Software Installation Fonts – Fix Data Files for Some Packages Could Not Be Downloaded

I've just installed Xubuntu 11.10 on my 64-bit machine, and downloaded and installed the 64-bit .deb package for Google earth 6.2, and had the same problem with the awful font.

I followed the instructions on page http://omgubuntu.co.uk/2012/01/how-to-make-google-earth-look-native-in-ubuntu, and they solved the problem. To paraphrase:

• First, close Google Earth if it's running.
• In a terminal emulator, give the following commands:
  • cd /opt/google/earth/
  • sudo rm libcurl.so.4 libGLU.so.1 libnss_mdns4_minimal.so.2 libQtCore.so.4 libQtGui.so.4 libQtNetwork.so.4 libQtWebKit.so.4
• Use any editor to edit file /opt/google/earth/googleearth -- but you have to do it as a root, so for instance, the following command from a terminal emulator would work:
  • sudo nano /opt/google/earth/googleearth
• Now add the line export LD_PRELOAD=libfreeimage.so.3 as the second last line of file googleearth -- that is, just before the line LD_LIBRARY_PATH=.:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH ./googleearth-bin "$@" -- and save the file.

• Obtain the file libfreeimage.so.3 (removed broken link) Edit: Since the link is broken you can obtain the file in this package

• If your machine is 64-bit, download the file libphonon.so.4 (removed broken link) Edit: Since the link is broken you can obtain the file in this package

• In a terminal emulator, give the following commands (the ones concerning libphonon.so.4 only if your machine is 64-bit):
  • cd /opt/google/earth/
  • sudo cp ~/Downloads/libfreeimage.so.3 .
  • sudo cp ~/Downloads/libphonon.so.4 .
  • sudo chmod a+x libfreeimage.so.3
  • sudo chmod a+x libphonon.so.4
  • sudo apt-get install libcurl4-openssl-dev libqtwebkit4
• Restart Google Earth. The fonts should now look normal.

Solution 1:

Connect to the internet and run this command below, to fix the error

sudo apt-get install --reinstall ttf-mscorefonts-installer  

This will reinstall the package, and download the data files needed to configure the package. Wait for some times to finish downloading. The download size is approximately 4MB.

Solution 2:

1. Connect to the internet and go to this sourceforge link and download all the .exe files there except wd97vwr32.exe file.

2. Copy those files in your home directory.

3. Run this command to configure the package

   sudo dpkg-reconfigure ttf-mscorefonts-installer
   

   • This will ask you whether you have downloaded microsoft fonts or not. Use Tab to select OK, and hit Enter.

   • Then again you will be asked to enter the directory name for the downloaded files, Type the location of your home directory and use Tab to select OK, and hit Enter.

     For example, if your login name is anwar, the location will be /home/anwar, because I copied the downloaded files there.

Done! you have successfully configured and setup the package.

Note: If the files cannot be downloaded due to 404 error, check the "Can't download?" section

What was the cause of the problem?

This package ttf-mscorefonts-installer is used to download Microsoft's font files (those files are made freely available by Microsoft) from the Internet and install them. Since you must accept the EULA of Microsoft to use those font files, those fonts cannot be included in the package like other Free (Free as freedom) packages.

The problem was, somehow you get disconnected from Internet before downloading those files. So, is the message asking to download more data files.

Can't download?

If you can't download the files due to 404 errors, I have prepared a tar.gz archive of the downloaded contents. You can download it from this dropbox link and extract it to a folder. If you extract it to /tmp/, you'll type that directory after the dpkg-reconfigure command in Solution 2.