Ubuntu – How to make ttf-mscorefonts-installer package download fonts, after it says it installed

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.

fontconfig employs a complete set of font substitution systems. There are different levels of font definition: font name and font families. Given a specific font, fontconfig uses the font of the same name if available, then seeks otherwise the font family of the same name. If there is still no match, it uses the standard font family definition as substitution, i.e. Sans, Sans-serif and Mono.

Ubuntu has the font family 'Verdana' defined in `/etc/fonts/conf.d/45-latin.conf', where 'Verdana' is set default to 'Sans-serif', which means Sans-serif is employed for 'Verdana' by default. But 'Verdana.ttf' would be used instead if it's installed.

In your system, the preferred font in the Sans-serif family is 'Liberation Sans', so fontconfig uses the 'Liberation Sans' as substitution for 'Verdana' provided there is no font of the same name, whereas uses 'Verdana.ttf' if it's in the search path. This explains what you've posted.

So the solution to your problem is that, you have to remap the font 'Verdana' to a different font, or to a group of fonts which assigns to 'Liberation Sans' the highest priority. (The latter case is recommended)

Open or create the file ~/.config/fontconfig/fonts.conf, append following:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd">
<fontconfig>

<match>
    <test name="family"><string>Verdana</string></test>
    <edit name="family" mode="prepend" binding="strong">
        <string>Liberation Sans</string>
        <string>Verdana</string>
    </edit>
</match>

</fontconfig>

Note that ~/.fonts.conf is deprecated now, and if you already have user-defined fonts.conf, remove the header and footer and only keep the 'match' section. And it would be too long-winded to demonstrate the same workaround on 'Arial'. I'm sure you can find it on your own.