more simple tip:
>
> ln -s /usr/share/fonts ~/fonts/usr-share-fonts

I fail to see why this would have any effect, but maybe there’s another
piece of your setup that I’m missing.  Could you explain?

Thanks,
Ludo’.

Re: Suggest add FAQ documents about integrating with other linux distribution.

[宋文武]

Ludovic Courtès <ludo@gnu.org> writes:

> "Feng Shu" <tumashu@163.com> skribis:
>
>> I use guix to build my own version of emacs-snapshot and sawfish, and
>> find some integrate-issue, and suggest add a FAQ to deal with,
>> for example:
>>
>> 1. How to use fonts which is outside guix?
Currently, fontconfig from Guix do not use '/etc/fonts/fonts.conf',
and hardcode ~/.guix-profile/share/fonts (which think is a bad idea).

Yes, as you found, some easy tricks work, I prefer:

  ln -s /path/to/fonts to ~/.local/share/fonts
  
>> 2. How to use fonts config which is outside guix?
Same as above, the system config is not used now, but
the user config (~/.config/fontconfig) should work.

>> 3. How to use gtk or qt theme similar with outside guix?
For GTK+, there have two parts: theme engines and themes.

It may not be a good idea for guix applications to use the theme engines
in your host system, but well it should work when you set some variable:

  GTK_PATH or GTK_DATA_PREFIX and GTK_EXE_PREFIX

Re: Suggest add FAQ documents about integrating with other linux distribution.

[Andreas Enge]

On Wed, May 27, 2015 at 10:02:31PM +0800, 宋文武 wrote:
> Currently, fontconfig from Guix do not use '/etc/fonts/fonts.conf',
> and hardcode ~/.guix-profile/share/fonts (which think is a bad idea).

It has the advantage of working out-of-the-box for Guix on top of another
distro.

Andreas

Re: Suggest add FAQ documents about integrating with other linux distribution.

[Ludovic Courtès]

Andreas Enge <andreas@enge.fr> skribis:

> On Wed, May 27, 2015 at 10:02:31PM +0800, 宋文武 wrote:
>> Currently, fontconfig from Guix do not use '/etc/fonts/fonts.conf',
>> and hardcode ~/.guix-profile/share/fonts (which think is a bad idea).
>
> It has the advantage of working out-of-the-box for Guix on top of another
> distro.

But then by default it doesn’t use any of the host distro fonts, right?

(I’m stealthily trying to get someone to write an answer that can be
copied in the manual:
<http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/guix-devel/2015-05/msg00282.html>.
;-))

Ludo’.

Re: Suggest add FAQ documents about integrating with other linux distribution.

[Andreas Enge]

On Wed, May 27, 2015 at 10:15:23PM +0200, Ludovic Courtès wrote:
> Andreas Enge <andreas@enge.fr> skribis:
> >> Currently, fontconfig from Guix do not use '/etc/fonts/fonts.conf',
> >> and hardcode ~/.guix-profile/share/fonts (which think is a bad idea).
> > It has the advantage of working out-of-the-box for Guix on top of another
> > distro.
> But then by default it doesn’t use any of the host distro fonts, right?

I suppose not. Maybe my debian programs now use debian fonts, and my guix
programs use guix fonts, and both work.

> (I’m stealthily trying to get someone to write an answer that can be
> copied in the manual:
> <http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/guix-devel/2015-05/msg00282.html>.

Well, since I do not know what happens, but am simply happy with my setup
that does seem to work for me, I am not going to add caveats to the manual!

Andreas