bug#40390: Rendering problems when using fonts from Guix on foreign distro

[Evan Straw]

Hello all,

I have Guix installed on a foreign distro (Ubuntu 19.10) as a package
manager, and I am attempting to use fonts installed through Guix for
applications installed from Guix, such as Emacs and keepassxc. I have
installed fontconfig and a few font packages. However, I am noticing
that these fonts seem to be interfering with fonts installed via the
system's package manager (APT) and are causing rendering problems in
non-Guix applications such as evince.

The font packages I have installed from Guix are as follows:

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
evan@virtualplaza:~$ guix package --list-installed | grep font
font-ubuntu     0.83    out     
/gnu/store/6ydn8a96n2zmmrhjckqklfmg83frwl9w-font-ubuntu-0.83
font-gnu-freefont-ttf   20120503        out     
/gnu/store/bp0hagiy6j8r0x11r4arsyv7k61lyqfk-font-gnu-freefont-ttf-20120503
font-dejavu     2.37    out     
/gnu/store/yr42nyxrqkh89fanvii82br6qil4zcbx-font-dejavu-2.37
gs-fonts        8.11    out     
/gnu/store/8ppj83wc1mmrdydh9cy7vqvg0bym8l0q-gs-fonts-8.11
font-adobe-source-han-sans      1.004   jp      
/gnu/store/z9mgamhzwnh73w3y7q9flg54gmzr9kx7-font-adobe-source-han-sans-1.004-jp
fontconfig      2.13.1  out     
/gnu/store/rkq6ipys8hf5hw66jkzzw4nfr6ncq96a-fontconfig-2.13.1
font-abattis-cantarell  0.111   out     
/gnu/store/l0h8n4jn0xhj942gdh28i3rvbbywi613-font-abattis-cantarell-0.111
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

However, when I open a document in evince, the terminal spits out the
following errors about "cairo scaled fonts":

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
(evince:19449): Pango-WARNING **: 10:28:58.135: failed to create cairo scaled 
font, expect ugly output. the offending font is 'Ubuntu 11'

(evince:19449): Pango-WARNING **: 10:28:58.135: font_face status is: <unknown 
error status>

(evince:19449): Pango-WARNING **: 10:28:58.135: scaled_font status is: out of 
memory

(evince:19449): Pango-WARNING **: 10:28:58.135: shaping failure, expect ugly 
output. shape-engine='PangoFcShapeEngine', font='Ubuntu 11', text='●'

(evince:19449): Pango-WARNING **: 10:28:58.142: failed to create cairo scaled 
font, expect ugly output. the offending font is 'Ubuntu 10.5595703125'

(evince:19449): Pango-WARNING **: 10:28:58.142: font_face status is: <unknown 
error status>

(evince:19449): Pango-WARNING **: 10:28:58.142: scaled_font status is: out of 
memory

(evince:19449): Pango-WARNING **: 10:28:58.142: shaping failure, expect ugly 
output. shape-engine='PangoFcShapeEngine', font='Ubuntu 10.5595703125', 
text='The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.'

(evince:19449): Pango-WARNING **: 10:28:58.408: failed to create cairo scaled 
font, expect ugly output. the offending font is 'Ubuntu Italic 11'

(evince:19449): Pango-WARNING **: 10:28:58.408: font_face status is: <unknown 
error status>

(evince:19449): Pango-WARNING **: 10:28:58.408: scaled_font status is: out of 
memory

(evince:19449): Pango-WARNING **: 10:28:58.408: shaping failure, expect ugly 
output. shape-engine='PangoFcShapeEngine', font='Ubuntu Italic 11', text='3'

(evince:19449): Pango-WARNING **: 10:28:58.414: failed to create cairo scaled 
font, expect ugly output. the offending font is 'Ubuntu Italic 13.1982421875'

(evince:19449): Pango-WARNING **: 10:28:58.414: font_face status is: <unknown 
error status>

(evince:19449): Pango-WARNING **: 10:28:58.414: scaled_font status is: out of 
memory

(evince:19449): Pango-WARNING **: 10:28:58.414: shaping failure, expect ugly 
output. shape-engine='PangoFcShapeEngine', font='Ubuntu Italic 13.1982421875', 
text='Document contains no annotations'
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

When viewing the application window, all text is replaced by empty white
boxes, as shown in the attached screenshot.

Is this a bug, or am I simply doing something wrong here? Is there any
additional configuration I need to do to get fonts from the system and
Guix to cooperate with each other?

Any help would be appreciated. Please also let me know if there's any
needed but missing information and I'll be happy to provide it.

Thanks,
-- Evan <address@hidden>

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