Only one OpenDyslexic font variant available via fontconfig

mightyiam · June 11, 2026, 3:17pm

I’m using home-manager’s home.packages to install a fonts package pkgs.nerd-fonts.open-dyslexic. It has quite a few fonts in it, which seems to be acknowledged by this line of output from fc-cache -fv:

/nix/store/fp7byywdn8xnxycjvhm0n658wv491qjr-nerd-fonts-open-dyslexic-3.4.0+2.001/share/fonts/opentype/NerdFonts/OpenDyslexic: caching, new cache contents: 19 fonts, 0 dirs

Some more interesting lines from that invocation:

/home/mightyiam/.cache/fontconfig: cleaning cache directory
/home/mightyiam/.cache/fontconfig: invalid cache file: dd6d7fb6d7657f358141ed2a7f5ebe10-x86_64.cache-9
/home/mightyiam/.cache/fontconfig: invalid cache file: a171ae381967a88231f388431c1c6754-x86_64.cache-9
/home/mightyiam/.cache/fontconfig: invalid cache file: 37488aead176055e42618143321ce87b-x86_64.cache-9

And here’s the problem. I only actually seem to get one of those fonts:

$ fc-list | grep -i dyslexic
/home/mightyiam/.nix-profile/share/fonts/opentype/NerdFonts/OpenDyslexic/OpenDyslexicMNerdFontMono-Regular.otf: OpenDyslexicM Nerd Font Mono:style=Regular
/nix/store/2g9z29wf76jznqnhf1kx7z0h52wq7q8h-home-manager-path/share/fonts/opentype/NerdFonts/OpenDyslexic/OpenDyslexicMNerdFontMono-Regular.otf: OpenDyslexicM Nerd Font Mono:style=Regular
/nix/store/fp7byywdn8xnxycjvhm0n658wv491qjr-nerd-fonts-open-dyslexic-3.4.0+2.001/share/fonts/opentype/NerdFonts/OpenDyslexic/OpenDyslexicMNerdFontMono-Regular.otf: OpenDyslexicM Nerd Font Mono:style=Regular

I can confirm that other font files in that package have different names and otherwise view metadata. Is there anything wrong in this metadata?

$ fc-query /nix/store/fp7byywdn8xnxycjvhm0n658wv491qjr-nerd-fonts-open-dyslexic-3.4.0+2.001/share/fonts/opentype/NerdFonts/OpenDyslexic/OpenDyslexicNerdFont-Regular.otf
Pattern has 28 elts (size 32)
	family: "OpenDyslexic Nerd Font"(s)
	familylang: "en"(s)
	style: "Regular"(s)
	stylelang: "en"(s)
	fullname: "OpenDyslexic Nerd Font"(s)
	fullnamelang: "en"(s)
	slant: 0(i)(s)
	weight: 80(f)(s)
	width: 100(f)(s)
	foundry: "UKWN"(s)
	file: "/nix/store/fp7byywdn8xnxycjvhm0n658wv491qjr-nerd-fonts-open-dyslexic-3.4.0+2.001/share/fonts/opentype/NerdFonts/OpenDyslexic/OpenDyslexicNerdFont-Regular.otf"(s)
	index: 0(i)(s)
	outline: True(s)
	scalable: True(s)
	charset:
	0000: 00000000 ffffffff ffffffff 7fffffff 00000000 ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff
	0001: cfcffcff fecfcfcf cfff3dff 7fffcfff 00040000 00018003 dfffe000 c00000c0
	0002: 0f000000 00000f00 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 3f0000c0 00000000
	0003: 08000200 00022048 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000001 00000000
	0004: ffffdffe ffffffff dffeffff 003c000c ffff0000 ffffffff ffffffff 33ffffff
	0005: 300f0000 000000f0 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
	001e: 000cf030 f0c0c030 000f3cf0 0003f00c 000c003f ffffffff ffffffff 03ffffff
	0020: 77180000 06010047 00000010 00000000 00000000 00001000 00000000 00000000
	0021: 00000000 00000044 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
	0022: 46068044 00000800 00000100 00000031 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
	0023: 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 78000000
	0025: 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000400 00000000
	0026: 00000000 00010000 00000000 00000020 00000000 00000002 00000000 00000000
	0027: 00000000 00000000 00000000 0003f000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
	002b: 00000000 00000000 01000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
	00e0: 000007ff 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 ffff000f 00d7f5ff 00000000
	00e2: ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff 000003ff 00000000 00000000
	00e3: ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff 0000000f
	00e5: 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 fc000000
	00e6: ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff 01ffffff 00000000 00000000
	00e7: ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff
	00e8: ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff 0000ffff
	00ea: 00000000 00000000 00000000 ffffffff ffff9dff ffffffff fffff2ff ffffffff
	00eb: fffffbff ffffffff ffff7fff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff
	00ec: 7fffffff 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
	00ed: ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff
	00ee: ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff
	00ef: ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff 00007fff 00000000
	00f0: ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff
	00f1: ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff
	00f2: ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff
	00f3: ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff 00000003 00000000 00000000 00000000
	00f4: ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff
	00f5: ffffffff 000fffff 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
	00fb: 00000006 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
	0f00: fffffffe ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff
	0f01: ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff
	0f02: ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff
	0f03: ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff
	0f04: ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff
	0f05: ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff
	0f06: ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff
	0f07: ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff
	0f08: ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff
	0f09: ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff
	0f0a: ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff
	0f0b: ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff
	0f0c: ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff
	0f0d: ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff
	0f0e: ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff
	0f0f: ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff
	0f10: ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff
	0f11: ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff
	0f12: ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff
	0f13: ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff
	0f14: ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff
	0f15: ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff
	0f16: ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff
	0f17: ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff
	0f18: ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff
	0f19: ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff
	0f1a: ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff 0001ffff
(s)
	lang: aa|ab|ast|av|ay|ba|be|bg|bi|br|bs|bua|ca|ce|ch|chm|co|cs|cv|cy|da|de|en|es|et|eu|fi|fj|fo|fr|fur|fy|gd|gl|gn|gv|ho|hr|hu|ia|ig|id|ie|ik|io|is|it|kaa|ki|kk|kum|kv|ky|lb|lez|lt|lv|mg|mh|mo|mt|nb|nds|nl|nn|no|nr|nso|ny|oc|om|os|pl|pt|rm|ro|ru|sah|se|sel|sh|sk|sl|sma|smj|smn|so|sq|sr|ss|st|sv|sw|tg|tk|tl|tn|tr|ts|tt|tyv|uk|uz|ve|vo|vot|wa|wen|wo|xh|yap|zu|an|crh|csb|fil|hsb|ht|jv|kj|ku-tr|kwm|lg|li|mn-mn|ms|na|ng|pap-an|pap-aw|rn|rw|sc|sg|sn|su|za|agr|ayc|bem|dsb|lij|mfe|mhr|miq|mjw|nhn|niu|tpi|unm|wae|yuw(s)
	fontversion: 131137(i)(s)
	capability: "otlayout:DFLT otlayout:grek otlayout:latn"(s)
	fontformat: "CFF"(s)
	decorative: False(s)
	postscriptname: "OpenDyslexicNF-Regular"(s)
	color: False(s)
	symbol: False(s)
	variable: False(s)
	fonthashint: False(s)
	order: 0(i)(s)
	namedinstance: False(s)
	fontwrapper: "SFNT"(s)

