(Resolved) freetype2-2.3.7 gtk font issues

Leigh · 2008-07-07 07:14:17

I'm having a major issue with gtk apps rendering text. I Use arch64 and kde/ sometimes fluxbox.

I was using the -lcd packages in aur. in particular the fontconfig-lcd, cairo-lcd, and freetype2-lcd.

during my last update, I went ahead and let freetype2-2.3.7 install, removing/replacing freetype2-lcd. Then I figured it would be a good idea to remove the other lcd packages until everything is up to speed with the new freetype2 package as they are all flagged out of date.

So I went ahead and ran...
pacman -Rd fontconfig-lcd cairo-lcd
pacman -Sy cairo fontconfig.

Afterwards, I made sure there wasn't any broken dependencies and all seemed cool.

Then I discovered gtk apps will not render Chinese or English! Ugh.. only squares. This is the same in kde and fluxbox.

I did some googling and found some vague topics about freetype2, gtk, and pango, but nothing specific to my problem or the current freetype2 package. I tried regenerating locales, updating the font catch. Made sure .gtkrc-2.0, .gtkrc, and .fonts.conf had not changed. Rebooted a few times.
The weird thing is that Chinese and English render fine in qt apps. The problem is only with gtk apps.

Before trying to downgrade, I thought I would ask if anyone else is having a similar issue after the freetype2-2.3.7 update?

my locale is settings...
#export LC_ALL= is not set
then I use...
export LANG="en_US.UTF-8"
export LC_CTYPE="zh_CN.UTF-8"

I've never had any trouble in the past with the above locale settings, and I normally flip flop between Chinese and English constantly. I guess I could try changing export LC_CTYPE to en_US to see if it makes a difference... I'm too hungover to fiddle with this any more today.

Last edited by Leigh (2008-07-08 07:00:40)

JGC · 2008-07-07 08:31:01

I suggest uninstalling fontconfig, then cleaning out your whole /etc/fonts/conf.d directory and reinstall fontconfig. I think you have a conflicting config in there. The signature in your post shows chines characters fine here using epiphany.

berbae · 2008-07-07 09:43:39

For the previous update of freetype2, I tried to use again the official packages (cairo, freetype2, fontconfig and libxft) and I was not satisfied with the font rendering, so I came back to the -lcd packages which I use yet to-day.
I have updated the packages myself with the new releases last night, and I got the same rendering I like without problem (I also used the modifications in the packages from the official ones).
But surely their maintainer will update them soon. Why not wait for them ?

Last edited by berbae (2008-07-07 09:44:11)

JGC · 2008-07-07 10:21:36

Note that fontconfig-lcd isn't needed anymore, fontconfig 2.6.0 contains the lcd code now. The author of fontconfig-lcd mailed me about this a while ago.

dolby · 2008-07-07 12:13:39

JGC wrote:

Note that fontconfig-lcd isn't needed anymore, fontconfig 2.6.0 contains the lcd code now. The author of fontconfig-lcd mailed me about this a while ago.

thats true the lcd patch is merged upstream but fontconfig lcd had a 10-lcd-fonts.conf file too which is not present in fontconfig 2.6.0. is that file not needed anymore? my fonts look exactly the same as before with fontconfig-lcd btw

Last edited by dolby (2008-07-07 12:14:50)

buttons · 2008-07-07 12:16:40

Freetype2-lcd isn't needed, either. See comments --> http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=12283

For what it's worth, I'm using libxft-lcd, cairo-lcd, fontconfig-lcd, and the new freetype2 2.3.7 and everything looks exactly the same as it did with all lcd packages.

Anarconda · 2008-07-07 13:25:18

Leigh: I had same problem as you said (squares instead of letters) this morning and was solved downgrading pango.

berbae · 2008-07-07 13:53:36

To "buttons":
The link you provided concerns freetype2-lcd_ 2.3.5-1 from sda00, not the original freetype2-lcd which was deleted for an unknown reason.
Personally I need the freetype2-lcd (the original one) with the freetype-2.2.1-subpixel-disable-quantization.diff patch.
I tried without it, when the freetype2 2.3.6 release came up, and I didn't get the same font rendering.
So now again I have updated the original freetype2-lcd package to the 2.3.7 release, the patch works with it without modification. And my fonts are nice.
I admit all this is somewhat confusing.
Presently I use :
freetype2-lcd 2.3.7-1
fontconfig-lcd 2.6.0-2
libxft-lcd 2.1.13-1
cairo-lcd 1.6.4-4
With fontconfig-lcd the previous bug_13566_lcdfilter_config.patch patch is no longer necessary, so the only difference is the 10-lcdfilter.conf added and the related fontconfig.install modifications.
This works for me, but I concede that not all is clear to me with this matter.

Edit: I found that the freetype2-cleartype 2.3.7-1 in the AUR is the same as the freetype2-lcd 2.3.7-1 I use presently (same patch, same PKGBUILD except the name of the package). The other -cleartype packages use different patches, and I've not tested them.

