utterly strange single-pixel font problem
hi, i have installed a lot of debian systems and this one is the
strangest and most frustrating issue i've ever come across, and
i seriously need help or i will blow this machine away with a
reinstall.
yes, that's right - a debian system that i will be forced to treat
as lowlife scum like windows: if problem, solution equals reboot.
if still problem, solution becomes trash-it-and-reinstall.
okay, here goes. this is with latest unstable (i did an
apt-get dist-upgrade today, 20apr2004) but i've seen it
happen from at least january 2004.
symptoms
--------
some fonts on _some_ applications get reduced to single pixels!
it makes those appilcations (like... kdm) completely unusable.
i've NEVER seen this occur on ANY other machine, and i've installed
A LOT of debian systems.
reproducing
-----------
the means to reproduce the problem (on my machine) are to use:
- fvwm with the following (default, from the 95 style) section
in the ~/.fvwm/decorations file:
#WIN 1
Style * Font
"xft:sans-serif:Medium;-*-times-medium-r-*-*-16-*-*-*-*-*-*-*"
#FVWM 1
#Style * Font
"xft:sans-serif:Medium;-*-times-bold-r-*-*-14-*-*-*-*-*-*-*"
Style * IconFont \
"xft:monospace:pixelsize=12:Medium;-*-fixed-medium-r-*-*-12-*-*-*-*-*-*-*"
- gdm and the entire gnome environment
- kdm and the entire kde environment
the means to AVOID the problem is:
- to NOT set any styles in fvwm, or to use the version of fvwm
that doesn't provide any themes (i think fvwm has been updated
in the past couple of weeks, i'm still using and quite happy
with fvwm with the 3x3 grid thing in the corner)
- to use wdm or xdm
AS SOON as you install gnome or kde, even the applications such as
mozilla and mozilla-firefox get stuffed.
i had forgotten that back in january i had installed gnome,
come across this problem, wiped out gnome again (a really
difficult task, if you've ever tried! you have to do apt-get
remove xlibs and then reinstall the entire x-window-system
and all your apps again!) and then began again.
and the problem went away (even when i then installed evolution
which pulls in the gnome conf / management stuff).
then, today, i installed kde (not gnome).... and shafted the fonts again.
a bit of debugging
------------------
about the only clue that i have is from running
strace -o log.txt -ff /etc/init.d/kdm start:
read(7, "b\0\6\0\17\0$\0XFree86-Bigfont\0", 4096) = 24
read(7, 0x87886a0, 4096) = -1 EAGAIN (Resource temporarily unavailable)
writev(7, [{"\1\0\231\1\0\0\0\0\1\231\0\0\0\0\0\0\1\0\0\0\7\0\0\0\30"..., 32}], 1) = 32
gettimeofday({1082654014, 914704}, NULL) = 0
select(256, [1 3 6 7 8], NULL, NULL, {595, 611000}) = 1 (in [7], left {595, 620000})
read(7, "\231\0\1\0", 4096) = 4
geteuid32() = 0
getegid32() = 0
read(7, 0x87886a0, 4096) = -1 EAGAIN (Resource temporarily unavailable)
writev(7, [{"\1\1\232\1\0\0\0\0\1\0\1\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0v\274\30&\30"..., 32}], 1) = 32
gettimeofday({1082654014, 915149}, NULL) = 0
select(256, [1 3 6 7 8], NULL, NULL, {595, 610000}) = 1 (in [7], left {595, 610000})
read(7, "-\0\22\0\"\0@\0:\0\0\0-sony-fixed-medium-r"..., 4096) = 84
open("/usr/lib/X11/fonts/misc/8x16.pcf.gz", O_RDONLY) = 9
read(9, "\37\213\10\0\342\273X@\0\3\355\\\vp]Gy\376\316\225-\313"..., 8192) = 4744
--- SIGALRM (Alarm clock) @ 0 (0) ---
sigreturn() = ? (mask now [])
read(9, "", 8192) = 0
brk(0) = 0x8795000
brk(0x87b8000) = 0x87b8000
close(9) = 0
select(256, [1 3 6 8], NULL, NULL, {0, 0}) = 0 (Timeout)
read(7, 0x87886a0, 4096) = -1 EAGAIN (Resource temporarily unavailable)
writev(7, [{"\1\1\234\1\247\1\0\0\0\0\0\0\10\0\377\377\365\377\0\0\34"..., 1724}], 1) = 1724
gettimeofday({1082654014, 951008}, NULL) = 0
select(256, [1 3 6 7 8], NULL, NULL, {595, 574000}) = 1 (in [7], left {595, 570000})
read(7, "-\0\22\0#\0@\0:\0\0\0-sony-fixed-medium-r"..., 4096) = 84
read(7, 0x87886a0, 4096) = -1 EAGAIN (Resource temporarily unavailable)
writev(7, [{"\1\1\236\1\247\1\0\0\0\0\0\0\10\0\377\377\365\377\0\0\34"..., 1724}], 1) = 1724
gettimeofday({1082654014, 952059}, NULL) = 0
select(256, [1 3 6 7 8], NULL, NULL, {595, 573000}) = 1 (in [7], left {595, 580000})
read(7, "\3\0\2\0\3\0@\0\16\0\2\0\3\0@\0", 4096) = 16
read(7, 0x87886a0, 4096) = -1 EAGAIN (Resource temporarily unavailable)
writev(7, [{"\1\0\237\1\3\0\0\0\"\0\0\0\1\0\1\1\377\377\377\377\0\0"..., 76}], 1) = 76
which seems to indicate that file descriptor 7 is having difficulties
providing me with fonts (EAGAIN - Resource temporarily unavailable).
(this could well be the font server).
but i could be completely wrong about that.
anyway, if anyone has _ever_ come across such an utterly weird issue,
and wants to have a go at recommending something to fix it, you have
about one week before i shamelessly kill maim and destroy the box by
copying its hard drive.
bizarrely enough, its identical twin (i copied the hard drive and then
did an apt-get upgrade once the copied drive was in the second box) is
absolutely fine!
i give up.
l.
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