I don’t have a reason to believe that this is not an upstream issue.

Does anyone know how I can make progress on debugging this?

MartV · June 17, 2026, 1:13pm

I tried it installing this font globally (in nixos config, instead of home manager) and for me nothing showed up at all, although I didn’t get any errors messages. Probably best to open a issue in nixpkgs Sign in to GitHub · GitHub .
I looked around in the nixstore and one weird thing I noticed was that all other working nerd fonts I had installed had a truetype directory (/nix/store/xxx-nerd-fonts-jetbrains-mono-3.4.0+2.304/share/fonts/truetype/*), meanwhile open-dyslexic only had openfont (/nix/store/xxx-nerd-fonts-open-dyslexic-3.4.0+2.001/share/fonts/opentype/NerdFonts/OpenDyslexic/*). Maybe this has somethign to do with it?

mightyiam · June 18, 2026, 1:59pm

github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs

nerd-fonts.open-dyslexic: only one font variant available via fontconfig

opened 01:59PM - 18 Jun 26 UTC

mightyiam

0.kind: bug

### Nixpkgs version - Unstable (26.11) ### Describe the bug I hope it's okay …to link to my post on discourse instead: https://discourse.nixos.org/t/only-one-opendyslexic-font-variant-available-via-fontconfig/78223?u=mightyiam ### Steps to reproduce See above ### Expected behaviour I'd like to have all font variants available. ### Screenshots _No response_ ### Relevant log output ```console ``` ### Additional context _No response_ ### System metadata - system: `"x86_64-linux"` - host os: `Linux 6.18.35, NixOS, 26.11 (Zokor), 26.11.20260616.3e41b24` - multi-user?: `yes` - sandbox: `yes` - version: `nix-env (Nix) 2.34.7` - nixpkgs: `/nix/store/0s46vlv8krpc6wfspxzsdfxlyhkp8m2k-source` ### Notify maintainers --- **Note for maintainers:** Please tag this issue in your pull request description. (i.e. `Resolves #ISSUE`.) ### I assert that this issue is relevant for Nixpkgs - [x] I assert that this is a bug and not a support request. - [x] I assert that this is not a [duplicate of an existing issue](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/issues?q=is%3Aissue+label%3A%220.kind%3A+bug%22+-label%3A%226.topic%3A+darwin%22+-label%3A%226.topic%3A+nixos%22). - [x] I assert that I have read the [NixOS Code of Conduct](https://github.com/NixOS/.github/blob/master/CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md) and agree to abide by it. - [x] I assert that I have read the [automation/AI policy](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md#automationai-policy) and that this issue report complies with it. ### Is this issue important to you? Add a :+1: [reaction] to [issues you find important]. [reaction]: https://github.blog/2016-03-10-add-reactions-to-pull-requests-issues-and-comments/ [issues you find important]: https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen+sort%3Areactions-%2B1-desc

r-burns · June 18, 2026, 2:39pm

Hmm, I tried to reproduce your issue without home-manager but couldn’t, so I think this might be something home-manager-specific.

