Arch Linux

neng

Member

Registered: 2015-05-20

Posts: 12

System fonts became so big after latest virtualbox update

I'm running Arch Linux 64 as a guest on a Windows 7 host, with Virtualbox 4.3.28. After upgrade from May 19, systems fonts suddenly became so big (at least tripled). I am a newbie here, don't know how to attach a screen shot.

I've narrowed down to these 2 package upgrades:

community/virtualbox-guest-modules 4.3.26-7 -> 4.3.28-1
community/virtualbox-guest-utils   4.3.26-3 -> 4.3.28-1

If I skip these 2 package upgrades, and all other packages upgraded to the latest (including Linux to 4.0.4), the fonts are normal.

neng

Member

Registered: 2015-05-20

Posts: 12

Re: System fonts became so big after latest virtualbox update

Just found a similar issue here:

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=197483

Where those 2 virtualbox packages had also been upgraded to 4.3.28.

I've also run the command suggest in the above issue. Note that I have more sub-dirs, so I used the * version:

sudo mkfontdir /usr/share/fonts/*

However, the fonts are still huge. So this font problem is related to virtualbox packages, and not yet resolved.

mckeeh3

Member

Registered: 2013-04-05

Posts: 9

Re: System fonts became so big after latest virtualbox update

Same problem for me. Also tried rebuilding font files referenced in similar issue and had no effect.

Last edited by mckeeh3 (2015-05-21 11:43:30)

mckeeh3

Member

Registered: 2013-04-05

Posts: 9

Re: System fonts became so big after latest virtualbox update

Things got better when in System Settings / Application Appearance / Fonts set Force fonts DPI to 96.

Odd that I updated VirtualBox VMs on 3 host systems and only one system had this issue. The 3 host systems are W7, W8 and Arch. The problem was on the W7 host system. The other variable is the 3 monitors. On problem W7 host screen size 1920/1200. On W7 and Arch using 4k monitors.

neng

Member

Registered: 2015-05-20

Posts: 12

Re: System fonts became so big after latest virtualbox update

@mckeeh3 I'm using LXDE, so don't know what is the equivalent of System Settings / Application Appearance / Fonts. Also forcing DPI to a non-standard 96 seems bizarre. I will try to run the same VM on W8 to confirm your finding late when I get back home.

neng

Member

Registered: 2015-05-20

Posts: 12

Re: System fonts became so big after latest virtualbox update

Confirmed that on Windows 8.1, the same VM with the latest Linux 4.0.4-2, the fonts are normal. I suspect that the problem of fonts on W7 may be due to I use a higher resolution (don't remember that exact numbers but would be higher than 1920). Can only confirm this when I return to office on next Monday.

neng

Member

Registered: 2015-05-20

Posts: 12

Re: System fonts became so big after latest virtualbox update

This problem seems a little complicated. It is related to screen resolution but strangely. On W7

1) if I shrink the screen resolution smaller, say 1024x768, and stay with this small screen, the fonts are normal everywhere. 

2) When boot up the VM, I cannot use a large resolution like 1920x1200 (as my VM was running under before the recent virtualbox packages upgrade). Otherwise, all fonts become so huge. So I detoured this out by booting in small resolution.

3) After booting up in small resolution, if I increase the resolution, say back to 1920x1200, the fonts on the console (my case terminator) stay fine. However, when I start applications like Sublime Text, Claws mail, the fonts on those applications' menu bar become so huge. The fonts inside Sublime Text are normal. But the fonts inside Claws mail are huge too.

4) After booting up in small resolution, if first start up the applications, then increase the resolution, say back to 1920x1200, all fonts are fine everywhere.

neng

Member

Registered: 2015-05-20

Posts: 12

Re: System fonts became so big after latest virtualbox update

Interestingly, confirmed that my another VM box, Lubuntu 2015.04 32 bit, encountered the exact problems described in my last comment. So it seems now a problem in the Virtualbox upstream.

I reported to the upstream:

https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/14151

eworm

Package Maintainer (PM)

From: Oberhausen, Germany

Registered: 2010-01-30

Posts: 105

Website

Re: System fonts became so big after latest virtualbox update

Anybody wants to test my fixed Arch Linux packages?

http://mirror.mylinuxtime.de/arch/eworm … pkg.tar.xz
http://mirror.mylinuxtime.de/arch/eworm … pkg.tar.xz

Last edited by eworm (2015-06-08 14:19:10)

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ArchLinux - make it simple & lightweight

neng

Member

Registered: 2015-05-20

Posts: 12

Re: System fonts became so big after latest virtualbox update

Anybody wants to test my fixed Arch Linux packages?

http://mirror.mylinuxtime.de/arch/eworm … pkg.tar.xz
http://mirror.mylinuxtime.de/arch/eworm … pkg.tar.xz

@eworm Tried your 64 Arch package. Worked fine with the latest Linux 4.0.5-1. Thanks!

Last edited by neng (2015-06-09 16:38:47)

cdown

Member

From: London, England

Registered: 2013-02-09

Posts: 55

Website

Re: System fonts became so big after latest virtualbox update

Seems fixed after upgrade to 5.0.0-1.