Fonts don't appear in applications on Ubuntu 24.04 because symlinked font directory doesn't work

[tianyizheng02]

General troubleshooting steps

• I have retried my command with --force and the issue is still present.
• I have checked the instructions for reporting bugs (or making requests) before opening the issue.
  • None of the templates was appropriate for my issue, or I’m not sure.
• I ran brew update-reset && brew update and retried my command.
• I ran brew doctor, fixed as many issues as possible and retried my command.
• I understand that if I ignore these instructions, my issue may be closed without review.

Description of issue

Similar to #72

Fonts installed with this tap don't appear in applications such as LibreOffice and Xournal++. I performed the necessary steps for fontconfig as stated in the README, but the fonts still can't be found in applications. This happens for symlinking both to /usr/local/share and to ~/.local/share.

However, I can install fonts just fine without Homebrew and symlinking (by placing font files directly into ~/.local/share/fonts). I think the problem is that applications can't find installed fonts if the font directory (/usr/local/share/fonts or ~/.local/share/fonts) is a symlink.

Output of your command with --verbose --debug

Example with font-libertinus:

$ brew install font-libertinus --verbose --debug
/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/brew.rb (Formulary::FromNameLoader): loading font-libertinus
/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/brew.rb (Formulary::FromNameLoader): loading font-libertinus
==> Fetching homebrew/linux-fonts/font-libertinus
/usr/bin/env /home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/shims/shared/curl --disable --cookie /dev/null --globoff --show-error --user-agent Linuxbrew/4.4.16\ \(Linux\;\ x86_64\ Ubuntu\ 24.04.1\ LTS\)\ curl/8.5.0 --header Accept-Language:\ en --retry 3 -V
/usr/bin/env /home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/shims/shared/curl --disable --cookie /dev/null --globoff --show-error --user-agent Linuxbrew/4.4.16\ \(Linux\;\ x86_64\ Ubuntu\ 24.04.1\ LTS\)\ curl/8.5.0 --header Accept-Language:\ en --retry 3 --fail --location --silent --head https://github.com/alerque/libertinus/releases/download/v7.051/Libertinus-7.051.tar.zst
==> Downloading https://github.com/alerque/libertinus/releases/download/v7.051/Libertinus-7.051.tar.zst
==> Downloading from https://objects.githubusercontent.com/github-production-release-asset-2e65be/10892932/2ccf0e31-b582-40ec-9321-8d100e63e3f7?X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Credential=releaseassetproduction%2F20250116%2Fus-east-1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20250116T214232Z&X-Amz-Expires=300&X-Amz-Signature=49adc5db747e88ad522b250cbec123aaab799b868f908873c5db03a1130f71c0&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&response-content-disposition=attachment%3B%20filename%3DLibertinus-7.051.tar.zst&response-content-type=application%2Foctet-stream
/usr/bin/env /home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/shims/shared/curl --disable --cookie /dev/null --globoff --show-error --user-agent Linuxbrew/4.4.16\ \(Linux\;\ x86_64\ Ubuntu\ 24.04.1\ LTS\)\ curl/8.5.0 --header Accept-Language:\ en --fail --retry 3 --remote-time --output /home/[username]/.cache/Homebrew/downloads/4bae8841ac26a9b42de4b724bd04c94c5157b78519bf83bcccc0540554d7a327--Libertinus-7.051.tar.zst.incomplete --location https://objects.githubusercontent.com/github-production-release-asset-2e65be/10892932/2ccf0e31-b582-40ec-9321-8d100e63e3f7\?X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256\&X-Amz-Credential=releaseassetproduction\%2F20250116\%2Fus-east-1\%2Fs3\%2Faws4_request\&X-Amz-Date=20250116T214232Z\&X-Amz-Expires=300\&X-Amz-Signature=49adc5db747e88ad522b250cbec123aaab799b868f908873c5db03a1130f71c0\&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host\&response-content-disposition=attachment\%3B\%20filename\%3DLibertinus-7.051.tar.zst\&response-content-type=application\%2Foctet-stream
  % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current
                                 Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed
100 6642k  100 6642k    0     0  6213k      0  0:00:01  0:00:01 --:--:-- 6219k
==> Verifying checksum for '4bae8841ac26a9b42de4b724bd04c94c5157b78519bf83bcccc0540554d7a327--Libertinus-7.051.tar.zst'
==> Installing font-libertinus from homebrew/linux-fonts
/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/brew.rb (Formulary::FromTapLoader): loading homebrew/linux-fonts/font-libertinus
/usr/bin/env /home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/shims/shared/git --version
/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/build.rb (Formulary::FromPathLoader): loading /home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew/Library/Taps/homebrew/homebrew-linux-fonts/Formula/font-libertinus.rb
/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/build.rb (Formulary::FromAPILoader): loading gcc@11
/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/build.rb (Formulary::FromAPILoader): loading binutils
/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/build.rb (Formulary::FromAPILoader): loading make
