Bitmap fonts always display bold

is this issue specific to the GNOME applications ?

I do not used any non-GTK/Gnome applications usually, so I'm not sure if it
would apply elsewhere or not.

Do you have any suggestions for an app to try? I checked OpenOffice.org, but
the fonts were unavailable for selection in there.

This seems to be a problem with GNOME applications - or at least Xft-aware ones.
I tested with nedit (a lesstif2 application) and it distinguished the bold,
oblique and bold + oblique variations of bitmap fonts correctly. I tested with
both Terminus and LucidaTypewriter. (The latter has no oblique variations, the
former does).

Terminus and LucidaTypewriter also work properly in an installation of
Thunderbird from mozilla.org. I have not tried the Ubuntu package to see if
there is a difference there.

The Ubuntu Thunderbird package correctly displays Terminus.

where have you found the problematic fonts ?

All bitmap fonts that I have tried that have an available bold typeface show
this problem. LucidaTypewriter, Times, and a few others come with the Ubuntu
xorg packages. For Terminus, I have tried to package in Universe and
downloading the font files from elsewhere on the web. The problem is there in
both cases.

The easiest way I've found to check on the problem is to change the Gnome
Terminal font to a bitmap font.

I don't have any of these fonts listed in my font selector for GNOME apps.
Perhaps Daniel has an idea on what's happening ?

Without wishing to sound patronising, you need to dpkg-reconfigure fontconfig
and enable bitmap fonts.

Terminus is a separate package, but LucidaTypewriter is in xfonts.

right, I get the issue too, thanks

This problem seems to be fixed for me at this point. I checked with the
LucidaTypewriter font in gnome-terminal and in gvim. Both seem to render the
font properly now.

Unfortunately, I do now know which upgrade fixed this.

knowing what version fixed it is not an upstream, I'm closing the bug since that
works fine now, thanks for noticing