[arch-general] Odd unicode glyph rendering issues

[Dave Howorth]

On Mon, 4 Apr 2022 13:38:35 +0000
Mark Raynsford via arch-general <arch-general at lists.archlinux.org>
wrote:

> Hello!
> 
> I have two systems here that are running the same version of Arch.
> They are using different window managers; system A is running
> awesomewm, whilst system B is running fvwm.
> 
> Both have the same fonts installed, and both have very similar outputs
> for "env":
> 
> System A:
> 
> DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS=unix:path=/run/user/184135848/bus
> DISPLAY=:0
> EDITOR=/usr/bin/vim
> FREETYPE_PROPERTIES=truetype:interpreter-version=35
> HOME=/home/rm
> LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
> LC_COLLATE=C
> LOGNAME=rm
> MAIL=/var/spool/mail/rm
> MOTD_SHOWN=pam
> PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/bin/site_perl:/usr/bin/vendor_perl:/usr/bin/core_perl:/home/rm/bin:/opt/bin
> PWD=/home/rm
> SHELL=/bin/bash
> SHLVL=2
> SSH_AGENT_PID=806
> SSH_AUTH_SOCK=/tmp/ssh-XXXXXXNocNEG/agent.782
> SYSTEMD_EXEC_PID=673
> TASKRC=/home/rm/git/com.github/io7m/dotfiles.taskwarrior/taskrc
> TERM=xterm-256color
> USER=rm
> VTE_VERSION=6602
> WINDOWID=12195960
> WINDOWPATH=1
> XAUTHORITY=/home/rm/.Xauthority
> XDG_CACHE_HOME=/home/rm/var/cache
> XDG_CONFIG_HOME=/home/rm/etc
> XDG_DATA_HOME=/home/rm/local
> XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/run/user/184135848
> XDG_SEAT=seat0
> XDG_SESSION_CLASS=user
> XDG_SESSION_ID=1
> XDG_SESSION_TYPE=tty
> XDG_VTNR=1
> _=/usr/bin/env
> 
> System B:
> 
> DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS=unix:path=/run/user/128542918/bus
> EDITOR=/usr/bin/vim
> FREETYPE_PROPERTIES=truetype:interpreter-version=35
> HOME=/home/rm-work
> LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
> LC_COLLATE=C
> LOGNAME=rm-work
> MAIL=/var/spool/mail/rm-work
> MOTD_SHOWN=pam
> PATH=/home/rm-work/bin:/home/rm-work/.pyenv/shims:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin
> PWD=/home/rm-work
> PYENV_ROOT=/home/rm-work/.pyenv
> PYENV_VIRTUALENV_INIT=1
> SHELL=/bin/bash
> SHLVL=0
> TERM=xterm-256color
> USER=rm-work
> XDG_CACHE_HOME=/home/rm-work/var/cache
> XDG_CONFIG_HOME=/home/rm-work/etc
> XDG_DATA_HOME=/home/rm-work/local
> XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/run/user/128542918
> XDG_SESSION_CLASS=user
> XDG_SESSION_ID=16
> XDG_SESSION_TYPE=tty
> _=/usr/sbin/env
> 
> With both systems, I can open a text file containing the following
> string:
> 
>   ひらがな
> 
> ... in both a browser (Firefox, Chromium), in mousepad, and in vim
> in an xfce4-terminal instance. System A will consistently render the
> string using the correct glyphs. System B will consistently render the
> string as a set of missing glyphs.
> 
> Given that all of my software, fonts, and locale settings are
> apparently the same... What other variables could cause font rendering
> to consistently fail on one system and not the other?

If you use gnome terminal instead of xfce4-terminal and can reproduce
the same symptoms, then the command:

  $ gsettings get org.gnome.desktop.interface monospace-font-name

will tell you what font is in use on each machine. Maybe that will help?