Trying to take anti's advice and use sylpheed-claws. However, on my computer (Toshiba 4015CDS laptop) the default fonts are horrible!

I know I can manually change the default helvetica to something more readable, but I'd prefer to approach the challenge from the other end so the default fonts work (if that is possible). It could be that the issue is related to my having to use 800x600 resolution.

Do I need to edit something or install something related to the helvetica font set? Poked around some with Google but came up empty.

Thanks.

Hey dieselbenz

I'm not sure if this is what your after but in the preferences you can select the type and size of font for each pane. I found that the message pane font was way to small and unreadable even at 1024x768 so I just changed that one pane.

eriefisher

dieselbenz wrote:Trying to take anti's advice and use sylpheed-claws. However, on my computer (Toshiba 4015CDS laptop) the default fonts are horrible!

Ah HA ... just noticed something.

If I run sylpheed-claws from a terminal window as 'don' then the fonts are screwy. But if I first -su to root and then run sylpheed-claws, the fonts look better.

I am also seeing an error message in terminal:
Sylpheed-CRITICAL ***: file procmime.c: line 139 (procmime_mimeinfo_free_all): assertion 'mimeinfo' failed.

Disclaimer: I have edited the default Fluxbox menu several times so might have blown away some parameter that was originally there. I shall atone for that sin by booting off of the live CD and seeing what was originally in the menu for email.

Don

I think this is because you opened a user file/app as root.

eriefisher

That message also appears as user. I don't think it is a problem.

Now to 'sort out' the fonts in sylpheed-claws, you could just delete the .gtkrc file. This will give fonts like in root. It will also change the fonts used in all gtk1 apps ie xmms.

Alternatively, you can set the fonts for gtk1 apps, though Menu>Fluxbox>File Editing>Gtk1 themes

Under the X (exit) there is a shaded box thatsays click here for extra options. Use font>browse and select a font of your choice.

anticapitalista wrote:
Alternatively, you can set the fonts for gtk1 apps, though Menu>Fluxbox>File Editing>Gtk1 themes

I have been reluctant to experiment with different themes, etc., because I'm not sure what the defaults (well chosen, by the way) are. I have a long history of taking perfectly-nice installs and breaking them, or at least making them suddenly-ugly.

But I will give what you suggested a try. Worst case scenario is that I re-install antiX.

You're ok. All that will happen is that your gtk1 apps may look even uglier (if that is possible), and the gtk themes will create a new .gtkrc file that you can simply delete if you don't like the result.

Where the messages are listed, the ones in bold have not yet been opened, of course. But where you see the rows of squares, that should be the messages that have been opened and should just be normal (non-bold) font.

But as you see ...

Try and change the type or size or boldness. I encountered this as well when I tried Sylpheed-claws. I think the reason might be that your selection might not be installed. Not sure. another selection should do it.

eriefisher

Checked in Synaptic to make sure I had all of the"depends on" packages listed for Debian's port of claws-mail. Discovered that one was missing. I think it was one of the libpango libraries. Installed that and the font problem went away.

The list of"depends" is at
========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"http://packages.debian.org/sid/claws-mail"
linktext was:"http://packages.debian.org/sid/claws-mail"
====================================
.

First, I really like Sylpheed and think it was the right choice for antiX.

Appearance seems to be related somewhat to what version of Sylpheed I'm running. My install of Spartacus has Sylpheed-gtk2 (2.1.1) by default and it looks really nice. But Lysistrata reverts to regular Sylpheed 1.0.5 and shows the font problem dieselbenz refers to. No biggie, since fonts are configurable.

I assume the leaner Lysistrata doesn't like gtk2...?

Actually, when I started remastering Mepis7 for antiX-M7, I decided to included the Debian testing repos so that slim login manager could be installed, and other apps there are not in Debian stable eg mpaint.
At that time, there were problems installing sylpheed-claws-gtk2 (the one in Spartacus) and so sylpheed-clawgtk1 got installed instead.

I think that there is still a problem installing the gtk2/claws-mail app.

Anti says:

"I think that there is still a problem installing the gtk2/claws-mail app."

Okay, this is getting educational. Is there any general warning here about upgrading antiX apps with synaptic? (I ask because I'm writing this from my brand-spanking-new install of Lysistrata, having botched my first one by installing debs from outside the repos.)

So far, synaptic tells me that an app can't install because something is missing (ex., having to do with c++). No problem. But if I start chasing down the other dependies, am I setting myself up for another broken OS?

I guess what I'm asking is this: Are there upgrades that are going to be *fundamentally* incompatible with antiX? Not a big deal if that's the case, it's just good to know what the warning signs of this would be.

Hello malanrich.

I would get into the habit of using and installing from the command line, mainly because you get more information.

For example, as root

apt-get update
apt-get upgrade

will show you which apps will be upgraded, held back etc. Normally this is perfectly safe.

If you want to install an app

apt-get update
apt-get install gimp

will also tell you if there are problems or not.

Doing
apt-get update
apt-get dist-upgrade

is the most 'dangerous' as it may remove apps (if deemed necessary). Now using this is actually better as it keeps your box well up-to-date and lean as it removes unnecessary apps.

You can also use aptitude instead of apt-get. aptitude is clever in that it can resolve dependency problems, and it gives you some choices. It is good to use if you insist on installing apps that can't be installed. The negative side to this is that the base starts to move away from Mepis repos and Debian stable/Etch towards Debian Testing/Lenny.

Here's an example from a newly installed antiX.

apt-get update
apt-get upgrade

will upgrade mepis-kernel, alsa etc, keep held back cpp, gcc iceweasel etc

If you continue all should be fine.

If you wish to upgrade iceweasel, then you will have to use aptitude

aptitude install iceweasel

and you'll see that it will suggest upgrading 3 libraries from Mepis repos to the more recent Testing ones.
If you accept, then iceweasel gets upgraded and all is well.
You will also note that all the held back apps except gcc, cpp can now be upgraded, but as I said earlier, you're moving away from Mepis.

Great info, anti. I'll take it real slow...

The overall lesson seems to be to pay attention to warnings. Or, in my case, the bigger lesson was to beware of taking in and installing any old .deb off the internet. Like letting a friend of a friend move into my extra bedroom.