Linux: Ubuntu Upgrade F*cked my Fonts

[omae mona]

[hundefar]

I rarely use Ubuntu, though it is installed on one of my old machines. Could this problem be related to yours? Maybe you want to reinstall your language support?

[omae mona]

I rarely use Ubuntu, though it is installed on one of my old machines. Could this problem be related to yours? Maybe you want to reinstall your language support?

Ubuntu (and other versions of linux) have been working perfectly until the Ubuntu 9.10 release that just came out the other day. Thanks for the link. Unfortunately it's not related.. ibus is the keyboard input method utility, but I am having a display problem (it happens viewing web pages, not just when I type). In fact, ibus was not even running on my system when I first saw the funny fonts.

UPDATE: I just discovered this problem seems only to be happening in Firefox.... in other applications the font appears to be fine. I need to track down the rogue font now.

[hundefar]

Ah Ok, sorry that I can be of any help. I'd try the re-installing thing before anything else. Some times things just don't install right.

[FG Lurker]

UPDATE: I just discovered this problem seems only to be happening in Firefox.... in other applications the font appears to be fine. I need to track down the rogue font now.

Maybe it is a codepage issue? Backing up your bookmarks and then nuking the rest of the firefox prefs/data/cache folder might work...? You could just rename it as a temporary test, let firefox create a new folder it next time it starts, and then visit some Japanese pages and see what happens?

[omae mona]

Maybe it is a codepage issue? Backing up your bookmarks and then nuking the rest of the firefox prefs/data/cache folder might work...? You could just rename it as a temporary test, let firefox create a new folder it next time it starts, and then visit some Japanese pages and see what happens?

Thanks for the idea FG. Actually this is a totally fresh install with a fresh firefox prefs/data/cache folder.

I had some partial luck by changing to a different font in the preferences window. Some pages look fine now. Not FG, though (fortunately we don't use too much Japanese around here!).

[FG Lurker]

Thanks for the idea FG. Actually this is a totally fresh install with a fresh firefox prefs/data/cache folder.

I had some partial luck by changing to a different font in the preferences window. Some pages look fine now. Not FG, though (fortunately we don't use too much Japanese around here!).

I figured since it was a Japanese problem searching Google in Japanese might turn a few things up. After a bit of digging I found this:
http://wontfix.blogspot.com/2009/02/fedorarawhide-san-serif-rpm-q-cjkuni.html

Different distro but it looks like the same problem you are facing and the solution seems logical.

[compositecurry]

oi omae,

Any progress on this? If not, I had some font weirdness which I fixed by wiping ~/.fonts.conf and ~/.fontconfig. If it's a fresh install I guess you don't have anything in ~/.fonts.conf, but you might copy it elsewhere just in case.

[omae mona]

well, it is mostly resolved after I changed the choice of fonts (in Firefox and in the Gnome preferences). Still some pages are grabbing fonts from god-knows-where and they are still messed up, but the vast majority are OK now. The fonts "serif" and "sans" seem to have issues, but changing to replacements like Nimbus and Nimbus Sans seemed to fix things, at least for applications that take those font preferences into consideration.

I tried the other ideas people suggested (reinstalling language support, removing .fontconfig, etc.), but not surprisingly no effect.