/usr/bin/env /home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/shims/shared/git --version
/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/build.rb (Formulary::FromAPILoader): loading gcc
/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/build.rb (Formulary::FromAPILoader): loading gcc@13
/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/build.rb (Formulary::FromAPILoader): loading gcc
/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/build.rb (Formulary::FromAPILoader): loading gcc@13
/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/build.rb (Formulary::FromAPILoader): loading zstd
/usr/bin/env PATH=/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/opt/zstd/bin:/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/shims/linux/super:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin unzstd -T0 --rm -- /tmp/homebrew-tar20250116-479967-3vhvfj/4bae8841ac26a9b42de4b724bd04c94c5157b78519bf83bcccc0540554d7a327--Libertinus-7.051.tar.zst
/tmp/homebrew-tar20250116-479967-3vhvfj/4bae8841ac26a9b42de4b724bd04c94c5157b78519bf83bcccc0540554d7a327--Libertinus-7.051.tar.zst: 14583808 bytes 
/usr/bin/env tar --extract --no-same-owner --file /tmp/homebrew-tar20250116-479967-3vhvfj/4bae8841ac26a9b42de4b724bd04c94c5157b78519bf83bcccc0540554d7a327--Libertinus-7.051.tar --directory /tmp/homebrew-unpack-20250116-479967-wuo6a7
mv /tmp/homebrew-unpack-20250116-479967-wuo6a7/Libertinus-7.051 /tmp/font-libertinus-20250116-479967-gfrr2o/Libertinus-7.051
==> Cleaning
==> Finishing up
/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/brew.rb (Cask::CaskLoader::FromAPILoader): loading font-libertinus
ln -s ../../Cellar/font-libertinus/7.051/share/fonts/LibertinusKeyboard-Regular.otf LibertinusKeyboard-Regular.otf
ln -s ../../Cellar/font-libertinus/7.051/share/fonts/LibertinusMath-Regular.otf LibertinusMath-Regular.otf
ln -s ../../Cellar/font-libertinus/7.051/share/fonts/LibertinusMono-Regular.otf LibertinusMono-Regular.otf
ln -s ../../Cellar/font-libertinus/7.051/share/fonts/LibertinusSans-Bold.otf LibertinusSans-Bold.otf
ln -s ../../Cellar/font-libertinus/7.051/share/fonts/LibertinusSans-Italic.otf LibertinusSans-Italic.otf
ln -s ../../Cellar/font-libertinus/7.051/share/fonts/LibertinusSans-Regular.otf LibertinusSans-Regular.otf
ln -s ../../Cellar/font-libertinus/7.051/share/fonts/LibertinusSerif-Bold.otf LibertinusSerif-Bold.otf
ln -s ../../Cellar/font-libertinus/7.051/share/fonts/LibertinusSerif-BoldItalic.otf LibertinusSerif-BoldItalic.otf
ln -s ../../Cellar/font-libertinus/7.051/share/fonts/LibertinusSerif-Italic.otf LibertinusSerif-Italic.otf
ln -s ../../Cellar/font-libertinus/7.051/share/fonts/LibertinusSerif-Regular.otf LibertinusSerif-Regular.otf
ln -s ../../Cellar/font-libertinus/7.051/share/fonts/LibertinusSerif-Semibold.otf LibertinusSerif-Semibold.otf
ln -s ../../Cellar/font-libertinus/7.051/share/fonts/LibertinusSerif-SemiboldItalic.otf LibertinusSerif-SemiboldItalic.otf
ln -s ../../Cellar/font-libertinus/7.051/share/fonts/LibertinusSerifDisplay-Regular.otf LibertinusSerifDisplay-Regular.otf
ln -s ../../Cellar/font-libertinus/7.051/share/fonts/LibertinusSerifInitials-Regular.otf LibertinusSerifInitials-Regular.otf
==> Summary
🍺  /home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Cellar/font-libertinus/7.051: 19 files, 3.7MB, built in 1 second
==> Running `brew cleanup font-libertinus`...
Disable this behaviour by setting HOMEBREW_NO_INSTALL_CLEANUP.
Hide these hints with HOMEBREW_NO_ENV_HINTS (see `man brew`).
/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/brew.rb (Formulary::FromTapLoader): loading homebrew/linux-fonts/font-libertinus
/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/brew.rb (Formulary::FromAPILoader): loading homebrew/core/libffi
/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/brew.rb (Formulary::FromAPILoader): loading homebrew/core/zlib
/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/brew.rb (Formulary::FromAPILoader): loading homebrew/core/unzip
/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/brew.rb (Formulary::FromAPILoader): loading homebrew/core/mpdecimal
/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/brew.rb (Formulary::FromAPILoader): loading homebrew/core/ncurses
/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/brew.rb (Formulary::FromAPILoader): loading homebrew/core/libtirpc
/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/brew.rb (Formulary::FromAPILoader): loading homebrew/core/sqlite
/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/brew.rb (Formulary::FromAPILoader): loading homebrew/core/krb5
/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/brew.rb (Formulary::FromAPILoader): loading homebrew/core/xz
/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/brew.rb (Formulary::FromAPILoader): loading homebrew/core/[email protected]
/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/brew.rb (Formulary::FromTapLoader): loading homebrew/linux-fonts/font-jetbrains-mono
/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/brew.rb (Formulary::FromAPILoader): loading homebrew/core/libnsl
/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/brew.rb (Formulary::FromAPILoader): loading homebrew/core/openssl@3
/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/brew.rb (Formulary::FromTapLoader): loading homebrew/linux-fonts/font-iosevka