Last edited by berbae (2008-07-08 16:42:08)

JGC · 2008-07-07 14:11:11

Instead of using fontconfig-lcd, you can also install the 10-lcdfilter.conf file in /etc/fonts/conf.avail and symlink it to /etc/fonts/conf.d/. Fontconfig will leave your configuration alone when upgrading.

Leigh · 2008-07-07 17:44:03

Anarconda wrote:

Leigh: I had same problem as you said (squares instead of letters) this morning and was solved downgrading pango.

Thankyou Anarconda!

I was so confused cause menu fonts and dialog fonts in all gtk apps was squares whether I opened them in English or Chinese. Although firefox system fonts would render English and Chinese fine, which made me even more confused.

as far as appearance of fonts, I really don't see much difference not using the lcd packages. but I'll be doing some experiments.

Thanks everybody. I'll mark this thread as solved once I'm back to normal.

buttons · 2008-07-08 02:57:34

If you have the pango problem checking your stderr should tell you the solution, which is to run

pango-querymodules > /etc/pango/pango.modules

as root. If you use sudo, you'll have to run something like

pango-querymodules > ~/test
sudo mv ~/test /etc/pango/pango.modules

which fixed the gtk font boxes on my laptop. Strangely, when I posted in this thread earlier I was using my desktop, which didn't have this problem at all. This works for me without downgrading pango.

Leigh · 2008-07-08 03:36:53

Thanks buttons. I'll give this a try in the morning.

Leigh · 2008-07-08 06:45:46

buttons wrote:

If you have the pango problem checking your stderr should tell you the solution, which is to run
pango-querymodules > /etc/pango/pango.modules
as root. If you use sudo, you'll have to run something like
pango-querymodules > ~/test
sudo mv ~/test /etc/pango/pango.modules
which fixed the gtk font boxes on my laptop. Strangely, when I posted in this thread earlier I was using my desktop, which didn't have this problem at all. This works for me without downgrading pango.

buttons, Thanks so much! Worked like a charm and I'm back to normal.

As far as font rendering, at least for me, I see no benifit in trying to go back to the lcd packages. If anything, my fonts render just as good, if not slightly better, or crisper. Especially my Chinese fonts!

Everyone, Thanks for all the help! I'm a happy camper : )

Leigh · 2008-07-10 08:05:35

JGC wrote:

Instead of using fontconfig-lcd, you can also install the 10-lcdfilter.conf file in /etc/fonts/conf.avail and symlink it to /etc/fonts/conf.d/. Fontconfig will leave your configuration alone when upgrading.

JGC thanks for this tip.

ST.x · 2008-07-10 12:09:49

Hmm i've been using the *-ubuntu packages from aur all this time and didn't realise they don't exist anymore. Anyway I got rid of them and updated to the standard packages then saw JGC's post and have done that and also tried setting the filters from lcddefault to lcdlight but the fonts don't look as nice as with the *-ubuntu packages.

ekerazha · 2008-07-10 13:10:42

JGC wrote:

Instead of using fontconfig-lcd, you can also install the 10-lcdfilter.conf file in /etc/fonts/conf.avail and symlink it to /etc/fonts/conf.d/. Fontconfig will leave your configuration alone when upgrading.

Yeah... the new fontconfig-lcd package I'll post later, will only add that config file (for the lazy people). I added that file (instead of just writing instructions on the wiki) because I was tired of people saying "this doesn't work" (well... it "doesn't work" by default if you don't configure the filter).

Another way would be to patch the cairo lcd patch hardcoding "lcddefault" as default instead of "lcdlegacy" (like Ubuntu does... well... Ubuntu devs also added some other bugs because they don't fully understand what they try to patch).

Last edited by ekerazha (2008-07-10 14:42:41)

ekerazha · 2008-07-10 13:12:34

ST.x wrote:

Hmm i've been using the *-ubuntu packages from aur all this time and didn't realise they don't exist anymore. Anyway I got rid of them and updated to the standard packages then saw JGC's post and have done that and also tried setting the filters from lcddefault to lcdlight but the fonts don't look as nice as with the *-ubuntu packages.

Because you need cairo-lcd, the standard cairo package only has the legacy filter.

ST.x · 2008-07-10 13:47:27

ekerazha wrote:

ST.x wrote:
Hmm i've been using the *-ubuntu packages from aur all this time and didn't realise they don't exist anymore. Anyway I got rid of them and updated to the standard packages then saw JGC's post and have done that and also tried setting the filters from lcddefault to lcdlight but the fonts don't look as nice as with the *-ubuntu packages.
Because you need cairo-lcd, the standard cairo package only has the legacy filter.

oh ok, cheers

wonder · 2008-07-10 14:55:07

@ST.x

until i can upload missing packages, you can get it from here:

http://archpkg.rodp.net/src/ubuntu/

Last edited by wonder (2008-07-10 21:08:53)

ekerazha · 2008-07-10 21:07:35

Ok, I've uploaded the new fontconfig-lcd package.

ekerazha · 2008-07-10 21:10:09

wonder wrote:

@ekerazha
until i can upload missing packages, you can get it from here:
http://archpkg.rodp.net/src/ubuntu/

I prefer my -lcd patch kit (based on the "more or less official" freedesktop.org patches), instead of the Ubuntu bugged patches.

