HOWTO fix debian or knoppix/debian for Russian fonts

HOWTO fix debian or knoppix/debian for Russian fonts

Statement of problem

We wanted to print russian fonts, using KDE, for some Russian clients.

It could be done, but not natively, howto difficult to find, advice thin on ground.

tech spec: P1, 166MHz, 64MB, Knoppix 3.2, KDE 3.1.2

what I found out: that knoppix and I presume debian goes out with ghostscript fonts that are about 4 years old. This should be fixed by someone that knows.

Step by Step HOWTO get fonts

1. Goto ghostscript.com
2. At the time of writing, the required file was ghostscript-fonts-std-8.11.tar.gz
nb. quote: "The new collection...is recommended for all Ghostscript users, regardless of version."
-> this may change, depending on how old this document is at the time of reading.
3. download to place of choice on system (for me: ~/Desktop/sandpit)
4. untar the package with the following command: tar -xvzf ghostscript-fonts-std-8.11.tar.gz
5. This will create a folder called fonts. cd into this directory. It's filled with all the goodness, and some READMEs. Read them.
6. Become root (su/sudo)
7. Copy/Move (cp/mv) _all_ files to this directory: /usr/share/fonts/type1/gsfonts
I recommend the use of the '-f' flag, otherwise you will be asked to confirm every replacement, and that is really tedious.
8. cd into the /usr/share/fonts/type1/gsfonts directory and (as root) type mkfontdir. Hit return.
9. restart X (close everything, hit ctrl-alt-backspace, relogin)
10. laugh

Step by Step HOWTO type in russian

1. Log in and run KDE Control Center.
2. Go to "Regional & Accessibility".
3. Don't change the language. Go straight to "Keyboard Layout".
4. Click the box for "Enable keyboard layouts".
5. Under "Additional Layouts", select the "ru" layouts.
6. Click "apply".

notes:
1. This will change the little flag in the bottom right corner of yr panel, or should do. If it does not, click on the flag until you get the russian flag with "ru" on it.
2. This joyous tool (multiligual functions) was made possible by KDE. It affects all of KDE - your consoles, xterms, anything you want to type in a KDE gui, will come up in russian. You will need to use KWord to do your word processing as it does not work for AbiWord, or OOWriter.
...and finally....

I haven't tried other drivers, but from the documentation I read, I would recommend the "Foomatic" driver of choice, best found in Control Centre->Peripherals->Printers.

You should then just be able to press the print symbol in KWord and it will print in Russian.

Relevant Links

* This is a good "example" of what you need to do, if a little dated:
Installing a complete printing system with HP DeskJet 640C under Linux
* the source: ghostscript.com
* the one stop shop: LinuxPrinting.org


Thanks etc
The following ppl/things helped me find this stuff out:

Sara the Russian Pensioner who started the trend, and her son ed, who helped keep her calm.
con computerbank
rob computerbank
kylie computerbank
David Coffin - who wrote one of the original "Linux Russian HOWTO" pages back in 98 and was kind enough to answer my pleas with patience and clarity. He also actually wrote most of the "Step by Step HOWTO type in russian" section
#kde on irc.debian.org as well as the above links