/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/brew.rb (Formulary::FromTapLoader): loading homebrew/linux-fonts/font-libertinus
/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/brew.rb (Formulary::FromAPILoader): loading homebrew/core/expat
/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/brew.rb (Formulary::FromAPILoader): loading homebrew/core/readline
/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/brew.rb (Formulary::FromAPILoader): loading homebrew/core/ca-certificates
/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/brew.rb (Formulary::FromAPILoader): loading homebrew/core/berkeley-db@5
/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/brew.rb (Formulary::FromAPILoader): loading homebrew/core/bzip2
/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/brew.rb (Formulary::FromAPILoader): loading homebrew/core/libxcrypt
/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/brew.rb (Formulary::FromAPILoader): loading homebrew/core/libedit
/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/brew.rb (Formulary::FromAPILoader): loading bzip2
/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/brew.rb (Formulary::FromAPILoader): loading ca-certificates
/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/brew.rb (Formulary::FromAPILoader): loading openssl@3
/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/brew.rb (Formulary::FromAPILoader): loading ncurses
/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/brew.rb (Formulary::FromAPILoader): loading libedit
/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/brew.rb (Formulary::FromAPILoader): loading krb5
/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/brew.rb (Formulary::FromAPILoader): loading ncurses
/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/brew.rb (Formulary::FromAPILoader): loading readline
/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/brew.rb (Formulary::FromAPILoader): loading zlib
/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/brew.rb (Formulary::FromAPILoader): loading ca-certificates
/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/brew.rb (Formulary::FromAPILoader): loading openssl@3
/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/brew.rb (Formulary::FromAPILoader): loading ncurses
/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/brew.rb (Formulary::FromAPILoader): loading libedit
/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/brew.rb (Formulary::FromAPILoader): loading mpdecimal
/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/brew.rb (Formulary::FromAPILoader): loading ca-certificates
/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/brew.rb (Formulary::FromAPILoader): loading openssl@3
/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/brew.rb (Formulary::FromAPILoader): loading ncurses
/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/brew.rb (Formulary::FromAPILoader): loading readline
/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/brew.rb (Formulary::FromAPILoader): loading zlib
/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/brew.rb (Formulary::FromAPILoader): loading sqlite
/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/brew.rb (Formulary::FromAPILoader): loading xz
/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/brew.rb (Formulary::FromAPILoader): loading berkeley-db@5
/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/brew.rb (Formulary::FromAPILoader): loading libedit
/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/brew.rb (Formulary::FromAPILoader): loading krb5
/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/brew.rb (Formulary::FromAPILoader): loading libtirpc
/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/brew.rb (Formulary::FromAPILoader): loading libnsl
/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/brew.rb (Formulary::FromAPILoader): loading bzip2
/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/brew.rb (Formulary::FromAPILoader): loading expat
/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/brew.rb (Formulary::FromAPILoader): loading libffi
/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/brew.rb (Formulary::FromAPILoader): loading libxcrypt
/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/brew.rb (Formulary::FromAPILoader): loading unzip
/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/brew.rb (Formulary::FromAPILoader): loading ca-certificates
/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/brew.rb (Formulary::FromAPILoader): loading openssl@3
/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/brew.rb (Formulary::FromAPILoader): loading ncurses
/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/brew.rb (Formulary::FromAPILoader): loading libedit
/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/brew.rb (Formulary::FromAPILoader): loading krb5
/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/brew.rb (Formulary::FromAPILoader): loading libtirpc
/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/brew.rb (Formulary::FromAPILoader): loading ca-certificates
/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/brew.rb (Formulary::FromAPILoader): loading ncurses
/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/brew.rb (Formulary::FromAPILoader): loading ncurses

