#1128506 general: Removing noto fonts causes GUI/desktop to not start

Package:
general
Source:
general
Submitter:
Jack Patteeuw
Date:
2026-02-21 05:39:02 UTC
Severity:
normal
#1128506#5
Date:
2026-02-20 16:08:12 UTC
From:
To:
Dear Maintainer,


Executing the following command cause the GUI/desktop to not start after a reboot

sudo apt remove fonts-noto*


Please note that

apt show fonts-noto

Says that this package is "Optional"
#1128506#10
Date:
2026-02-21 05:35:37 UTC
From:
To:
Am 20. Februar 2026 17:08:12 MEZ schrieb Jack Patteeuw <jack.patteeuw@gmail.com>:

then this might be a problem of your specific login manager, which I think you forgot to mention.
this bug report should be re-assigned to this specific package.

yes, this is correct.

since there are many ways to use Debian without fonts-noto (or even without a gui, let alone a desktop environment; think servers, containers, ...), it is indeed not a "required" package on the system level.

the Debian way to handle this is through inter-package dependencies: if a specific package (eg a login manager) requires fonts-noto to work, then it should express this via a Depends relation.

note that "apt show" won't reveal such a reverse dependency.


mfh.her.fsr
IOhannes