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Howto: Fix ttf-mscorefonts-installer problems in Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala

Most of the people that installed the new Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala and then tried to install the ubuntu-restricted-extras quickly found that any time after that when installing a package via CLI/Software Center/Synaptic Package Manager they got an error in reference to ttf-mscorefonts-installer (3.0).

I'm not really sure why it's can't resolve the host, but the easiest way to fix this little problem is to simple uninstall the ttf-mscorefonts-installer, but now you're thinking well maybe I want the Microsoft fonts for cross-platform compatibility reason, well I've got my own little script that does that for you too.

Step 1

Open up your Terminal under Applications -> Accessories ->Terminal and run:

sudo apt-get remove ttf-mscorefonts-installer

Step 2

Download my script here (you'll have to unzip it to get to the bash script), by default it's not an executable, which we will amend in a second. In order to run my script open a Terminal and navigate to the directory the file is in (i recommend putting it on the Desktop) as shown in my example:

cd ~/Desktop/

Now run the following command to make the file executable:

sudo chmod +x msfonts

Note: You may need to install cabextract, as it's one of the programs I use in my script. In your Terminal run:

sudo apt-get install cabextract

Step 3

In the same terminal windows run the script:
./msfonts

Note: My script is pretty basic as you can see and may take sometimes to download all the files depending on your connection. It basically get's the .exe's that hold the fonts extracts, renames and copies the fonts into the appropriate directory on your system, which is /usr/share/fonts/truetype/mscorefonts/ and now you can see the fonts when you open up Open Office Writer.

Let's hope the package managers notice this problem soon, because I have no doubt in my mind that is is going to really annoy a lot of people!

Note: My fix works most of the time, but I've got a few emails saying it didn't so I've directed them to follow this post

If you liked this guide please comment and subscribe.

Edit: Made a quick correction in Step 2 making the file an executable, thanks FXB for pointing that out.
Edit: Made a note in Step 3 to make sure you have cabextract, otherwise my script wont work.
Edit: Just so people know you can read/do what my script actually does manually...Basically go download the .exe extract the font, rename it and then move it too the correct place. It's that simple.

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