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this is my first post, so don't be harsh if something isn't right. I'm by no means an advanced linux user.

I'm using XFCE, but I am only trying to change the font of text mode consoles. I was trying to change the font on my system. I 'cd'ed into /usr/share/kbd/consolefonts and was trying to 'setfont' from the list.

Both 'setfont' and 'showconsolefont' gave the following error message:"Couldn't get a file descriptor referring to the console."

I tried to run showconsolefont with root privileges and it worked, however when I tried to run 'setfont' with root privileges it didn't seem to make any change whatsoever.

I even tried to set FONT= variable in /etc/vconsole.conf and reboot the system, but it didn't make any change.

The only similar problem I've managed to find online was some guy that had the problem due to 'setfont' lines in .xinitrc, .bashrc and .bashprofile. For this reason I even tried to reset all those files using the originals from /etc/skel and overwriting ones in my home directory.

Help would be highly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Chris Davies
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Neko Nekokovic
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    setfont, /usr/share/kbd and /etc/vconsole.conf only apply to the text mode console, which hardly anyone uses. Are you using that? Or are you using a graphical user interface? In the GUI, each application chooses what fonts it uses. Some desktop environments have a default font, and you can set that, but that depends on the desktop environment. Which desktop environment are you using? – Gilles 'SO- stop being evil' Oct 21 '21 at 19:19
  • Hi, I'm using XFCE. I am only trying to change the font of text mode consoles. – Neko Nekokovic Oct 21 '21 at 19:25
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    xfce is not relevant to the text console. if you're in xfce (or any other WM or DE, or X or Wayland), you're not in the console - and vice-versa. – cas Oct 22 '21 at 03:12
  • If you're trying to change the font in your GUI terminal emulator, then it will have configurable settings for the font and size. Look in the Edit menu for "Settings" or "Preferences", or maybe in a top-level menu (e.g. roxterm has a Preferences menu). Older terminal emulators like xterm or mrxvt may not have a GUI settings dialog, but will require you to edit their config file or Xresources with a text editor such as vi or nano. – cas Oct 22 '21 at 03:20
  • Ah, ok. So this is called a terminal, and specifically it's a terminal emulator. A console is when you have a full-screen terminal with no windows. (See https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/4126/what-is-the-exact-difference-between-a-terminal-a-shell-a-tty-and-a-con for a more in-depth exploration of the terminology.) There are dozens of terminal emulator applications under Linux, but I guess you're using xfce4-terminal? Please check — it should have a “Help → About” menu that identifies itself as “xfce4-terminal”. – Gilles 'SO- stop being evil' Oct 22 '21 at 07:04

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