Just want to give my linux problem a more approriate title.

My rh 8.0 is not able to start the x server due to the above error listed in the /var/log/XFree86.0.log file. In the end of the file, it listed

"Could not init font path. element unix /:7100, removing from list"
"Could not open default font 'fixed'",

It appears that my xwin is not able to start because it can't find the 'fixed' font. But it's kind of messy to find out how linux specify the font directory after I looked into the /etc/x11/XF86Config file as it simply listed

RgbPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/rgb"
FontPath "unix/:7100"

One difficulty with solving this problem is that the directory for the font is changing from time to time. ;-(

Any further suggestion.

Thanks again for your help.

Allen

the xfs service might not be running. comment out those two lines in your X config file and retry running X.