How do I fix fonts not rendering and missing letters?

Question

I have a fresh installation of Ubuntu 14.10 on my laptop. It appears that letters are missing from files and folders, as well as menus and configuration windows. I'm not sure where to start in order to fix this.

enter image description here

I have exactly the same problem on a DELL E7450 that's supposed to support Ubuntu officially. Running 14.04.2 LTS form a live USB right now. — Dan Dascalescu, Mar 30 '15 at 03:30
See this answer: http://askubuntu.com/a/606583/395351 . Seems to be a confirmed bug for Intel HD5500 cards. — rob, Apr 08 '15 at 16:42
I have the same probelem with Lenovo X250. this makes ubuntu useless — elhadi, Jun 24 '15 at 10:04
I have sometime the same problem with Lenovo G50-80. After a restart this usually solved (untl next time). — jutky, Aug 27 '15 at 10:19
I can't believe this issue happens still in 16.04. When is ubuntu going to fix this bug? — Claudiu Creanga, Apr 10 '16 at 10:56
The bug is reported here: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xserver-xorg-video-intel/+bug/1573959 Please mark as affecting you and subscribe to vote for it. — 13rac1, Nov 21 '16 at 07:37
I don't have the reputation to answer the question, but same problem here with Nvidia GeForce GT M650 on Lenovo Y400 w/ Debian-BunsenLabs. Longer explanation here http://pjbrunet.com/customizing-bunsenlabs-linux/ but here's what I think a) I used grep to check all my config files for "rbga" and found one that still had subpixel smoothing on b) my fonts were "flickering" and I think that was due to some config files using different fonts--two different fonts fighting each other would explain that--correcting this seems to have fixed my problem. — PJ Brunet, Nov 25 '16 at 20:50
You can use Intel Graphics Uptade package: https://01.org/linuxgraphics/downloads/intel-graphics-update-tool-linux-os-v2.0.3 Just this step worked for me. Here is the full article: http://www.techzim.co.zw/2017/01/heres-guide-installing-intel-graphics-driver-ubuntu-16-04/ — gleitonfranco, Jun 18 '17 at 13:57

score 53 · Answer 1 · edited Feb 14 '17 at 12:19

53

I had the same problem on my Dell Inspiron with 5th generation i5 running Ubuntu 14.04. Luckily I found an easy solution for this. First - install Ubuntu Tweak (following commands work for installing it):

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:tualatrix/ppa 
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ubuntu-tweak

Then, go to Fonts, change Antialiasing option from Subpixels Antialiasing (LCD screens only) to Standard Grayscale Aliasing and everything seems to work fine. In fact, the problem immediately appears/disappears on changing the setting, so seems this is indeed the possible cause.

Graphical Guide — Ubuntu Tweak tool

With missing letters, you might have trouble finding the "Antialiasing" label etc. Here's a graphical guide on how the tool looks with working fonts, to help you find where to click.

In the first window, you must pick the "Tweaks" tab in the top row (third from the left — i.e. the central one), then "Fonts" (first icon on the left in the first row):

Then, click the bottom choice bar, and choose the middle option (I can't show a screenshot with the choice bar opened, unfortunately, as Ubuntu doesn't seem to react to me pressing the PrtScr key then :-/)

Graphical Guide — Unity Tweak tool

Similar guide as above, but for the Unity Tweak tool.

After starting the tool, click "Fonts" (right-most icon in the third row):

Then click the marked choice bar, and select the middle option when it opens:

edited Feb 14 '17 at 12:19

akavel

351

answered Jun 07 '15 at 16:12

workwise

746

7

This can also be done via the gnome-tweak-tool for those using the GNOME desktop environment (or wm+gnome-settings-deamon, like myself) – user898763452 Sep 13 '15 at 01:00
This Indeed solved the problem. Thanks WorkWise – Darshan Patel Oct 08 '15 at 07:21
This indeed solved the problem! Thanks @WorkWise After changing the config, I had to restart lightdm. For 15.04 people, the ppa doesn't provide package. I just downloaded the one for trusty and did: wget https://launchpad.net/~tualatrix/+archive/ubuntu/ppa/+files/ubuntu-tweak_0.8.8-1%7Etrusty1_all.deb ; sudo dpkg -i ubuntu-tweak_0.8.8-1~Etrusty1_all.deb; sudo apt-get install -f – Nehal J Wani Nov 16 '15 at 11:17
3

On Ubuntu 16.04, and presumably earlier, this is unity-tweak-tool. – djvs Apr 17 '16 at 15:42
1

gnome-tweak-tool also seems to work. – Richard Jun 09 '16 at 16:18
3

It seems to be only a temporary fix for me (after the next few suspends the letters disappear again) – groovy354 Jul 13 '16 at 10:26
2

