In order for Pango to find Xft, the PKG_CONFIG_PATH must include /usr/X11R6/lib/pkgconfig. This is a good time to add it if you haven't already. You can utilize the example for X.sh to create a script for modifying this variable located in the section . Install Pango by running the following commands: ./configure --prefix=/usr --sysconfdir=/etc && make && make install