Attempts to use the graphical user interface (GUI) in IBM Rational ClearCase results in the message "Warning: 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
Possible causes include:
An improper setting of the locale variable. For example it may be set to UTF-8. 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:
Defect (APAR PK30799) 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:
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. 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: 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. Remove the reference to misc-kochi.