This was actually found by a colleague of mine, but he asked me to file the report - "xterm" hangs (never actually opens a window) when trying to start it using the "efont-unicode" bitmap font.

How to repeat:

Run 'strace xterm -font "-efont-fixed-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*"'

Notice it loops with the following error:

shmdt(0x454dc000)                       = 0
write(3, ".\0\2\0\236\0`\4-\0\f\0\237\0`\4$\0-F-efont-fixed"..., 68) = 68
read(3, 0xbff118c4, 32)                 = -1 EAGAIN (Resource temporarily unavailable)
select(4, [3], NULL, NULL, NULL)        = 1 (in [3])
read(3, "\1b\213\0010\0\0\0\377\377\377\377\5\0\0\0\372\377\0\000"..., 32) = 32
read(3, "\2\0\0\0\220\342\260\10\0\0\377\0 \0\23\0\0\0\377\0\10"..., 40) = 40
read(3, "=\0\0\0\202\1\0\0\334\0\0\0\203\1\0\0@\0\0\0\363\0\0\0"..., 152) = 152
shmat(335970308, 0, SHM_RDONLY)         = 0x454dc000
write(3, "-\0\20\0\240\0`\0044\0\f\0-Efont-Fixed-bold-I-"..., 76) = 76
read(3, 0xbff118c4, 32)                 = -1 EAGAIN (Resource temporarily unavailable)
select(4, [3], NULL, NULL, NULL)        = 1 (in [3])