I added this line to my config: fonts.packages = with pkgs; [ nerd-fonts.open-dyslexic ]

And then I checked fc-list (didn’t need to manually call fc-cache?) and got what I think you were expecting:

$ fc-list | grep dys                                                                                      
/nix/store/fp7byywdn8xnxycjvhm0n658wv491qjr-nerd-fonts-open-dyslexic-3.4.0+2.001/share/fonts/opentype/NerdFonts/OpenDyslexic/OpenDyslexicNerdFont-BoldItalic.otf: OpenDyslexic Nerd Font:style=Bold Italic
<snip>
/nix/store/fp7byywdn8xnxycjvhm0n658wv491qjr-nerd-fonts-open-dyslexic-3.4.0+2.001/share/fonts/opentype/NerdFonts/OpenDyslexic/OpenDyslexicNerdFontPropo-Bold.otf: OpenDyslexic Nerd Font Propo:style=Bold
$ fc-list | grep dys | wc -l
19

mightyiam · June 18, 2026, 3:11pm

Maybe

github.com/nix-community/home-manager

bug: fontconfig via HM doesn't actually work for me (HM installed fonts not seen by applications)

opened 07:17PM - 01 Jun 23 UTC

ppenguin

bug status: stale triage

### Are you following the right branch? - [X] My Nixpkgs and Home Manager versi…ons are in sync ### Is there an existing issue for this? - [X] I have searched the existing issues ### Issue description I just moved the many "extra" fonts for my HM user from the global `nixos` config into my HM-config. So I have: ```nix home.packages = with pkgs; [ ... /* many fonts */ ]; fonts.fontconfig.enable = true; ``` When e.g. running `font-manager` I can only see the fonts that were installed system wide (via `fonts = [ ... ];` in `configuration.nix`. Running `fc-cache --force --verbose` gives me many errors about "looped dirs" (safe to ignore as duplicates?) and non-writable cache dir(s). The latter is to be expected if I understand correctly, since the cache is read-only by design and built to the nix store by the HM module. So `fc-cache` is ineffectual as well by design for this setup, I guess. I checked and have `~/.config/fontconfig/conf.d/10-hm-fonts.conf`, containing ```xml <?xml version='1.0'?> <!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM 'fonts.dtd'> <fontconfig> <include ignore_missing="yes">/nix/store/8563zkq3iw1k9l3l4a1544xs6nskglzk-home-manager-path/etc/fonts/conf.d</include> <include ignore_missing="yes">/nix/store/8563zkq3iw1k9l3l4a1544xs6nskglzk-home-manager-path/etc/fonts/fonts.conf</include> <dir>/nix/store/8563zkq3iw1k9l3l4a1544xs6nskglzk-home-manager-path/lib/X11/fonts</dir> <dir>/nix/store/8563zkq3iw1k9l3l4a1544xs6nskglzk-home-manager-path/share/fonts</dir> <dir>/home/jeroen/.nix-profile/lib/X11/fonts</dir> <dir>/home/jeroen/.nix-profile/share/fonts</dir> <cachedir>/nix/store/8563zkq3iw1k9l3l4a1544xs6nskglzk-home-manager-path/lib/fontconfig/cache</cachedir> </fontconfig> ``` The first `<include>` appears to be the same one that is pointed to by `~/.nix-profile/etc/fonts/conf.d`, the second doesn't exist (?!), the second and fourth `<dir>` entries are also the same `/nix/store` path content and the `X11` don't exist (I'm on `wayland`, probably normal). I also have `~/.nix-profile/etc/fonts/` which *only* contains a dir `conf.d` which contains symlinks (e.g. `30-courier-new.conf`) to the nix store realisations of `corefonts` and `vistafonts`, which I do have in `home.packages`, but I have many more fonts as well but these are the only ones that are linked here. When I run a `devShell` from a flake that does this: ```nix ... let fonts = pkgs.makeFontsConf { fontDirectories = with pkgs; [ freefont_ttf fira fira-mono ubuntu_font_family noto-fonts-cjk gyre-fonts hyperscrypt-font lmodern ]; }; # https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/issues/24485 in pkgs.mkShell { ... shellHook = '' export FONTCONFIG_FILE=${fonts} ''; } ``` and in this shell start `font-manager`, I indeed see the selected fonts. I.e. that begs the question what HM does differently, or why we can't use `makeFontsConf` in HM as well? So I'm a bit lost why HM fonts management doesn't work for me, but also it might be better to use the same `fonts = [ ... ];` paradigm in HM instead of just putting fonts in `home.packages`? ### Maintainer CC @rycee ### System information ```markdown - system: `"x86_64-linux"` - host os: `Linux 6.2.16, NixOS, 23.05 (Stoat), 23.05.20230531.3a70dd9` - multi-user?: `yes` - sandbox: `relaxed` - version: `nix-env (Nix) 2.13.3` - nixpkgs: `/nix/store/bcwv054bxj0k ```