Output of brew cask doctor

$ brew doctor
Your system is ready to brew.

[tani]

Thank you for the report. I will inspect the issue. Could you please run the following commands? Note that this pertains to the legacy compatibility directory.

$ ln -s /home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/share/fonts -t ~/.fonts
$ fc-cache -fv

[tianyizheng02]

I didn't already have a ~/.fonts directory, so I created one. This is my (abridged) output for the above commands:

$ mkdir ~/.fonts
$ ln -s /home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/share/fonts -t ~/.fonts
$ fc-cache -fv
Font directories:
	/home/tianyi/.local/share/fonts
	/usr/share/ubuntu/fonts
	/usr/share/gnome/fonts
	/usr/local/share/fonts
	/usr/share/fonts
	/var/lib/snapd/desktop/fonts
	/home/tianyi/.fonts
	...
	/home/tianyi/.fonts/fonts
	...
/home/tianyi/.local/share/fonts: caching, new cache contents: 162 fonts, 0 dirs
...
/home/tianyi/.fonts: caching, new cache contents: 0 fonts, 1 dirs
/home/tianyi/.fonts/fonts: caching, new cache contents: 211 fonts, 0 dirs
...
fc-cache: succeeded

fc-cache is able to find the newly added, symlinked directories, but this was already the case when I had symlinked usr/local/share/fonts and ~/.local/share/fonts directories. In any case, applications (I checked LibreOffice Writer and Xournal++) still aren't able to find my symlinked fonts from Homebrew, so the symlinked ~/.fonts directory doesn't work either.

[tani]

Thank you for verifying this. I’ve identified the cause of this issue. On Linux, fonts located under ~/.fonts or ~/.local/share/fonts should indeed be recognized, including those accessed via symlinks. However, this behavior might depend on matching the glob patterns ~/.fonts/*.ttf or ~/.local/share/fonts/*.ttf.

In your case, though, the structure appears to be ~/.fonts/fonts/ or ~/.local/share/fonts/fonts, which seems to be the root of the problem.

Therefore, I suggest deleting ~/.fonts and creating a symlink. Specifically, please try running the following command:

rm -rf ~/.fonts && ln -s /home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/share/fonts -t ~/.fonts

Could you give this a try and see if it resolves the issue?

[tianyizheng02]

Yes, in my previous comment I had ~/.fonts/fonts because ln -s ... -t ~/.fonts would fail if ~/.fonts didn't already exist as the target directory. I can run

ln -s /home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/share/fonts -T ~/.fonts

to get a structure of ~/.fonts, but this doesn't change the outcome at all. fc-cache still succeeds:

$ fc-cache -fv
Font directories:
	/home/tianyi/.local/share/fonts
	/usr/share/ubuntu/fonts
	/usr/share/gnome/fonts
	/usr/local/share/fonts
	/usr/share/fonts
	/var/lib/snapd/desktop/fonts
	/home/tianyi/.fonts
	...
/home/tianyi/.local/share/fonts: caching, new cache contents: 162 fonts, 0 dirs
...
/home/tianyi/.fonts: caching, new cache contents: 211 fonts, 0 dirs
...
fc-cache: succeeded

but I still don't see my Homebrew-installed fonts in my applications. I've always had ~/.local/share/fonts as the file structure, never ~/.local/share/fonts/fonts, and even still I'm experiencing the same issue, so the file structure shouldn't be the problem.

[tani]

Thank you very much. So it was -T, was it? I’ll correct that right away. Thank you again. Now, I understand that the issue still persists despite the fix. That’s indeed quite strange. Since fc-cache is functioning, it seems fontconfig (the common font management system used on Linux) is recognizing the fonts. However, I wonder if LibreOffice manages fonts independently of fontconfig? I will investigate to see if I can reproduce the issue on my side. Please give me some time over the weekend to work on this. Thank you for your patience.