diff --git a/run_once_20-install-user-packages.sh.tmpl b/run_once_20-install-user-packages.sh.tmpl
index c220039..0ee2a0c 100755
--- a/run_once_20-install-user-packages.sh.tmpl
+++ b/run_once_20-install-user-packages.sh.tmpl
@@ -49,6 +49,7 @@ APT_PKGS=(
     unzip p7zip
     openssh-client
     ca-certificates curl wget
+    fontconfig
 )
 
 log "installing apt packages"
@@ -177,8 +178,12 @@ else
         log "extracting font files"
         unzip -q -o "$TMP_ZIP" -d "$FONT_DIR"
         rm -f "$TMP_ZIP"
-        log "running fc-cache"
-        fc-cache -fv >/dev/null
+        log "refreshing font cache (fc-cache)"
+        if command -v fc-cache >/dev/null 2>&1; then
+            fc-cache -fv >/dev/null
+        else
+            log "WARNING: fc-cache not found — install fontconfig package"
+        fi
     else
         log "WARNING: failed to download Maple Mono NF — nvim will warn about missing font"
         log "manual install: https://github.com/subframe7536/Maple-font"