Fixing emacs that shows square boxes

If you have already installed modular X, then just update /etc/make.conf with the following USE variables

USE="bitmap-fonts truetype-fonts type1-fonts"

Then do an update, i.e.:

#: emerge -avuDN world

Got to emerge xfontsel as well to specify default font for emacs.

#: emerge xfontsel

Select appropriate font using xfontsel and then create .Xdefaults in the user directory.

%: touch ~/.Xdefaults
%: nano -w ~/.Xdefaults

Mine got the following entries:

emacs.font: -*-fixed-*-*-normal-*-10-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

Then to get the changes applied withour restarting X, do the following:

%: xrdb -load ~/.Xdefaults

For some reason emacs runs quite nicely after all this changes when run from the terminal but not from Gnome menu. So got to make some minor changes in /usr/share/applications/emacs-21.desktop. Change the following line:

Exec=/usr/bin/emacs.emacs-21

To:

Exec=/usr/bin/emacs

Note, need to be root inorder to do this.