[Fontconfig] Fontconfig error: Cannot load default config file

[Keith Packard]

Around 14 o'clock on Sep 7, "Philippe A" wrote:

> I tried to trace this error in the code and eventually found that 
> FcConfigFilename always returns null for me. Looks like fontconfig does not 
> look automatically in /etc/fonts, which is where I have my fresh config 
> files installed.

Sounds like fontconfig got miscompiled somehow.  It seems most likely that 
the FONTCONFIG_PATH didn't get defined correctly.

Check your Makefile in src and ensure that you have something like:

....
sysconfdir = /etc
...
CONFDIR = ${sysconfdir}/fonts
...
INCLUDES = $(FREETYPE_CFLAGS) $(EXPAT_CFLAGS) -DFONTCONFIG_PATH='"$(CONFDIR)"' -I$(top_srcdir) -I$(top_srcdir)/src

Then run 'strings' on fccfg.o and make sure /etc/fonts is present in the 
object file.

-keith