bugGNU GRUB - Bugs: bug #40323, GRUB 2 depends on specific fonts...

 
 

You are not allowed to post comments on this tracker with your current authentication level.

bug #40323: GRUB 2 depends on specific fonts when used with truetype support

Submitter:  Luke Dashjr <lukedashjr>
Submitted:  Mon 21 Oct 2013 01:33:20 AM UTC
   
 
Category:  None Severity:  Major
Priority:  5 - Normal Item Group:  None
Status:  None Privacy:  Public
Assigned to:  None Originator Name: 
Open/Closed:  Open Release:  other
Release:  Reproducibility:  Every Time
Planned Release:  2.03+

Jump to the original submission

Wed 23 Oct 2013 11:06:32 PM UTC, comment #8: 

I'm not sure what you're looking for in a font, but I've grown to like the Droid font family (note: Android no longer uses this).

Luke Dashjr <lukedashjr>
Wed 23 Oct 2013 10:14:57 PM UTC, comment #7: 

If djvu font is non-free it has to be replaced. Can you recommend a widely-available free font with the similar characteristics?
Having an option to disable themes would also be good.

Vladimir Serbinenko <phcoder>
Group administrator
Wed 23 Oct 2013 10:09:32 PM UTC, comment #6: 

Ok, I have modified the Gentoo ebuild to use system-independent copies of DejaVuSans and unifont. I think it is ok to close this bug.

Mike GIlbert <floppym>
Mon 21 Oct 2013 04:43:14 PM UTC, comment #5: 

"... no copy of one or more of the Font Software typefaces may be sold by itself."

@floppym, normally that workaround would just make the GRUB package non-free, but I suppose in this case it'd work since the usage by GRUB's build results in a completely free package.

Luke Dashjr <lukedashjr>
Mon 21 Oct 2013 04:00:37 PM UTC, comment #4: 


> As for djvu it's optional and needed only for theme.


configure auto-detects its presence with no way to disable it manually. Therefore, in order to consistently build a package, I must ensure that DejaVu is always present at build time.

If there were a way to manually override the configure logic, I could make the dependency optional.

I suppose as a workaround I could download a copy of DejaVuSans in the grub ebuild to avoid depending on the system package.

Mike GIlbert <floppym>
Mon 21 Oct 2013 10:07:11 AM UTC, comment #3: 

I don't see where it's forbidden, it only forbids usage of the name for the sale.

Vladimir Serbinenko <phcoder>
Group administrator
Mon 21 Oct 2013 03:46:24 AM UTC, comment #2: 

Dejavu's license is non-free because it forbids sale of the font itself.

Luke Dashjr <lukedashjr>
Mon 21 Oct 2013 03:18:33 AM UTC, comment #1: 

Unifont is the only monospace font with complete BMP support, we need it for console. Currently, as far as I'm aware there is no free font with same properties. You don't have to register unifont with your system, just having a file in standard or build directory is sufficient.
As for djvu it's optional and needed only for theme.
For dejavu, I din't research the subject, but the license (http://dejavu-fonts.org/wiki/index.php?title=License) seems to be free. It places restrictions on use of names but it's of no issue.
The starfield theme looks good and changing its fonts may be considered only if it still looks good or if copyright problem is serious.

Vladimir Serbinenko <phcoder>
Group administrator
Mon 21 Oct 2013 01:33:20 AM UTC, original submission:  

Per https://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=488670 , upstream GRUB depends on dejavu and unifont specifically. It really should accept any truetype font.

If that isn't possible, please choose other fonts. dejavu's license is non-free (regardless of loopholes/technicalities might or might not be usable to try to argue around it) and unifont breaks rendering of many characters by becoming the preferred fallback somehow.

Luke Dashjr <lukedashjr>

 

(Note: upload size limit is set to 16384 kB, after insertion of the required escape characters.)

No files currently attached

 

Depends on the following items: None found

Items that depend on this one: None found

 

Carbon-Copy List
  • -email is unavailable- added by floppym (Posted a comment)
  • -email is unavailable- added by phcoder (Posted a comment)
  • -email is unavailable- added by lukedashjr (Submitted the item)
  •  

    There are 0 votes so far. Votes easily highlight which items people would like to see resolved in priority, independently of the priority of the item set by tracker managers.

     

    Follows 1 latest change.

    Date Changed by Updated Field Previous Value => Replaced by
    2016-03-02 phcoder Planned ReleaseNone 2.03+

    Back to the top

    Powered by Savane 3.13-f8d8.
    Corresponding source code