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Ubuntu is only showing half text in almost any program, title bars, menus, etc.

I tried setting font to large in accessibility, didn't work. used fc-cache -r fc-cache -f and didn't work.

additional info about my PC setup:

  1. fonts are default Ubuntu fonts.
  2. AMD Radeon GPU with mesa graphic driver.
  3. issue remains even without any extension enabled.
  4. as you can see in the screenshot only 4 first character of any string is displayed, I'm sure there is a pattern because if a folder name is long enough, some characters at the end of it will also appear.

Screenshot of my display

my PC setup:

uname -r    
5.8.0-48-generic

lspci | grep VGA
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Cedar [Radeon HD 5000/6000/7350/8350 Series]

inxi -G              
Graphics:
  Device-1: AMD Cedar [Radeon HD 5000/6000/7350/8350 Series] driver: radeon 
  v: kernel 
  Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.9 driver: radeon resolution: 1366x768~60Hz 
  OpenGL: renderer: AMD CEDAR (DRM 2.50.0 / 5.8.0-48-generic LLVM 12.0.0) 
  v: 3.3 Mesa 21.1.0-devel (git-5c8a7fa 2021-03-31 focal-oibaf-ppa)

similar issues from other people: 1 2 3

it seems, Ubuntu update has some problems.

someone suggested installing oibaf drivers would fix the issue, I have installed oibaf mesa drivers and it didn't fix my issue.

Mahdi Baghbani
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  • Does it also happen if you disable all extensions? An extension could be causing this. Also mention some hardware details - could be an issue with the graphical card. Add any additional information directly to your question: use "edit". Comments are only to improve questions and answers, are not seen by anyone and can disappear any time. – vanadium Apr 03 '21 at 10:30
  • @vanadium I added more info to my question. – Mahdi Baghbani Apr 03 '21 at 13:06
  • Maybe the pixel format is the problem with your AMD graphics card. If that is the cause, it is rather complex to solve: https://www.wezm.net/v2/posts/2020/linux-amdgpu-pixel-format/ – vanadium Apr 04 '21 at 08:08
  • Here, the same problem seems to be reported: https://askubuntu.com/questions/1329059/on-the-desktop-xfce-displays-text-incorrectly. You may also want to add the exact Ubuntu version and kernel to your output: uname -a. – vanadium Apr 04 '21 at 08:44
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    There is a bunch of this getting reported in the last days / hours; the most promising suggestion seemed to be it's related to the oibaf/graphics-drivers PPA. In the meantime, you can use a virtual console / TTY for carrying out any investigations / repair. – Levente Apr 04 '21 at 15:13
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    Same issue now also reported here: https://askubuntu.com/questions/1329312/xubuntu-20-04-incomplete-words – vanadium Apr 05 '21 at 11:19
  • @vanadium I edited the post and added my PC setup info – Mahdi Baghbani Apr 06 '21 at 15:59
  • @Levente I wasn't using oibaf drivers, I used Ubuntu packages for mesa, then I installed oibaf after people recommend using it in https://askubuntu.com/questions/1328152/ubuntu-20-04-text-splitting-and-screen-flickering/1328913#1328913 but didn't work for me – Mahdi Baghbani Apr 06 '21 at 16:02
  • Another user with this issue: https://askubuntu.com/questions/1330723/how-do-i-fix-fonts-not-rendering-and-missing-letters-for-me – vanadium Apr 11 '21 at 17:48

3 Answers3

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Did you change the font type. If not, first install gnome tweaks and change the fonts and check if the problem is solved.

To install GNOME TWEAKS.

sudo add-apt-repository universe

sudo apt install gnome-tweak-tool

Then launch it by,

gnome-tweaks

enter image description here

Dhyansaj
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  • no the font types are all defaults (same as yours) – Mahdi Baghbani Apr 03 '21 at 07:30
  • Don't use the default fonts, try any others. – Dhyansaj Apr 04 '21 at 08:34
  • I tried and it didn't solve, doesn't matter what font I'm using, text is incomplete – Mahdi Baghbani Apr 06 '21 at 16:03
  • @MahdiBaghbani do you know what a graphics driver is? Your problem is with a faulty graphics driver (an update brought in a faulty variant of it.) Font settings or any other settings will not do anything. You need to either change the graphics driver, or if you don't know how to do that, then wait until another update will bring in the fix. I guess they will fix it soon. – Levente Apr 06 '21 at 16:12
  • @Levente yes I know what a driver is, and I tried to report bug to oibaf but there is no way in launchpad to report bugs so I tried their forum https://www.phoronix.com/forums/forum/linux-graphics-x-org-drivers/opengl-vulkan-mesa-gallium3d/24959-updated-and-optimized-ubuntu-free-graphics-drivers/page192?50038-Updated-and-Optimized-Ubuntu-Free-Graphics-Drivers= – Mahdi Baghbani Apr 06 '21 at 16:51
  • @MahdiBaghbani Looks like a poorly supported piece of software. Anyways, have you seen this? https://launchpad.net/~oibaf/+archive/ubuntu/graphics-drivers Even though they say "...don't email me to report bugs...", there are two useful sections: "Debugging and reporting problems" and "Revert to original drivers" – Levente Apr 06 '21 at 16:59
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After I got the same error, purge-ppa ppa:oibaf/graphics-drivers fixed it!

sudo apt install ppa-purge

sudo ppa-purge ppa:oibaf/graphics-drivers

Phnoggie
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  • this command fails for me since oibaf tries to use clang compilers and then ppa-purge can't find focal packages for clang, but in the other machine which didn't have clang, this revert worked – Mahdi Baghbani Apr 15 '21 at 16:06
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My Ubuntu has started displaying only the first few letters in all output. Even when typing text in a terminal window everything after the first 3-4 letters disappears...

Hesekiel Kontiainen
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