Maybe I am missing something, but I can't find a way to do it through the gnome-tweak-tool. Could someone give me a hand? – Jul 13 '16 at 20:24
2

I had to increase my test scaling factor from 1.00 to 1.10 to make the unitu-tweak-tool fix actually work everywhere – emmagras Nov 16 '16 at 17:32
Additional note: I did the change to "grayscale" once, but then again the fonts disappeared after some time. Then I changed back to "subpixel antialiasing", and they reappeared again. – akavel Nov 21 '16 at 09:40
I have this problem on Xubuntu; it's tricky to find the correct item without the fonts working but changing the antialiasing subpixel order from RGB to BGR fixes this for me (and changing it back reproduces the problem). Note that you can also do this on the commandline:
xfconf-query -c xsettings -p /Xft/RGBA -s bgr
– David Fraser Jan 12 '17 at 12:12
What is the "middle" option you chose in Ubuntu Tweak? On mine I have "S pi la ialia i LC cr ly" set already and obviously it isn't working LOL. – NoBugs Mar 17 '17 at 02:07
Worked for me on my Mac Mini. Thank you so much; it doesn't happen every time, but my only solution before was to reboot the computer. Interestingly, I still had to close and re-open the Terminal window; the font rendering there wasn't fixed immediately. – Lambart Aug 09 '17 at 18:07
Did not work for me Ubunt 14.04 LTS & Intel Ironlake Mobile Graphics. – Gaurav Agarwal Jan 20 '18 at 14:16
1

Tweaking the anti-aliasing settings worked also under KDE (note that the problem concerned only gtk applications). Changing sub-pixel rendering type fixed the missing characters issue. However, I am not sure whether this was due to a particular setting. The fix may consist in "restarting" the anti-aliasing. – Will Mar 27 '19 at 06:36
2

still happening on Ubuntu 20.04. Simple solution was: gnome-tweaks, tab "Fonts", changing the setting for "Antialiasing" from "Subpixel" to "Standard". – foo Jun 13 '20 at 17:40
1

@foo Thanks! Your solution worked for me on Ubuntu 20.04 (year: 2022) – Suleman Oct 10 '22 at 11:34

score 11 · Answer 2 · edited Jun 27 '15 at 15:36

11

For me this usually happens (sooner) when I got a second display hooked up to the laptop. Changing the aliasing using ubuntu tweak only temporarily solves the problem. Same for changing the font size using ubuntu's displays.

Installing the Intel Graphics Installer for Linux (which is at version 1.1.0 now) doesn't seem to do anything at all. I ran the installer through the software center without any problems.

I have been using this workaround for a day now without any problems. On ubuntu 14.04:

Create or edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf Add the code below, save and reboot

Section "Device"
    Identifier  "Intel Graphics"
    Driver      "intel"
    Option      "AccelMethod"  "uxa"
EndSection

edited Jun 27 '15 at 15:36

fossfreedom

172,746

answered Jun 25 '15 at 13:12

firfin

111
1
3

2

Still happening on 15.04 – tutuca Aug 31 '15 at 22:45
2

This helped me for a while, but after some time the problem returned. – jutky Sep 16 '15 at 19:32
2

@tutuca, it was happening on 15.04 for me, too, until I updated my kernel to 3.19.0-29-generic. Now it hasn't happened at all. – user898763452 Sep 17 '15 at 00:19
I fiddle a little with my fonts configurations and it got fixed. – tutuca Sep 17 '15 at 19:49
helped me getting rid of this annoying bug in my 14.04 lts – Fahad Siddiqui Oct 05 '15 at 10:53
2

Note that AccelMethod UXA is the previous and slower one. – vorburger Jun 01 '16 at 09:39
I'd say it's muuuch slower. – Radek Postołowicz Aug 22 '16 at 10:06
This reduced the problem. It still happens. Any update on solution. – Gaurav Agarwal Jan 22 '18 at 13:29
Still happening on 20.04.2 LTS – foo Aug 15 '21 at 20:00

score 6 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 23 '15 at 06:09

6

It might be an driver issue. If you're using an Intel graphics, try installing the latest(1.0.8) Intel Graphics Installer for Linux, which supports 14.10. I had same problem with my 5th generation i5 laptop but it solved this problem.

answered Mar 23 '15 at 06:09

Mics

161

The installer depends on an odd package, ttf-ancient-fonts and Software Center doesn't install it automatically. – Dan Dascalescu Mar 30 '15 at 04:09
The installer also doesn't work on Ubuntu 14.04. – Dan Dascalescu Mar 30 '15 at 11:35
1

