How to fix an "/lib64/libfontconfig.so.1: undefined symbol: FT_Done_MM_Var" error when starting InTime?

Symptom:

When starting InTime, you encounter an error message containing:

$ export QT_DEBUG_PLUGINS=1
$ cd <intime installation path>
$ ./intime.sh
"QLibraryPrivate::loadPlugin failed on "/tools/intime/bin7/platforms/libqxcb.so" : "Cannot load library /tools/intime/bin7/platforms/libqxcb.so: (/lib64/libfontconfig.so.1: undefined symbol: FT_Done_MM_Var)"
This application failed to start because no Qt platform plugin could be initialized. Reinstalling the application may fix this problem."

or similar.

This is because the libfontconfig.so.1.11.1 library version in your environment is newer than expected, and usually happens in CentOS 8 and above.

Resolution:

Download libfontconfig.so.1.11.1 from https://github.com/plunify/libfontconfig and save it to the bin7/ folder in the <InTime installation directory>/. Create two more symbolic links, namely libfontconfig.so.1 and libfontconfig.so to this file.

[user@host ~]$ cd <InTime installation directory/bin7/
[user@host ~]$ ln -s libfontconfig.so.1.11.1 libfontconfig.so.1
[user@host ~]$ ln -s libfontconfig.so.1.11.1 libfontconfig.so
[user@host ~]$ ls -ls libfontconfig*
0 lrwxrwxrwx. 1 admin admin 23 Jan 26 16:13 libfontconfig.so -> libfontconfig.so.1.11.1
0 lrwxrwxrwx. 1 admin admin 23 Jan 26 16:13 libfontconfig.so.1 -> libfontconfig.so.1.11.1
272 -rwxr-xr-x. 1 admin admin 276968 Jan 26 16:12 libfontconfig.so.1.11.1

Applies to:

Linux Operating System (CentOS/RHEL 8)

Knowledge Base ID: 202201261 - Last Review: Jan 26, 2022 - Revision: 1.0

InTime