[R] X11 font error on headless server running Xvfb

[MacQueen, Don]

You could try the Cairo() device from the Cairo package. It's my
understanding (from a time when I was using Xvgb for the same reason) that
Cairo does not depend on X Windows.

-Don

-- 
Don MacQueen

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
7000 East Ave., L-627
Livermore, CA 94550
925-423-1062





On 6/4/12 9:31 AM, "Jonathan Levine" <jstat at erols.com> wrote:

>I am trying to run an R script to create a .png file containing a tree
>map on a headless Linux server using Xvfb.  When I try to run tmPlot, I
>get the following errors and warnings:
>
>Error in grid.Call(L_textBounds, as.graphicsAnnot(x$label), x$x, x$y,  :
>  X11 font -adobe-helvetica-%s-%s-*-*-%d-*-*-*-*-*-*-*, face 1 at size 9
>could not be loaded
>Calls: tmPlot ... <Anonymous> -> widthDetails -> widthDetails.text ->
>grid.Call
>In addition: Warning messages:
>1: In grid.Call.graphics(L_text, as.graphicsAnnot(x$label), x$x, x$y,  :
>  X11 protocol error: BadMatch (invalid parameter attributes)
>...
>etc.  (complete error message below)
>
>The .png file does contain a partially constructed graph.  When I try
>something simple like plot(x,y) I get a plot with warnings.
>
>The results from capabilities() and X11Fonts() (see end of message)
>suggest to me that it should work.
>
>Any idea what is happening and how to fix the problem (or work around it)?
>
>
>Thanks,
>
>Jay
>--------------------------
>
>> sessionInfo()
>R version 2.15.0 (2012-03-30)
>Platform: x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu (64-bit)
>
>locale:
> [1] LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8       LC_NUMERIC=C
> [3] LC_TIME=en_US.UTF-8        LC_COLLATE=en_US.UTF-8
> [5] LC_MONETARY=en_US.UTF-8    LC_MESSAGES=en_US.UTF-8
> [7] LC_PAPER=C                 LC_NAME=C
> [9] LC_ADDRESS=C               LC_TELEPHONE=C
>[11] LC_MEASUREMENT=en_US.UTF-8 LC_IDENTIFICATION=C
>
>attached base packages:
>[1] grid      stats     graphics  grDevices utils     datasets  methods
>[8] base     
>
>other attached packages:
>[1] treemap_1.0-4      data.table_1.8.0   RColorBrewer_1.0-5
>> capabilities()
>    jpeg      png     tiff    tcltk      X11     aqua http/ftp  sockets
>    TRUE     TRUE     TRUE     TRUE     TRUE    FALSE     TRUE     TRUE
>  libxml     fifo   cledit    iconv      NLS  profmem    cairo
>    TRUE     TRUE    FALSE     TRUE     TRUE    FALSE    FALSE
>> X11Fonts()
>$serif
>[1] "-*-times-%s-%s-*-*-%d-*-*-*-*-*-*-*"
>
>$sans
>[1] "-*-helvetica-%s-%s-*-*-%d-*-*-*-*-*-*-*"
>
>$mono
>[1] "-*-courier-%s-%s-*-*-%d-*-*-*-*-*-*-*"
>
>$Times
>[1] "-adobe-times-%s-%s-*-*-%d-*-*-*-*-*-*-*"
>
>$Helvetica
>[1] "-adobe-helvetica-%s-%s-*-*-%d-*-*-*-*-*-*-*"
>
>$CyrTimes
>[1] "-cronyx-times-%s-%s-*-*-%d-*-*-*-*-*-*-*"
>
>$CyrHelvetica
>[1] "-cronyx-helvetica-%s-%s-*-*-%d-*-*-*-*-*-*-*"
>
>$Arial
>[1] "-monotype-arial-%s-%s-*-*-%d-*-*-*-*-*-*-*"
>
>$Mincho
>[1] "-*-mincho-%s-%s-*-*-%d-*-*-*-*-*-*-*"
>
>> 
>> png(file="/tmp/tmpzT4H0e.png",width = 800, height = 800)
>> tmPlot(myDF,index=c(vars[1],vars[2]),
>+ vSize=vars[4], 
>+ vColor=vars[3], 
>+ type="value")
>Error in grid.Call(L_textBounds, as.graphicsAnnot(x$label), x$x, x$y,  :
>  X11 font -adobe-helvetica-%s-%s-*-*-%d-*-*-*-*-*-*-*, face 1 at size 9
>could not be loaded
>Calls: tmPlot ... <Anonymous> -> widthDetails -> widthDetails.text ->
>grid.Call
>In addition: Warning messages:
>1: In grid.Call.graphics(L_text, as.graphicsAnnot(x$label), x$x, x$y,  :
>  X11 protocol error: BadMatch (invalid parameter attributes)
>2: In grid.Call.graphics(L_text, as.graphicsAnnot(x$label), x$x, x$y,  :
>  X11 protocol error: BadMatch (invalid parameter attributes)
>3: In grid.Call.graphics(L_rect, x$x, x$y, x$width, x$height,
>resolveHJust(x$just,  :
>  X11 protocol error: BadMatch (invalid parameter attributes)
>4: In grid.Call.graphics(L_rect, x$x, x$y, x$width, x$height,
>resolveHJust(x$just,  :
>  X11 protocol error: BadMatch (invalid parameter attributes)
>5: In grid.Call.graphics(L_text, as.graphicsAnnot(x$label), x$x, x$y,  :
>  X11 protocol error: BadMatch (invalid parameter attributes)
>6: In grid.Call.graphics(L_text, as.graphicsAnnot(x$label), x$x, x$y,  :
>  X11 protocol error: BadMatch (invalid parameter attributes)
>7: In grid.Call.graphics(L_text, as.graphicsAnnot(x$label), x$x, x$y,  :
>  X11 protocol error: BadMatch (invalid parameter attributes)
>8: In grid.Call.graphics(L_text, as.graphicsAnnot(x$label), x$x, x$y,  :
>  X11 protocol error: BadMatch (invalid parameter attributes)
>9: In grid.Call.graphics(L_rect, x$x, x$y, x$width, x$height,
>resolveHJust(x$just,  :
>  X11 protocol error: BadMatch (invalid parameter attributes)
>10: In grid.Call.graphics(L_rect, x$x, x$y, x$width, x$height,
>resolveHJust(x$just,  :
>  X11 protocol error: BadMatch (invalid parameter attributes)
>Execution halted
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