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Font randomy breaks in Mate on Debian 10, 11

Graphical Environments, Managers, Multimedia & Desktop questions.
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joga
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Joined: 2021-09-27 16:23

Font randomy breaks in Mate on Debian 10, 11

#1 Post by joga »

I'm running Mate 1.20.4 on a Debian 10 system (Linux 4.19.0-17-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 4.19.194-3 (2021-07-18) x86_64 GNU/Linux) and mostly everything is fine, but sometimes the font randomly breaks down where letters are replaced by colored boxes.

If I temporarily increase or decrease font size in Caja (Ctrl+scroll wheel) the fonts appear correct. But the standard sized font is still wrong. As you can see on the attached pictures, it also affects menus and taskbar.

It happens randomly and often intermittent (affects the web browser only, and cleared by closing the web browser) but sometimes it appears "system wide". I can't clear it by switching to a text mode console, or by changing resolution or other means of clearing the screen.

What is this? I'm running Debian 10, but I noticed it first when I was running Debian 11, but downgraded due to issues with Mate (viewtopic.php?f=6&t=150166&p=743945&hil ... or#p743945). My previous Debian 10 install didn't have this issue at all.

Edit: I don't know why the post added the pictures in a reversed and apparently unfixable order... But as you can see, red/violet squares everywhere. It almost looks like some censoring, but no, just bugs...
Edit2: The font is apparently called "Cantarell Regular" and if of size 11. I however suspect, that it would happen to whatever font was used, when it happens. I'm going to try to change font (not that I have any choice besides reboot).
Attachments
Decreased font size
Decreased font size
2.png (278.28 KiB) Viewed 1602 times
Increased font size
Increased font size
3.png (303.2 KiB) Viewed 1602 times
Broken font
Broken font
1.png (289.52 KiB) Viewed 1602 times

joga
Posts: 15
Joined: 2021-09-27 16:23

Re: Font randomy breaks in Mate on Debian 10, 11

#2 Post by joga »

Further experiments reveal nothing. I've tried different fonts but it seems to happen to any font. Suddenly, often first in the browser. Colored blocks, missing lines in font and other erratic behavior. Sometimes a white pattern could appear outside fonts, across the screen. It usually disappear when I click on it. And it follows scrolling.

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canci
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Re: Font randomy breaks in Mate on Debian 10, 11

#3 Post by canci »

Does it happen with other desktops?
Does it happen on other OS, e.g. if you boot a live CD?
Have you installed fonts manually or messed with font caching?
Have you manually installed video card drivers?
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Re: Font randomy breaks in Mate on Debian 10, 11

#4 Post by FreewheelinFrank »

Could be a graphics bug (I had similar artefacts in Jessie with AMD and Gnome). As the problem didn't occur in your previous install, it suggests there's something missing from your latest install. Graphics firmware maybe?

joga
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Re: Font randomy breaks in Mate on Debian 10, 11

#5 Post by joga »

canci wrote: 2022-06-23 14:54 Does it happen with other desktops?
Does it happen on other OS, e.g. if you boot a live CD?
Have you installed fonts manually or messed with font caching?
Have you manually installed video card drivers?
If you mean other desktops like any of the four in MATE, then yes. I don't think it happens with other OS, because it didn't happened before. I went from Debian 10 in good condition, upgraded to Debian 11, got problems (with other things as well, MATEs window stack is completely broken, unusable and a showstopper, thread about it exists) and did a clean install of Debian 10, which also have this font issue.

No, no and no for the last questions. It really should not be a driver/video card related thing as it happens to fonts, If I change the font, the problem fixes itself, or, as you see in my included picture, if I rescale the font, problem disappears. Until it pops up again.

Sometimes it happens just after boot, sometimes I can use the computer for days without any issue. I did however notice that the problem often starts in a private browser tab in firefox, then spreads. The graphics card and its drivers should not be aware or care about what thing draws what on the screen, or randomly target the fonts.

joga
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Joined: 2021-09-27 16:23

Re: Font randomy breaks in Mate on Debian 10, 11

#6 Post by joga »

FreewheelinFrank wrote: 2022-06-23 22:57 Could be a graphics bug (I had similar artefacts in Jessie with AMD and Gnome). As the problem didn't occur in your previous install, it suggests there's something missing from your latest install. Graphics firmware maybe?
Everything should be the same compared to my older Debian 10 install. I don't mess with graphics drivers or such, as I'm totally uninterested in graphical performance. Using an I7 socket 1155 with internal graphics. The drivers should be stock, haven't messed with them really. And I can't fathom what graphics driver could do to fonts. Random pixels, yes, artifacts, yes, but to be able to "target" fonts specifically doesn't smell graphical/GPU/GPU RAM/DAC problems to me.

As I said, I noticed that the problems tends to start with a private window in Firefox, then it spreads... But sometimes it simply boots into small font issues, that grow and grow. But if I boot to a normal looking environment, it generally starts with private tabs, not ordinary tabs, not in other programs.

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