Most Linux distributions enable the font server (xfs) as default. Such a font server is configured to provide its services on the machine where the font server is running. By default it listens on port 7100 and its relative font path is set at unix/:7100.

There are some distributions that behave differently, such as Mandriva which sets the relative path at unix/:-1, or SuSE on which the font server is not run by default at the X server's start-up. Users are invited to contact their Linux vendor to find out more about their font-server configuration problems for their specific OS.

Below you can find a list of the default paths relative to the font server for the distributions that NoMachine supports.

• Mandrake Linux release 9.1 unix/:-1
• Mandrakelinux release 10.1 (Community) unix/:-1
• Fedora Core release 1 (Yarrow) unix/:7100
• Fedora Core release 3 (Heidelberg) unix/:7100
• SuSE Linux 9.2 (i586) No font server by default (*)
• SuSE Linux 9.3 No font server by default (*)
• Debian GNU/Linux 3.1 unix/:7100
   

(*) In /etc/init.d xfs is set on port 7100.

To make sure that the font server is running you can use the following command as root in most of the distributions:

cd /etc/init.d/
./xfs status

or:

ps -e | grep xfs

For example:

[username@machinename user]$ ps -e | grep xfs
1408 ? 00:00:00 xfs

On the machine "machinename" a font server is available listening on port unix -1 (the relative font path being unix/:-1)

If you wish to run the font server, you can run as root the following script:

cd /etc/init.d/
./xfs start

In this way, the font server will be run according to the distribution's default.

With the following scripts the font server can be stopped:

cd /etc/init.d/
./xfs stop

If you wish to run the font server on a specific port, such as port 7100, run as root:

cd /usr/X11R6/bin/
./xfs -port 7100 -daemon -droppriv -user xfs

To make the xfs listening on port unix/:7100 also available on port tcp 7100, you must ensure that the configuration file of the font server (/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fs/config) does not contain:

no-listen = tcp

Once the font server, running on any machine on the local network, is listening on a tcp port we can configure the NX Client to use it. The NX Client for windows offers an option to add a font server:

configure -> Environment -> Use Font Server

where it is possible to specify the name of the machine on which the font server is running and the relative port tcp where it is listening.

The NX Client for Linux must have the font server on the font path provided by the X server at start-up, or it can be set using the command:

xfs fp+ tcp/hostname:port

where:

'port' is the port tcp where the font server is listening

'hostname' is the name/address of the machine where the font server is running;

Other related articles:  https://www.nomachine.com/AR11B00071 and https://www.nomachine.com/AR10B00029