Hi Hans,
Someone reported the following issue to the TeX Live list earlier today:
From: Rolf Niepraschk <[email protected]>
To: TeX Live <[email protected]>
Subject: Cannot generate "font names database"
Date: 2026-03-24 04:51:34 PM
Message-Id: <[email protected]>
I installed TeX Live 2026 (schema full). The first lualatex test failed
to complete the generation of the "Font names database". The subsequent
command
luaotfload-tool --update --force -vvv
stalled (using 100% CPU) at
...
luaotfload | db : Loading font
/usr/local/texlive/2026/texmf-dist/fonts/opentype/public/helmholtz-ellis-ji-notation/HEJI2Text.otfluaotfload
> db : Invalid names table of font HEJI2Text.otf, using dummies.
Reported: fontname="nil", fullname="nil".
luaotfload | db : Loading font
/usr/local/texlive/2026/texmf-dist/fonts/truetype/public/lxgw-fonts/LXGWNeoXiHei.ttf
After temporarily removing the font files with
mv /usr/local/texlive/2026/texmf-dist/fonts/truetype/public/lxgw-fonts /tmp/
was the problem resolved. I'm working under Linux (32GB RAM).
I'm seeing the exact same results in ConTeXt too:
$ mtxrun --script fonts --reload
fonts | names | warnings are disabled (tracker 'fonts.warnings')
fonts | names | identifying tree font files with suffix 'otf'
fonts | names | scanning path '/home/max/texmf' for otf files
fonts | names | 0 otf files checked, 0 okay
fonts | names | scanning path '/usr/local/texlive/2026/texmf-var'
for otf files
fonts | names | 0 otf files checked, 0 okay
fonts | names | scanning path
'/usr/local/texlive/2026/../texmf-local' for otf files
fonts | names | 0 otf files checked, 0 okay
fonts | names | scanning path
'/usr/local/texlive/2026/texmf-dist' for otf files
fonts | names | 2302 otf files checked, 2302 okay
fonts | names | identifying tree font files with suffix 'OTF'
fonts | names | scanning path '/home/max/texmf' for OTF files
fonts | names | 0 OTF files checked, 0 okay
fonts | names | scanning path '/usr/local/texlive/2026/texmf-var'
for OTF files
fonts | names | 0 OTF files checked, 0 okay
fonts | names | scanning path
'/usr/local/texlive/2026/../texmf-local' for OTF files
fonts | names | 0 OTF files checked, 0 okay
fonts | names | scanning path
'/usr/local/texlive/2026/texmf-dist' for OTF files
fonts | names | 2302 OTF files checked, 2302 okay
fonts | names | 4604 tree files identified, 10 skipped, 10
duplicates, 4594 hash entries added, runtime 1.775 seconds
fonts | names | identifying tree font files with suffix 'ttf'
fonts | names | scanning path '/home/max/texmf' for ttf files
fonts | names | 0 ttf files checked, 0 okay
fonts | names | scanning path '/usr/local/texlive/2026/texmf-var'
for ttf files
fonts | names | 0 ttf files checked, 0 okay
fonts | names | scanning path
'/usr/local/texlive/2026/../texmf-local' for ttf files
fonts | names | 0 ttf files checked, 0 okay
fonts | names | scanning path
'/usr/local/texlive/2026/texmf-dist' for ttf files
otf reader | bad 'vmtx' table in file 'LXGWNeoXiHei.ttf'
I'm also able to reproduce this with the Standalone Distribution:
$ wget 'https://mirrors.ctan.org/fonts/lxgw-fonts/LXGWNeoXiHei.ttf'
$ export OSFONTDIR=.
$ mtxrun --script fonts --reload
fonts | names | warnings are disabled (tracker 'fonts.warnings')
fonts | names | identifying tree font files with suffix 'otf'
fonts | names | scanning path '/home/max/texmf' for otf files
fonts | names | 0 otf files checked, 0 okay
fonts | names | scanning path '/opt/context/tex/texmf-project'
for otf files
fonts | names | 0 otf files checked, 0 okay
fonts | names | scanning path '/opt/context/tex/texmf-fonts' for
otf files
fonts | names | 0 otf files checked, 0 okay
fonts | names | scanning path '/opt/context/tex/texmf-local' for
otf files
fonts | names | 0 otf files checked, 0 okay
fonts | names | scanning path '/opt/context/tex/texmf-modules'
for otf files
fonts | names | 12 otf files checked, 12 okay
[...]
fonts | names | identifying system font files with suffix 'otf'
fonts | names | variable 'OSFONTDIR' specifies path '.'
fonts | names | globbing path './**.otf'
fonts | names | identifying system font files with suffix 'OTF'
fonts | names | globbing path './**.OTF'
fonts | names | 0 system files identified, 0 skipped, 0
duplicates, 0 hash entries added, runtime 0.000 seconds
fonts | names | identifying system font files with suffix 'ttf'
fonts | names | globbing path './**.ttf'
otf reader | bad 'vmtx' table in file 'LXGWNeoXiHei.ttf'
Even if it's the font itself that's buggy/broken, I'd argue that ConTeXt
shouldn't enter an infinite loop when trying to load it.
Thanks,
-- Max
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