[SOLVED] Weird issue with fonts openbox since latest update

medicineman25 · 2019-11-23 10:47:41

SOLUTION: no actual solution found, I've ditched Openbox in favour of Fluxbox. Best decision I've made in years.

Openbox: 3.6.1-5
Linux: 4.19.85-1-lts

I am having a very strange issue with fonts on my home machine, let's call this broken machine.

Basically because pango (used by openbox) no longer supports bitmap fonts, we have all had to upgrade to using non-bitmap fonts. Fine. I have done this on a separate machine, let's call this working machine and it seems to be running fine. However, on broken machine some of the fonts are ok and some are not.

When I say broken I mean that in place of any characters is a square with numbers arranged top-left, top-right, bottom-left, bottom-right

Working fonts broken machine:

- menu headings
- openbox menu (the menu generate with right-click on the desktop)
- application menus e.g. Chrome, VLC, CMake, PulseView

Not Working fonts broken machine:

- some other menus, system windows, and seemingly random applications/menus e.g. Abiword, Openbox Configuration Manager, Tint2 settings menu, PCManFM, Pidgin login, Angry IP Scanner,

I have decided to use Dejavu Sans Book, I also tried several other TTF fonts including Dejavu Sans Condensed, and I set this through the OpenBox Configuration Manager which I managed by A-B'ing from a working machine.

Are there anywhere else that default fonts are being set? I have A-B'd files in /etc/fonts between the working machine and the broken one and there are no differences except the addition I have made the remedy this problem: symlink 70-no-bitmaps.conf on the broken machine.

fc-list shows the Dejavu font family in /usr/share/fonts/TTF and xset -q shows that /usr/share/fonts/TTF is in the Font Path.

Any ideas why this might be happening?

Please see image here, notice how the openbox application is broken, yet the desktop openbox right-click menu is not. Nor is the system tray broken (in the past I had an issue where all fonts were just question marks, this is evidently not the same issue). : https://i.imgur.com/zLJDVnn.jpg

Last edited by medicineman25 (2019-11-23 14:53:11)

medicineman25 · 2019-11-23 11:24:37

Downgrading to Pango 1.43.0-2 fixed this but still doesn't answer the question why only some fonts are broken and others are not with 1.44+

Any ideas still welcome, thanks.

Last edited by medicineman25 (2019-11-23 11:25:10)

seth · 2019-11-23 14:19:09

Pango dropped (quite a while ago, actually…) support for pcf bitmap fonts, see https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=248032
Please edit your post and replace the oversized image w/ a link and/or thumbnail.

Also, in future, unless sbd. has replied rather edit your post instead of bumping the thread. Thanks.

Also please always remember to mark resolved threads by editing your initial posts subject - so others will know that there's no task left, but maybe a solution to find.
Thanks.

medicineman25 · 2019-11-23 14:50:27

Pango dropped (quite a while ago, actually…) support for pcf bitmap fonts, see https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=248032

Yeh I know, Dejavu is a ttf, still supposedly supported.

Also, in future, unless sbd. has replied rather edit your post instead of bumping the thread. Thanks.

Apologies, hard to know the etiquette sometimes between here and SO. Will do.

seth · 2019-11-23 14:55:41

Are yu sure you're using DejVu?

fc-match sans

Also relevant is (from the pattern) your GTK style/config.

medicineman25 · 2019-11-24 00:36:21

Are yu sure you're using DejVu?
fc-match sans

Outputs:

DejaVuSans.ttf: "DejaVu Sans" "Book"

Also relevant is (from the pattern) your GTK style/config.

Yeh but two different systems that are built with an identically documented method (except an encrypted boot partition on one coz legacy BIOS), configured using exactly the same tools, and updated in sync for the last 6 months. It makes no sense. I've moved to Fluxbox now to see if I can get away from Pango for a while.

Ironically, now I have an issue with Fluxbox on the working machine where the ./fluxbox folder isn't being installed but it installed fine on the broken machine lol.. new thread obvs..

seth · 2019-11-24 08:48:51

nb. that your problems are NOT related to the WM, at least not according to the screenshot. The fonts in openbox itself do "work", the problem is shown in the openbox config manager which is a more or less independent gtk program and does not relate to the implementation or the settings of openbox. This is why the gtk config matters and I'm still very convinced that you're using some pcf bitmat font there.

Arch Linux

#1 2019-11-23 10:47:41

[SOLVED] Weird issue with fonts openbox since latest update

#2 2019-11-23 11:24:37

Re: [SOLVED] Weird issue with fonts openbox since latest update

#3 2019-11-23 14:19:09

Re: [SOLVED] Weird issue with fonts openbox since latest update

#4 2019-11-23 14:50:27

Re: [SOLVED] Weird issue with fonts openbox since latest update

#5 2019-11-23 14:55:41

Re: [SOLVED] Weird issue with fonts openbox since latest update

#6 2019-11-24 00:36:21

Re: [SOLVED] Weird issue with fonts openbox since latest update

#7 2019-11-24 08:48:51

Re: [SOLVED] Weird issue with fonts openbox since latest update

Board footer