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.

Solution 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.

Solution 2

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:

Solution 3

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

Solution 4

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.

Solution 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 

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Comments

[Admin]

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.

[Admin]

See this answer: askubuntu.com/a/606583/395351 . Seems to be a confirmed bug for Intel HD5500 cards.

[Admin]

I have the same probelem with Lenovo X250. this makes ubuntu useless

[Admin]

I have sometime the same problem with Lenovo G50-80. After a restart this usually solved (untl next time).

[Admin]

I can't believe this issue happens still in 16.04. When is ubuntu going to fix this bug?

[Admin]

The bug is reported here: bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xserver-xorg-video-intel/+‌​bug/… Please mark as affecting you and subscribe to vote for it.

[Admin]

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 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.

[Admin]

You can use Intel Graphics Uptade package: 01.org/linuxgraphics/downloads/… Just this step worked for me. Here is the full article: techzim.co.zw/2017/01/…

[Dan Dascalescu]

The installer depends on an odd package, ttf-ancient-fonts and Software Center doesn't install it automatically.

[Dan Dascalescu]

The installer also doesn't work on Ubuntu 14.04.

[muru]

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.

[user304461]

I don't know whether the Software Centre can automatically solve dependence problem. I am a new Linux user though. : ) Thanks for comments!

[Einar Ólafsson]

That link is broken , recommend to link directly to 01.org/linuxgraphics/downloads

[tutuca]

Still happening on 15.04

[tutuca]

Still happening at 15.04

[Zack]

sudo dpkg -i intel-linux-graphics-installer_1.0.8-0intel1_amd64.deb then sudo apt-get install -f will also work

[Zack]

This can also be done via the gnome-tweak-tool for those using the GNOME desktop environment (or wm+gnome-settings-deamon, like myself)

[jutky]

This helped me for a while, but after some time the problem returned.

[Zack]

@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.

[tutuca]

I fiddle a little with my fonts configurations and it got fixed.

[Darshan Patel]

This Indeed solved the problem. Thanks WorkWise

[Nehal J Wani]

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

[conualfy]

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.

[djvs]

On Ubuntu 16.04, and presumably earlier, this is unity-tweak-tool.

[vorburger]

still happening in 16.04

[vorburger]

Note that AccelMethod UXA is the previous and slower one.

[vorburger]

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] 01.org/linuxgraphics/downloads/…

[Rainmaker]

gnome-tweak-tool also seems to work.

[groovy354]

It seems to be only a temporary fix for me (after the next few suspends the letters disappear again)

[Julian Berger]

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?

[user613971]

Still happening on 16.04 here too.

[Radek Postołowicz]

I'd say it's muuuch slower.

[emmagras]

I had to increase my test scaling factor from 1.00 to 1.10 to make the unitu-tweak-tool fix actually work everywhere

[akavel]

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.

[David Fraser]

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

[NoBugs]

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.

[answerSeeker]

software center is super slow compared to gdebi

[Rishabh Agrahari]

still happening on 17.04

[Lambart]

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.

[infoclogged]

@RishabhAgrahari whats your uname -r? I had this problem long ago, askubuntu.com/questions/818390/… and I havent seen it since 4.8.0-46-generic.

[Alex1357]

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.

[Gaurav Agarwal]

Did not work for me Ubunt 14.04 LTS & Intel Ironlake Mobile Graphics.

[Gaurav Agarwal]

This reduced the problem. It still happens. Any update on solution.

[Will]

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.

[foo]

still happening on Ubuntu 20.04. Simple solution was: gnome-tweaks, tab "Fonts", changing the setting for "Antialiasing" from "Subpixel" to "Standard".

[foo]

was gone on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, came back with current patches of 20.04.2

[foo]

Still happening on 20.04.2 LTS