Note that the as of today current Intel Graphics Installer for Linux 1.4.0 [1] "is targeted at Ubuntu 15.10 or Fedora 23. Ubuntu 16.04 is already current with the latest Q1 2016 Intel Graphics stack and therefore no Graphics Installer is needed."
[1] https://01.org/linuxgraphics/downloads/intel-graphics-installer-linux-1.4.0
– vorburger Jun 01 '16 at 09:40

score 5 · Answer 4 · answered May 14 '15 at 02:26

5

I had the same problem on my new Dell laptop with Intel® HD Graphics 5500 (Broadwell GT2). If you had dependence problem when installing the above Graphic Installer for Linux, you can install GDebi Package Installer which can easily solve dependence issues.

Or first install GDebi

sudo apt-get install gdebi

Download the 64 bit driver for an X64 system or the 32 bit version for an X86.

wget https://download.01.org/gfx/ubuntu/14.10/main/pool/main/i/intel-linux-graphics-installer/intel-linux-graphics-installer_1.0.8-0intel1_amd64.deb

Finally, use GDebi to install that driver

sudo gdebi intel-linux-graphics-installer_1.0.8-0intel1_amd64.deb

answered May 14 '15 at 02:26

user304461

51
1
1

3

You don't need GDebi to install deb files. The Software Centre does that just fine. Double click on the deb file, or run software-centre intel-linux-graphics-installer_1.0.8-0intel1_amd64.deb. – muru May 14 '15 at 02:28
I don't know whether the Software Centre can automatically solve dependence problem. I am a new Linux user though. : ) Thanks for comments! – user304461 May 14 '15 at 02:35
That link is broken , recommend to link directly to https://01.org/linuxgraphics/downloads – Einar Ólafsson Jul 05 '15 at 13:26
2

sudo dpkg -i intel-linux-graphics-installer_1.0.8-0intel1_amd64.deb then sudo apt-get install -f
will also work
– user898763452 Sep 13 '15 at 00:54
software center is super slow compared to gdebi – answerSeeker May 15 '17 at 04:47

score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Mar 08 '15 at 11:22

I had the same problem, and found a post that suggested changing the font size of the "ubuntu" default font (had to install something called ubuntu tweaks to be able to do so). After changing the font size, everything was displayed correctly.

I still have some issues with my terminal blanking out once in a while, but just pressing enter a few times, and everything reappears. Most likely some sort of graphic driver bug, but at least the font size change fixed most of the problem for me

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered May 30 '22 at 15:25

0

With XFCE I had the same issue. Fixed after disabled DPI font resolution:

answered May 30 '22 at 15:25

rfmoz

156

score 0 · Answer 7 · edited Apr 02 '18 at 05:37

0

Sometimes I have this issue using Ubuntu 15.04 too. A quick and dirty workaround consists of restarting X (sudo service lightdm restart)

Be aware that this kills all your open applications and you will lose any data that has not been saved.

edited Apr 02 '18 at 05:37

Amanda

9,333

answered Jun 04 '15 at 10:07

mdesantis

346

score -1 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 25 '15 at 17:43

-1

It looks like the issue was fixed in Ubuntu 15.04. I've upgraded and the problem is no longer an issue.

During the upgrade I did notice that several AMD specific packages were installed.

answered Apr 25 '15 at 17:43

Gunther

1,207
2
9
8

6

Still happening at 15.04 – tutuca Aug 31 '15 at 22:45
1

No it did not fix it, I am just having this bug. It is the first time since installing 15.04, but it is not fun at all. – conualfy Nov 21 '15 at 21:14
21

still happening in 16.04 – vorburger Jun 01 '16 at 09:34
14

Still happening on 16.04 here too. – Jul 13 '16 at 20:26
1

still happening on 17.04 – Rishabh Agrahari Jul 07 '17 at 12:48
@RishabhAgrahari whats your uname -r? I had this problem long ago, https://askubuntu.com/questions/818390/unreadable-nautilus-and-thunderbird-in-gnome-session-please-see-screenshot and I havent seen it since 4.8.0-46-generic. – infoclogged Aug 23 '17 at 22:37
Actually, this problem is reported to have been fixed with Linux Kernel 4.8., so with Ubuntu 16.04.+HWE kernel or with Ubuntu >= 16.10 the problem should be gone. – Alex1357 Sep 08 '17 at 08:40
was gone on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, came back with current patches of 20.04.2 – foo Aug 07 '21 at 16:35

How do I fix fonts not rendering and missing letters?

8 Answers8

Graphical Guide — Ubuntu Tweak tool

Graphical Guide — Unity Tweak tool

Linked

Related