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When I install "Installer for Microsoft TrueType core fonts" (ttf-mscorefonts-installer) from the Software Center on 14.04, it gives a positive response--but after this I get a download error. It seems that the files actually providing the fonts are never retrieved. Is there any way to resolve this?

Serge Stroobandt
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Hans Schaap
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6 Answers6

71

The ttf-mscorefonts-installer package allows for easy installation of the Microsoft True Type Core Fonts for the web.

Run sudo apt-get install ttf-mscorefonts-installer and accept the EULA, or else if you already have ttf-mscorefonts-installer installed and you didn't accept the EULA, then uninstall ttf-mscorefonts-installer and reinstall it like this: 

sudo dpkg -P ttf-mscorefonts-installer  
sudo apt install ttf-mscorefonts-installer

Use the Tab and Enter keys to accept the EULA in the Microsoft TrueType core fonts window that pops up. The terminal will output a new message each time it finishes downloading a new font. Wait a bit until the terminal tells you that it's finished downloading and installing the Microsoft TrueType core fonts.

As noted in package ttf-mscorefonts-installer 3.4+nmu1ubuntu2 fails to install/upgrade, the current 3.4 version of ttf-mscorefonts-installer searches for the font files in an incorrect network location. The consequence of this is that the core fonts are never installed. This problem occurs with Ubuntu 16.04 as of July, 2016. Current to October 11, 2017 the latest version of ttf-mscorefonts-installer is also 3.4 in Ubuntu 16.10 and Ubuntu 17.04 and the latest version of ttf-mscorefonts-installer is 3.6 in Ubuntu 17.10.

The Debian (upstream) version 3.6 of ttf-mscorefonts-installer searches for the font files in the correct network location, and will successfully install the core fonts. For more information about this fix see Failure to download extra data files - ttf-mscorefonts-installer

karel
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26

Here's a work-around until the package is fixed:

TMP=`mktemp -d`   
cd $TMP
grep Url: /usr/share/package-data-downloads/ttf-mscorefonts-installer | awk '{print $2}' | xargs -n 1 wget  
sudo /usr/lib/msttcorefonts/update-ms-fonts $TMP/*  
sudo dpkg-reconfigure ttf-mscorefonts-installer  
cd -  
rm -rf $TMP

Note that this does skip the hash sum check, but they're just fonts, It's not like someone's going to hijack the download.sourceforge.net DNS and use it to distribute invalid files. The files aren't being executed: the update-ms-fonts script uses cabextract to pull the TTF files out of each exe.

Anyway, hope this helps.

Root
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22

I was getting hashsum errors from arial32.exe package and the install would fail, but utilizing a combination of the two above me, this actually worked.

sudo dpkg -P ttf-mscorefonts-installer
sudo rm -rf /var/lib/update-notifier/package-data-downloads/partial/*
sudo apt-get --purge --reinstall install ttf-mscorefonts-installer
Xyphos
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13

16.04 is affected by a download bug

More details in the bug report. As a workaround, download the revised Debian package and install it.

cd ~/Downloads
wget http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/pool/contrib/m/msttcorefonts/ttf-mscorefonts-installer_3.6_all.deb
sudo gdebi ~/Downloads/ttf-mscorefonts-installer_3.6_all.deb
Serge Stroobandt
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9

These two commands worked for me:

sudo rm -rf /var/lib/update-notifier/package-data-downloads/partial/*
sudo apt-get --purge --reinstall install ttf-mscorefonts-installer

source: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/msttcorefonts/+bug/1371783

Tek
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8

This worked like a charm: First, you need to delete everything related to msttcorefonts. Then this:

wget http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian/pool/contrib/m/msttcorefonts/ttf-mscorefonts-installer_3.6_all.deb
sudo dpkg -i ttf-mscorefonts-installer_3.6_all.deb
sudo fc-cache -f -v

It works too in Linux Mint 18 :)

falconR
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