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LuaLaTeX luaotfload fails to find a font #180639
Description
Describe the bug
lualatex fails because it can't find a character in the default font, because the default font is null, because luaotfload fails to load fontloader module basics-gen, because there is no writable system cache.
Steps To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:
- Write
test1.tex:Hello world \bye. - Write
test2.tex:\documentclass{article} \begin{document} Hello world \end{document} - Write a
flake.nix:
{
outputs = { self, nixpkgs }:
let
system = "x86_64-linux";
pkgs = nixpkgs.legacyPackages.${system};
in
{
packages.${system}.default = pkgs.stdenvNoCC.mkDerivation {
name = "test";
src = ./.;
buildInputs = [
(pkgs.texlive.combine {
inherit (pkgs.texlive) scheme-basic collection-luatex;
})
];
buildPhase = ''
mkdir $out
# Test raw LuaTeX (succeeds)
luatex -interaction=nonstopmode -output-format=pdf -output-directory=$out ./test1.tex;
# Test LuaLaTeX (fails)
lualatex -interaction=nonstopmode -output-format=pdf -output-directory=$out ./test2.tex;
'';
phases = [ "unpackPhase" "buildPhase" ];
};
};
}
4, Run nix build -L
Observe that raw LuaTeX document compiles, but the LuaLaTeX document fails to compile:
test> luaotfload | load : FATAL ERROR
test> luaotfload | load : × Failed to load "fontloader" module "basics-gen".
test> luaotfload | load : × Error message:
test> luaotfload | load : × "...21/share/texmf/tex/luatex/luaotfload/luaotfload-init.lua:301: system : no writeable cache path, quiting".
test> stack traceback:
test> ...ed-2021/share/texmf/tex/luatex/luaotfload/luaotfload.lua:200: in local 'load_fontloader_module'
test> ...21/share/texmf/tex/luatex/luaotfload/luaotfload-init.lua:303: in upvalue 'init_main'
test> ...21/share/texmf/tex/luatex/luaotfload/luaotfload-init.lua:590: in function 'luaotfload-init.lua'
test> ...ed-2021/share/texmf/tex/luatex/luaotfload/luaotfload.lua:322: in field 'main'
test> [\directlua]:1: in main chunk
test> ...21/share/texmf/tex/luatex/luaotfload/luaotfload-init.lua:301: system : no wr
test> iteable cache path, quiting
test> stack traceback:
test> [C]: in function 'error'
test> ...21/share/texmf/tex/luatex/luaotfload/luaotfload-init.lua:301: in function '
test> os.exit'
test> ...ed-2021/share/texmf/tex/luatex/luaotfload/luaotfload.lua:203: in local 'loa
test> d_fontloader_module'
test> ...21/share/texmf/tex/luatex/luaotfload/luaotfload-init.lua:303: in upvalue 'i
test> nit_main'
test> ...21/share/texmf/tex/luatex/luaotfload/luaotfload-init.lua:590: in function '
test> luaotfload-init.lua'
test> ...ed-2021/share/texmf/tex/luatex/luaotfload/luaotfload.lua:322: in field 'mai
test> n'
test> [\directlua]:1: in main chunk.
test> <everyjob> ...ring \\def\string \\encodingdefault{OT1}')end }
test> \let \f@encoding \encoding...
<snip>
test> Missing character: There is no H (U+0048) in font nullfont!
test> Missing character: There is no e (U+0065) in font nullfont!
test> Missing character: There is no l (U+006C) in font nullfont!
test> Missing character: There is no l (U+006C) in font nullfont!
test> Missing character: There is no o (U+006F) in font nullfont!
test> Missing character: There is no , (U+002C) in font nullfont!
test> Missing character: There is no w (U+0077) in font nullfont!
test> Missing character: There is no o (U+006F) in font nullfont!
test> Missing character: There is no r (U+0072) in font nullfont!
test> Missing character: There is no l (U+006C) in font nullfont!
test> Missing character: There is no d (U+0064) in font nullfont!
test> Missing character: There is no ! (U+0021) in font nullfont!
test> Missing character: There is no 1 (U+0031) in font nullfont!
Notify maintainers
Metadata
[user@system:~]$ nix-shell -p nix-info --run "nix-info -m"
- system: `"x86_64-linux"`
- host os: `Linux 5.13.0-46-generic, Ubuntu, 20.04.4 LTS (Focal Fossa), nobuild`
- multi-user?: `yes`
- sandbox: `yes`
- version: `nix-env (Nix) 2.9.1`
- channels(root): `"nixpkgs"`
- channels(sam): `"home-manager, nixpkgs-22.11pre384163.18de53ca965"`
- nixpkgs: `/home/sam/.nix-defexpr/channels/nixpkgs`
Activity
veprbl commentedon Jul 8, 2022
Try adding
export HOME=$(mktemp -d).I'm not sure if it would be feasible to have those caches pre-populated. /cc @xworld21
charmoniumQ commentedon Jul 8, 2022
That works; thanks!
DarkaMaul commentedon Oct 18, 2023
The error is still present today but the fix suggested here still works.
xworld21 commentedon Oct 19, 2023
I suppose we can reopen the issue as a feature request to pre-populate the font cache of
luaotfload. I might discover it is not feasible, but at least we will know.dpaetzel commentedon Jan 18, 2024
For anyone still having this problem: My workaround is to—whenever I run into this issue (in my case I notice this when the PDF output is once more full of many weird arcane symbols)—simply run
and then it works again for a few days/weeks (presumably until I upgrade my LaTeX distribution or something like that; not 100% sure what the trigger is).
(Courtesy of this stackoverflow post.)
charmoniumQ commentedon Jan 18, 2024
Did you discover anything? Would it suffice to compile a document which uses every font the user may be interested in, which might cause luatex to load those fonts into its cache?
nixos-discourse commentedon Nov 27, 2024
This issue has been mentioned on NixOS Discourse. There might be relevant details there:
https://discourse.nixos.org/t/lualatex-doesnt-work-in-development-since-update-to-texlive2024/56668/2
bmrips commentedon Apr 30, 2025
I figured out that also
export TEXMFVAR=$(mktemp -d)solves this issue. Not having to overrideHOMEis especially helpful for devshells.mskiptr commentedon Sep 6, 2025
Seems quite similar to https://gitlab.alpinelinux.org/alpine/aports/-/issues/16667. If
nixpkgsuses LuaLaTeX ≥ 7606, then this issue has most likely been resolved upstream and the workarounds are no longer needed.