[FreeNX-kNX] Font problems at reconneciton (Was: DPI an issue with 1.5?)

[Gian Filippo Pinzari]

Gian Filippo Pinzari wrote:
> Any idea on how to fix them, like for example setting up a channel to
> download the font from the server, updating the font DB on the fly and
> telling the X server to use it by an interface on the client (tricky,
> given that you don't have Xlib on the client). I would love to see this
> implemented. Just let me know how do you want to start. We are also
> available to pay for bounties. Ask Kurt and Fabian.

To solve this and other font problems, we are evaluating the option of
forwarding the X font server connections from the client to the NX server.
There was a FR in the past, but it was never implemented because the problem
is not as trivial as it can appear at glance. For example, how do we
instruct the X server to connect to the right xfs (that is the one hosted
on the same network as the nxagent requesting the font) when more than one
session is running on the same client? How well do the X servers react
when font servers disappear at random? How do we manage the listing of
fonts when multiple xfs may be involved, across different, transient NX
servers? A font used by a session on server S1 may be available only as
long as another session is running on server S2.

Presently nxagent handles the fonts by exposing to clients only the fonts
which are available on both sides. By adding the NX server's xfs to the X
server on the client, all fonts on the server side would become available
to the client. This would be positive, but it would make difficult (not
impossible) to distinguish between local (client) and remote (server)
fonts, with serious impacts on performance.

The easiest solution would be to let the client open the missing fonts
from the NX server at reconnection, and keep considering only the NX
server's side fonts in the normal operation.

Is there anybody interested in stepping up and taking this in charge?

/Gian Filippo.