Bug 54135

Summary:	Strange fonts after sync and update, using XFCE wm and gnome applications.
Product:	Gentoo Linux	Reporter:	Arne Skjærholt <arnsholt>
Component:	[OLD] GNOME	Assignee:	Gentoo Fonts Team <fonts>
Status:	RESOLVED TEST-REQUEST
Severity:	normal
Priority:	High
Version:	unspecified
Hardware:	x86
OS:	Linux
Whiteboard:
Package list:		Runtime testing required:	---
Attachments:	Screencap of gnome-terminal and opera @ 1600x1200, 177kB png image Screen cap of firefox and gnome-termina, @ 1600x1200, non-broken fonts, 234kB png image

Description Arne Skjærholt 2004-06-16 16:26:32 UTC

I recently synced and updated my system, and after I did this all my fonts in X (running xfce as my window manager) and now my fonts in have gone from a rather pleasant rounded font to a smaller, cubic font which, on the whole is difficult and unpleasant to read.
I'm not sure whether this is a gnome/GTK related problem or if it is a more basic problem, but I tend towards the latter as the problem appears not only in GTK applications such as gnome-terminal and the desktop, but also in opera and firefox.
What really puzzles me about this is that I've got a similar setup at work (gentoo linux, xfce, recently updated) and this problem does not appear there.
My home system is an AMD XP-2400+ with an nVidia FX5200 graphics card, work is an Intel P4 3GHz with onboard Intel i810 graphics.
I saw some bugs in the database concerning anti-aliasing problems, and I'm not sure whether these problems are related, but as they were timestamped more than a year ago I deemed them of little relevance.

Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1. emerge sync && emerge -U world
2. Restart X11

Actual Results:  
Fonts are different: chunkier and difficult to read.

Expected Results:  
No change in fonts.

emerge info from affected home system:
Portage 2.0.50-r8 (default-x86-2004.0, gcc-3.3.3, glibc-2.3.3.20040420-r0, 2.6.5 
-mm6)
=================================================================
System uname: 2.6.5-mm6 i686 AMD Athlon(tm) XP 2400+
Gentoo Base System version 1.4.16
Autoconf: sys-devel/autoconf-2.59-r3
Automake: sys-devel/automake-1.8.3
ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86"
AUTOCLEAN="yes"
CFLAGS="-O2 -march=athlon-xp -fomit-frame-pointer"
CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu"
COMPILER="gcc3"
CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xkb /usr/kde/2/share/config /usr/kde/3/s 
hare/config /usr/share/config /var/qmail/control"
CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/gconf /etc/terminfo /etc/env.d"
CXXFLAGS="-O2 -march=athlon-xp -fomit-frame-pointer"
DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles"
FEATURES="autoaddcvs ccache sandbox"
GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://194.83.57.2/sites/www.ibiblio.org/gentoo/"
MAKEOPTS="-j2"
PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages"
PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp"
PORTDIR="/usr/portage"
PORTDIR_OVERLAY=""
SYNC="rsync://rsync.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage"
USE="3dnow X aalib alsa apm avi berkdb crypt cups encode esd foomaticdb gdbm gif 
 gnome gpm gtk gtk2 imlib java jpeg libg++ libwww mad maildir mikmod mmx motif m 
peg mysql ncurses nls oggvorbis opengl oss pam pdflib perl png python quicktime 
readline sdl slang spell ssl svga tcpd truetype x86 xml2 xmms xv zlib"

emerge info from unaffected work system:
Portage 2.0.50-r8 (default-x86-2004.0, gcc-3.3.3, glibc-2.3.3.20040420-r0, 2.6.
7-rc2-mm2)
=================================================================
System uname: 2.6.7-rc2-mm2 i686 Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.00GHz
Gentoo Base System version 1.4.16
Autoconf: sys-devel/autoconf-2.59-r3
Automake: sys-devel/automake-1.8.3
ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86"
AUTOCLEAN="yes"
CFLAGS="-march=pentium4 -O2 -pipe"
CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu"
COMPILER="gcc3"
CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xkb /usr/kde/2/share/config 
/usr/kde/3/share/config /usr/share/config /var/bind /var/qmail/control"
CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/gconf /etc/terminfo /etc/env.d"
CXXFLAGS="-march=pentium4 -O2 -pipe"
DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles"
FEATURES="autoaddcvs ccache sandbox"
GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://gentoo.oregonstate.edu http://distro.ibiblio.
org/pub/Linux/distributions/gentoo"
MAKEOPTS="-j2"
PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages"
PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp"
PORTDIR="/usr/portage"
PORTDIR_OVERLAY=""
SYNC="rsync://rsync.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage"
USE="X alsa apm avi berkdb crypt cups encode esd foomaticdb gdbm gif gnome gpm 
gtk gtk2 imlib java jpeg libg++ libwww mad mikmod motif mpeg mysql ncurses nls 
oggvorbis opengl oss pam pdflib perl png python quicktime readline sdl slang 
spell ssl svga tcpd truetype x86 xml2 xmms xv zlib"

Comment 1 foser (RETIRED) gentoo-dev

2004-06-17 14:29:37 UTC

The fontpaths have probably changed.. what do you use as desktop font ? Have you updated to a recent X server ? Have you ever added fonts to the system yourself that you used ?

