This documents the solution I finally discovered when searching for ways to get all my installed fonts to show up in fc-list, xlsfonts, and xfontsel on a Debian testing in­stal­la­tion. I specif­i­cal­ly did not want to have to install Gnome, XFCE, or another desktop en­vi­ron­ment when openbox and xterm and Firefox would fulfill my needs.

• Using the package manager and/or local in­stal­la­tion procedures (not covered here) install your desired fonts.

• Make sure those font di­rec­to­ries are in your xorg.conf file.

• In each directory where the fonts are installed (on my system all the True Type fonts were located under /usr/share/fonts/truetype/) run mkfontscale and mkfontdir.

• Restart X.