Allow local file search on msttcorefonts - msttcorefonts/dldir not displayed

[Bernardo Mello]

Binary package hint: msttcorefonts

I found several reports of people with problem in installing msttcorefonts without Internet access. In my case, I have Internet access but a firewall blocks the download of these files by the installing program. There are workarounds like

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=203994.

Whoever, besides being not a very elegant solution, it seems not to work on 8.04, because it doesn't install update-ms-fonts.

I have a suggestion regarding that problem: Why not make the installer look for the .exe files not only in the remote sites but also in a local directory, /tmp, for example. In the case of failure when downloading the files, a message could be shown asking the files to be manually download on that directory. The same warning could be included in the package description too.

[Thijs Kinkhorst (kink)]

The installer already does that, that's where the msttcorefonts/dldir is for. Why can't you use that?

[Bernardo Mello (bmello67)]

Well, I couldn't use it because I didn't know that it was possible. And I spent hours searching the Internet for such piece of information. All that I found were several sites with people as lost as I, who know nothing about such dir. That is why I suggested that this information should be available in the package description.

Anyway, it is good to know that I can download the files to that dir. Could you, please, give-me more information about where that dir is located?

[Jean-Baptiste Lallement (jibel)]

"The installer should have shown you a dialog asking you the following question:
 If you have already downloaded Microsoft's TrueType Core Fonts for the web,
 type the name of the directory which contains them. Those files are in the
 Microsoft Windows self-installing format, and are named andale32.exe,
 arial32.exe, arialb32.exe, comic32.exe, courie32.exe, georgi32.exe,
 impact32.exe, times32.exe, trebuc32.exe, verdan32.exe and webdin32.exe.
 .
 If you haven't yet downloaded these fonts, leave this blank and the fonts
 will be downloaded for you. Approximately 4 MB will need to be downloaded.
"

From your comment, I guess you didn't see it. I'm setting the status to confirmed.

[Steve Langasek (vorlon)]

We don't want to show such a question by default, that would interrupt the flow of the install in the common case. You can always get to this question with 'dpkg-reconfigure ttf-mscorefonts-installer'.

[Bernardo Mello (bmello67)]

Thank you for the replies. In fact, that bug doesn't affect me any more, since I am free from that f. firewall.

Anyway, for the sake of making Ubuntu better, there it goes my reply to Steve Langasek:

I completely agree with you that the installation must be as easy and non-interrupted as possible for the COMMON case. However, failing to install the fonts because you are can't download it or for any other reason, is not the common case. In that situation, the installer should explain the problem and the workarounds to the user and ask how to proceed. Had the installer shown such a kindness, it would spare me hours of fruitless googling.