Comment 2 Arne Skjærholt 2004-06-17 14:47:40 UTC

My desktop font is whatever the XFCE default is (the only option I can see in the XFCE config tools is font size), but it's a sans-serif font similar to the Arial font face.
I have never manually added any fonts to the system, the X server however was probably updated during the last update.

Comment 3 foser (RETIRED) gentoo-dev

2004-06-17 15:18:13 UTC

what is the output of 'fc-list' and 'fc-cache -v' ?

Comment 4 Arne Skjærholt 2004-06-17 15:21:00 UTC

Output of the commands you asked about:

$ fc-list
Luxi Serif:style=Regular
LucidaBright:style=Italic
Utopia:style=Bold Italic
Arial:style=Regular
Webdings:style=Regular
Verdana:style=Bold Italic
Trebuchet MS:style=Bold Italic
Luxi Serif:style=Bold
Helvetica:style=Bold Italic
Trebuchet MS:style=Italic
Comic Sans MS:style=Bold
Times:style=Bold Italic
Luxi Mono:style=Bold
Utopia:style=Bold
Charter:style=Bold Italic
Bitstream Charter:style=Bold Italic
Luxi Sans:style=Bold
Trebuchet MS:style=Regular
Times New Roman:style=Bold Italic
Arial Black:style=Regular
Impact:style=Regular
Times New Roman:style=Bold
Verdana:style=Bold
Courier:style=Bold Italic
Luxi Sans:style=Regular
Courier:style=Regular
Charter:style=Bold
Cursor:style=Regular
Arial:style=Bold Italic
LucidaBright:style=Regular
Georgia:style=Bold
Terminal:style=Bold
Courier New:style=Regular
Lucida:style=Italic
Bitstream Charter:style=Regular
Times New Roman:style=Italic
Helvetica:style=Italic
Trebuchet MS:style=Bold
Times:style=Bold
Courier 10 Pitch:style=Bold Italic
Charter:style=Italic
Luxi Mono:style=Regular
Bitstream Charter:style=Italic
Lucida:style=Regular
Times:style=Italic
Courier New:style=Bold Italic
Georgia:style=Italic
Andale Mono:style=Regular
New Century Schoolbook:style=Bold
Courier 10 Pitch:style=Italic
Utopia:style=Italic
LucidaTypewriter:style=Regular
Georgia:style=Bold Italic
LucidaTypewriter:style=Bold
Courier New:style=Bold
Luxi Serif:style=Oblique
Courier New:style=Italic
Luxi Serif:style=Bold Oblique
Helvetica:style=Bold
Times New Roman:style=Regular
Times:style=Regular
New Century Schoolbook:style=Bold Italic
Lucida:style=Bold
Luxi Mono:style=Oblique
Courier 10 Pitch:style=Regular
Helvetica:style=Regular
Luxi Sans:style=Oblique
Lucida:style=Bold Italic
Courier:style=Italic
Charter:style=Regular
Courier 10 Pitch:style=Bold
Terminal:style=Regular
Arial:style=Italic
Comic Sans MS:style=Regular
New Century Schoolbook:style=Italic
Luxi Sans:style=Bold Oblique
Georgia:style=Regular
Luxi Mono:style=Bold Oblique
Courier:style=Bold
Verdana:style=Regular
Utopia:style=Regular
Bitstream Charter:style=Bold
New Century Schoolbook:style=Regular
Verdana:style=Italic
Arial:style=Bold
# fc-cache -v
fc-cache: "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Type1": skipping, 29 fonts, 0 dirs
fc-cache: "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/truetype": skipping, 30 fonts, 0 dirs
fc-cache: "/usr/share/fonts": skipping, no such directory
fc-cache: "/usr/local/share/fonts": skipping, no such directory
fc-cache: "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi": skipping, 397 fonts, 0 dirs
fc-cache: "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi": skipping, 397 fonts, 0 dirs
fc-cache: "/root/.fonts": skipping, no such directory
fc-cache: succeeded
fc-cache: succeeded

Comment 5 foser (RETIRED) gentoo-dev

2004-06-17 15:22:34 UTC

what xserver + version are you using ?

