[texhax] metafont running problem

[Karl Berry]

    What exactly is mfw, and where can I find it?

It was the "window-enabled version" of mf.  The idea was that linking
with the X libraries is a real headache, and makes the binary huge,
while the vast majority sites only use mf to create already-existing
fonts at different resolutions, for which online display is not needed.

Anyway, here are some options, none great.

(1) You can get the mfw from TL2003 from
ftp://tug.org/texlive/Contents/live/bin/i386-linux/mfw.
I must correct what I said earlier, this does draw online for me, but
sometimes it takes two showit's.  I don't understand.  Maybe it will
work for you, I hope there won't be shared lib problems.

(2) You can get the latest teTeX from
http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/systems/unix/teTeX and teTeX-beta -- but
this will require building from source.  That might be easy, or it might
be a nightmare.  (If you do get it compiled, you might be able to run mf
directly out of the source tree, or you might have to actually install
everything.)

(3) I don't know what package format Mandrake uses, but perhaps you can
find an updated teTeX to install.

Happy drawing,
karl