Last edited by ekerazha (2008-07-10 21:10:36)

Leigh · 2008-07-10 22:08:30

Using cairo-lcd and libxft-lcd still makes a big difference for me. I did take JGC's advice and kept fontconfig from extra, downloaded the 10-lcdfilter.conf file from the fontconfig-lcd file list in aur, adding it to /etc/fonts/conf.avail and symlinking it to /etc/fonts/conf.d/

Then I changed the depends in the cairo-lcd pkgbuild from 'fontconfig-lcd>=2.6.0' to 'fontconfig'. Had no issues building and installing cairo-lcd.

Edit...
hmmm, alittle confused now. I just noticed the cairo-lcd pkgbuild in aur was updated, and now has 'fontconfig-lcd>=2.6.0' and 'fontconfig>=2.6.0' in depends.

Last edited by Leigh (2008-07-10 22:17:50)

brebs · 2008-07-10 22:22:03

ekerazha wrote:

Ubuntu bugged patches.

Where's your bug reports? Sounds like a troll to me.

I'm using Ubuntu-ish patches, but it's good to see that Ubuntu's pioneer work is making its way into the main packages.

ekerazha · 2008-07-10 22:24:42

brebs wrote:

ekerazha wrote:
Ubuntu bugged patches.
Where's your bug reports? Sounds like a troll to me.
I'm using Ubuntu-ish patches, but it's good to see that Ubuntu's pioneer work is making its way into the main packages.

Sounds like you have a short memory: http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=46510

wonder · 2008-07-10 22:26:18

in fact i made a mistake ekerazha. the message wasn't for you

Arch Linux

#1 2008-07-07 07:14:17

(Resolved) freetype2-2.3.7 gtk font issues

#2 2008-07-07 08:31:01

Re: (Resolved) freetype2-2.3.7 gtk font issues

#3 2008-07-07 09:43:39

Re: (Resolved) freetype2-2.3.7 gtk font issues

#4 2008-07-07 10:21:36

Re: (Resolved) freetype2-2.3.7 gtk font issues

#5 2008-07-07 12:13:39

Re: (Resolved) freetype2-2.3.7 gtk font issues

#6 2008-07-07 12:16:40

Re: (Resolved) freetype2-2.3.7 gtk font issues

#7 2008-07-07 13:25:18

Re: (Resolved) freetype2-2.3.7 gtk font issues

#8 2008-07-07 13:53:36

Re: (Resolved) freetype2-2.3.7 gtk font issues

#9 2008-07-07 14:11:11

Re: (Resolved) freetype2-2.3.7 gtk font issues

#10 2008-07-07 17:44:03

Re: (Resolved) freetype2-2.3.7 gtk font issues

#11 2008-07-08 02:57:34

Re: (Resolved) freetype2-2.3.7 gtk font issues

#12 2008-07-08 03:36:53

Re: (Resolved) freetype2-2.3.7 gtk font issues

#13 2008-07-08 06:45:46

Re: (Resolved) freetype2-2.3.7 gtk font issues

#14 2008-07-10 08:05:35

Re: (Resolved) freetype2-2.3.7 gtk font issues

#15 2008-07-10 12:09:49

Re: (Resolved) freetype2-2.3.7 gtk font issues

#16 2008-07-10 13:10:42

Re: (Resolved) freetype2-2.3.7 gtk font issues

#17 2008-07-10 13:12:34

Re: (Resolved) freetype2-2.3.7 gtk font issues

#18 2008-07-10 13:47:27

Re: (Resolved) freetype2-2.3.7 gtk font issues

#19 2008-07-10 14:55:07

Re: (Resolved) freetype2-2.3.7 gtk font issues

#20 2008-07-10 21:07:35

Re: (Resolved) freetype2-2.3.7 gtk font issues

#21 2008-07-10 21:10:09

Re: (Resolved) freetype2-2.3.7 gtk font issues

#22 2008-07-10 22:08:30

Re: (Resolved) freetype2-2.3.7 gtk font issues

#23 2008-07-10 22:22:03

Re: (Resolved) freetype2-2.3.7 gtk font issues

#24 2008-07-10 22:24:42

Re: (Resolved) freetype2-2.3.7 gtk font issues

#25 2008-07-10 22:26:18

Re: (Resolved) freetype2-2.3.7 gtk font issues

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