Comment 6 Arne Skjærholt 2004-06-17 15:31:08 UTC

I am running xfree-4.3.0-r5 according to emerge -p xfree

Comment 7 foser (RETIRED) gentoo-dev

2004-06-17 15:39:44 UTC

can you grab a screenshot show us what it looks like ?

Comment 8 Arne Skjærholt 2004-06-17 15:51:06 UTC

Created attachment 33451 [details]
Screencap of gnome-terminal and opera @ 1600x1200, 177kB png image

Screenshot of my screen at 1600x1200 resolution. Compressed maximally with the
gimp and then run through pngcrush. 177kB. I can provide a screenshot of what
it's "supposed" to look like around 9:00 CET (7:00 UTC, 3:00 East Coast time,
0:00 PST).

Comment 9 Arne Skjærholt 2004-06-17 23:08:52 UTC

Created attachment 33465 [details]
Screen cap of firefox and gnome-termina, @ 1600x1200, non-broken fonts, 234kB png image

This is how the screen look on my work computer, running xfree-4.3.0-r5 and the
following output from fc-list/fc-cache -v:
$ fc-list
Luxi Serif:style=Regular
LucidaBright:style=Italic
Utopia:style=Bold Italic
Luxi Serif:style=Bold
Helvetica:style=Bold Italic
Times:style=Bold Italic
Luxi Mono:style=Bold
Utopia:style=Bold
Charter:style=Bold Italic
Bitstream Charter:style=Bold Italic
Luxi Sans:style=Bold
Courier:style=Bold Italic
Luxi Sans:style=Regular
Courier:style=Regular
Charter:style=Bold
Cursor:style=Regular
LucidaBright:style=Regular
Terminal:style=Bold
Lucida:style=Italic
Bitstream Charter:style=Regular
Helvetica:style=Italic
Times:style=Bold
Courier 10 Pitch:style=Bold Italic
Charter:style=Italic
Luxi Mono:style=Regular
Bitstream Charter:style=Italic
Lucida:style=Regular
Times:style=Italic
New Century Schoolbook:style=Bold
Courier 10 Pitch:style=Italic
Utopia:style=Italic
LucidaTypewriter:style=Regular
LucidaTypewriter:style=Bold
Luxi Serif:style=Oblique
Luxi Serif:style=Bold Oblique
Helvetica:style=Bold
Times:style=Regular
New Century Schoolbook:style=Bold Italic
Lucida:style=Bold
Luxi Mono:style=Oblique
Courier 10 Pitch:style=Regular
Helvetica:style=Regular
Luxi Sans:style=Oblique
Lucida:style=Bold Italic
Courier:style=Italic
Charter:style=Regular
Courier 10 Pitch:style=Bold
Terminal:style=Regular
New Century Schoolbook:style=Italic
Luxi Sans:style=Bold Oblique
Luxi Mono:style=Bold Oblique
Courier:style=Bold
Utopia:style=Regular
Bitstream Charter:style=Bold
New Century Schoolbook:style=Regular
$ su -c fc-cache\ -v
Password:
fc-cache: "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Type1": skipping, 29 fonts, 0 dirs
fc-cache: "/usr/share/fonts": skipping, no such directory
fc-cache: "/usr/local/share/fonts": skipping, no such directory
fc-cache: "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi": skipping, 397 fonts, 0 dirs
fc-cache: "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi": skipping, 397 fonts, 0 dirs
fc-cache: "/root/.fonts": skipping, no such directory
fc-cache: succeeded

Comment 10 foser (RETIRED) gentoo-dev

2004-06-18 01:46:29 UTC

it could be several things... i'm not completely sure they are the same fonts, but confident they are and then it's probably the freetype version and how it was compiled.
At work you seem to have freetype with autohinting (bindist in USE, like it is on GRP cds), at home you probably have freetype with the bytecode interpreter, which is better quality in itself. But in this case you seem to use Luxi Sans as your desktop font, which isn't that great and does look better in my opinion with the autohinter. These are all assumptions just based on the screenies, i might be wrong.

My proposed solution is actually installing the ttf-bitstream-vera ebuild on both machine, its a good quality, well hinted font set. If you install them XFCE probably picks them up immediatly as default. To get exactly the same look at home & at work, you should probably recompile your freetype at work with the same USE flags as the one at home (USE=-bindist)

Comment 11 Jakub Moc (RETIRED) gentoo-dev

2005-12-22 16:47:44 UTC

Stale bug, reopen if this is still an issue with up-to-date versions of respective ebuilds...