Unable to configure font in XTerm

I finally figured out what's wrong just a couple of days ago after scrounging through multiple sources. Combining everyone's responses here:

Ubuntu Mono is a TrueType font and TrueType fonts require xterm to be compiled with FreeType library support. To check whether xterm has this, use the ldd /path/to/xterm/binary command and see if it says freetype in there. An alternate way is to see if xterm has the -fa option.

If your xterm has FreeType lib support, choose a

  1. Bitmap fonts, by running xfontsel -p and use the exact string it prints upon exit.

  2. TrueType fonts, using fc-list :scalable=true:spacing=mono: family and use the exact string it outputs.

Once you have the font name using one of the above steps, set it via XTerm*faceName: <name of the font>

If you install a new font, and it doesn't show up when you run one of the above commands, rebuild your font cache using fc-cache -frv and try again.

P.S. I used Ubuntu Mono patched font downloaded from here I'm using XTerm*faceName: Ubuntu Mono derivative Powerline

Thanks to Wumpus Q. Wumbley and Thomas Dickey for their detailed responses.


It is an old one, but for anyone coming here, the solution is:

XTerm*faceName: Ubuntu Mono:style=Regular

and if you want to see the change immediately then run:

xrdb -merge .Xresources

xterm

This question was first posted to stack overflow, where I answered it a year ago, noting that the actual package did not provide the style RegularForPowerline (apparently OP was confused with some aspect of the output of fc-list:

fc-list shows me Regular where you have RegularForPowerline.

Tags:

Xterm