[XeTeX] XeLaTeX - Tamil font problems in Ubuntu Linux

[R (Chandra) Chandrasekhar]

P. P. Narayanaswami wrote:
> In Ubuntui Linux, when I run xelatex, with
> 
> \def\tam{\fontspec[Script=Tamil]{TAMu_Maduram}}
> பல்லவி
> 
> no output is produced and I get an error message - "TaMu" not loadable  etc
> etc.
> It seems the xelatex is only reading the name of the font as "TAMu", and
> ignoring the material starting with the underscore.
> The same error is happening even if I use any of the Tamil fonts
> lohit_ta, TAMu_Katampari, TAMu_Kalyani, TSCu_Times, etc.  All these fonts
> are installed in my system (I checked woth fc-list command).
> My guess is the "underscore" in the fontname mighty be the problem.
> because for Telugu, Malayalam, Devanagari, the following codes work well
> and produce the PDF output without errors. (These fontnames have no underscore)
> 
> \def\mala{\fontspec[Script=Malayalam]{AnjaliOldLipi}}
> \def\skt{\fontspec[Script=Devanagari]{gargi}}
> \def\telg{\fontspec[Script=Telugu]{Pothana2000}
> 
> How to handle the fonts like TSC_times  or TAM_Kalyani to produce tamil
> outpurt?

The following file compiles satisfactorily without error and produces 
correct PDF output on Kubuntu 9.10 running TeXLive 2008:

---
\documentclass{minimal}
\usepackage{xltxtra}
\setromanfont{DejaVu Serif}
\newfontfamily{\tam}[Script=Tamil]{TAMu_Maduram}
\defaultfontfeatures{Scale=MatchLowercase}
\begin{document}
The following text is in Tamil script: \tam{தமிழ மதுரம}.
\end{document}
---

I am happy to send you offlist the PDF output and log files that I get 
if you need them.

--
Chandra