Missing charsets in String to FontSet conversion

Scenario 1:

Using a display back setting to view xclearcase on Solaris® while remotely logged in to Linux® fails
with the following errors:

Warning: Missing charsets in String to FontSet conversion
Warning: Cannot Convert string "-dt-interface system-medium-r-normal-m*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-" to type FontSet
Warning: Unable to load any usable fontset.
Warning:                
NAME: FONTLIST_DEFAULT_TAG_STRING
CLASS: XmRendition
Conversion failed.  Cannot Load font.

prompt> xclearcase

Scenario 2:

The graphical options for listing and comparing versions using either cleartool lsvtree -graph or cleartool diff -graph report the following warning messages:

> cleartool diff -graph -pre .cti                
Missing charsets in String to FontSet conversion
Cannot convert string "-misc-kochi mincho-medium-r-normal--0-*-*-*-*-*-*-*" to type FontSet

> cleartool lsvtree -graph .cti
Warning:Missing charsets in String to FontSet conversion
Warning:Missing charsets in String to FontSet conversion
Warning:Missing charsets in String to FontSet conversion
Warning:Missing charsets in String to FontSet conversion
Warning:Cannot convert string "-misc-kochi mincho-medium-r-normal--0-*-*-*-*-*-*-*" to type FontSet
Segmentation fault

1. This is caused by an improper setting of the locale variable. For example it may be set to UTF-8.
   
2. The file of interest is the Linux/palette, which defines the actual fonts used in the environment. This file is read to determine the fonts that can be displayed in the ClearCase GUI.

The palette file does not contain the correct fontset.

This issue was identified as a product defect and logged under APAR PK30799.

Solution 1:

On the Linux system set the locale variable to C or EN_US and restart xclearcase.

Example:

setenv LC_ALL C

Review the manual page for locale (man locale) for a full description of this variable.

Solution 2:

The defect is closed as a permanent restriction as these benign warning messages can be safely ignored.

However, in cases where the warnings are interfering with your production requirements, such as breaking wrappers that use cleartool commands to implement customizations, then you may want stop them from appearing.

Here are a couple methods for suppressing the warnings:

1. Rename Schemes/Linux to Schemes/Linux.orig.
   
   Example:
   
   Assuming Rational ClearCase is installed at the standard location, go to /opt/rational/clearcase/config/ui/Schemes and rename the Linux directory under it as follows:
   
   Linux --> Linux.orig
   
   After the Linux directory is renamed, the GUI applets pick up default color and fonts, and the warnings will stop getting reported, but there are potential side effects:
   
   • If you are using Chinese characters, they will not get displayed correctly.
     
     
   • The appearance (background color and fonts) of the GUI applets may change.
     
     
2. To retain some of the fonts available in Linux/palette, you can search for the reference to the fontset (from the above error) and remove it.
   
   Example:
   
   1. Search /opt/rational/clearcase/config/ui/Schemes/Linux/palette for
      
      #define  BoldLabelFont          -*-*-medium-r-normal--14-*-*-*-*-*-gbk-*:,
      -*-fixed-medium-r-normal--14-*-*-*-*-*-big5-*:,
      -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--14-*-*-*-*-*-*-*:,
      -misc-kochi mincho-medium-r-normal--0-*-*-*-*-*-*-*:
      
      Note: This string would be one line, but was editted to fit this document.
      
   2. Remove the reference to misc-kochi.