SDL_ttf render failed

[Jonathan Doughty]

I'm trying to get pydance working on a Redhat 9.0
system.  When I try to start I'm getting :

> 0 joystick(s) found.
> pydance 0.8.2 <pydance-discuss at icculus.org> -
irc.freenode.net/#pyddr
> Psyco optimizing compiler found. Using psyco.full().
> Searching /usr/share/games/pydance/songs
> Searching /usr/local/share/games/pyddr/songs
> Searching ~/.pyddr/songs
> Searching ~/.pydance/songs
> Searching /usr/local/share/games/pydance/songs
> Searching /usr/share/games/pydance/courses
> Searching ~/.pydance/courses
> Searching /usr/local/share/games/pydance/courses
> Traceback (most recent call last):
> File "/opt/local/games/pydance", line 130, in ?
> if __name__ == '__main__': main()
> File "/opt/local/games/pydance", line 96, in main
> fileparsers.SongItem, (False,))
> File "/opt/local/games/pydance", line 40, in
load_files
> pbar = fontfx.TextProgress(FONTS[60], message,
colors.WHITE, colors.BLACK)
> File
"/opt/local/games/../share/games/pydance/fontfx.py",
line 112, in __init__
> self.text = font.render(message, 0, (255,0,0),
self.notcolor)
> pygame.error: SDL_ttf render failed


Googling around, I'm seeing indications that the
SDL_ttf error is a result of an incompatibility in the
freetype rpm that comes with RH 9.0: freetype-2.1.3-6.
 (The http://www.libsdl.org/projects/SDL_ttf/ page
says "The latest stable release of SDL 1.2, FreeType
2.0 or newer (except FreeType 2.1.3")) and some other
mailing list submissions suggest 2.1.3 is a problem.)

I've tried upgrading to the freetype 2.1.4 rpms that
are part of Fedora 1, but the same error occurs.  I
started to attempt to downgrade the freetype 2.1.2
rpms that are part of Redhat 8.0, but there are other
RH 9.0 RPMs that are dependent on freetype versions >=
2.1.3 (XFree86-libs being the one that gives the
greatest concern.)

I see other SDL_ttf issues in the pydance mail list
archive but the response was that those were fixed in
pygame 1.5.6 and that the issue related to mix name
(?) or Unicode in song files.  The only songs I've
tried so far are the Forkbomb, 6.January'2002, SynRG
on http://icculus.org/pyddr/get.php (FWIW, before I
downloaded and installed those in ~/.pydance/songs I'd
get the initial window saying I "You don't have any
songs ..." and I'd get working audio.

Am I on the right track with freetype / SDL_ttf being
the issue or is there something else that accounts for
this problem?

Is this a pydance issue is it just a pygame problem?

Has anyone gotten pydance working on a Redhat 9
system?  How?

Here's the list of RPM's I installed (and where I got
them from) trying to get pydance working:

pygame-1.5.6-1         
http://www.pygame.org/download.shtml
SDL-1.2.6-1            
http://www.libsdl.org/download-1.2.php
SDL-devel-1.2.6-1      
http://www.libsdl.org/download-1.2.php
SDL_image-1.2.3-1      
http://www.libsdl.org/projects/SDL_image/
SDL_image-devel-1.2.3-1
http://www.libsdl.org/projects/SDL_image/
SDL_mixer-1.2.5-1      
http://www.libsdl.org/projects/SDL_mixer/
SDL_mixer-devel-1.2.5-1
http://www.libsdl.org/projects/SDL_mixer/
smpeg-0.4.4-1          
http://www.lokigames.com/development/smpeg.php3 mirror
SDL_ttf-2.0.6-1        
http://www.libsdl.org/projects/SDL_ttf/
SDL_ttf-devel-2.0.6-1  
http://www.libsdl.org/projects/SDL_ttf/

Suggestions?

-- 
Jonathan Doughty


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