How to get the arrow style bash prompt after installing powerline?

Question

I have installed powerline. But my prompt looks like so instead of arrow shaped:

In vim, it looks ok:

I have seen the issue here: https://github.com/powerline/powerline/issues/1697. But the solution there doesn't work for me.

There is a similar question but his question was to achieve it without installing powerline here: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/32443522/triangular-background-for-bash-ps1-prompt

I am using Ubuntu 16.04. How do I get it right?

Edit: I have tried the following ways:

1) Used powerline fonts but made no difference.

2) Installation was done using pip3. It was installed under python3.5 directory. Since it is not giving the desired result, I have uninstalled and installed it using pip. But the installation directory remained same i.e. python3.5 and the result also remained the same. I then tried installing with python2.7 -m pip install powerline-status and it installed under python2.7 directory and it resulted in the same.

Solution 1

I have fixed it by reconfiguring my locale.

I ran locale and it gave me this:

$ locale
LANG=en_IN.UTF-8
LANGUAGE=en_IN:en
LC_CTYPE="en_IN.UTF-8"
LC_NUMERIC="en_IN.UTF-8"
LC_TIME="en_IN.UTF-8"
LC_COLLATE="en_IN.UTF-8"
LC_MONETARY="en_IN.UTF-8"
LC_MESSAGES="en_IN.UTF-8"
LC_PAPER="en_IN.UTF-8"
LC_NAME="en_IN.UTF-8"
LC_ADDRESS="en_IN.UTF-8"
LC_TELEPHONE="en_IN.UTF-8"
LC_MEASUREMENT="en_IN.UTF-8"
LC_IDENTIFICATION="en_IN.UTF-8"
LC_ALL=

So I tried to set the following in .bashrc, but it didn't work:

export LANGUAGE=en_US.UTF-8   
export LANG=en_US.UTF-8
export LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8
export LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8

So I ran the following and restarted the PC(Logging out wasn't enough):

sudo locale-gen en_US en_US.UTF-8
sudo dpkg-reconfigure locales

In the first configuration menu, I have deselected the en_IN... using spacebar and in next menu, I have selected en_US.UTF-8. After this locale showed all en_US.

Instead of all this, probably just setting LANUAGE and LANG to en_US in /etc/default/locale could have been enough? Idk

Solution 2

Install powerline fonts by cloning the repo (I'm cloning to a dir in home)

git clone https://github.com/powerline/fonts ~/powerline_fonts

Then link your desired font to your standard font directory. For example, if you've cloned the repo to a directory named powerline_fonts in your home, you'd use a command something like this.

ln -s ~/powerline_fonts/Anonymous\ Powerline.ttf ~/.local/share/fonts/

Set the preference of the terminal to use one of the powerline font such as "Anonymous for Powerline"

Now you should see the arrow shaped glyph.

---

Powerline uses special glyphs embedded in a font to render those nifty icons. So, you need a font that has those glyphs. Fortunately you can patch a font or use some already patched fonts like the ones from the repo I referenced earlier.

Comments

[Michael D.]

Is your terminal using a powerline font?

[Admin]

Yes I have installed powerline fonts. Specifically, I am using the source code pro for powerline.

[JdeBP]

There was a more similar question on this stack exchange site at unix.stackexchange.com/questions/320735 .

[Admin]

If you are suggesting to use patched fonts for powerline, yes I have tried that and they seem to make no difference for me. Also it seems he did not install powerline in the first place

[Admin]

I have already installed powerline fonts and specifically using the source code pro for powerline in terminal. But I still don't get the arrow shape.

[Anwar]

@vikramreddym Make sure you're using the right profile. There can be multiple profiles for a given terminal. Which terminal are you using?

[Admin]

It's a Gnome terminal I think. The default one on Ubuntu. I see that there is only one unamed profile in terminal preferences.

[Anwar]

Did you set the font in profile? Which version it is?

[Admin]

Hello, yes I have set the font in the profile preferences. I have set it as "Source code pro for powerline regular" It's Gnome Terminal 3.18.3

[Anwar]

@vikramreddym I know this may seems weird, but did you check the "Custom Font" is enabled in Terminal Profile preference? Also give the output of fc-match "Source Code Pro for Powerline"

[Admin]

Yes I have the custom font ticked. I get this output Sauce Code Powerline Regular.otf: "Source Code Pro for Powerline" "Regular"

[Anwar]

Let us continue this discussion in chat.

[AniketGM]

That's what I was looking for. Thanks a lot!

[lyarwood]

FWIW you should just use the provided install.sh to install from the repo.git clone https://github.com/powerline/fonts ~/powerline_fonts && cd ~/powerline_fonts && ./install.sh

[badola]

This is what worked for me in Ubuntu 20.04 as well. By default, the locale was set to en_IN on my system.