fonts/text look unsmooth in lenny

bluefly · 04-20-2009, 03:24 AM

hi,

I recently switched from Ubuntu to Debian.
I've had text look bad in both of them but after installing some packages, like msttcorefonts and getting libfreetype6 (and probably more I can't remember) I managed to make it look ok in Ubuntu but in Debian it still doesn't look good in some applications.

Here are 2 screenshots of QtCreator and VirtualBox:
http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/6496/filel.jpg
http://img253.imageshack.us/img253/3374/85280329.jpg

I'm beginning to suspect it has something to do with how Qt handles it's fonts since I'm pretty sure that VirtualBox's UI is also written in Qt.

Has anyone encountered this before? Maybe I'm missing some basic package?
Thanks.

the trooper · 04-20-2009, 07:32 AM

Do you have on-board graphics or a separate card?,Ati or Nvidia?
Have you installed a graphics driver?
I have seen text look like that using the generic 'vesa' driver.
It would be an idea to post the contents of /etc/X11/xorg.conf.

bluefly · 04-20-2009, 07:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by the trooper

Do you have on-board graphics or a separate card?,Ati or Nvidia?
Have you installed a graphics driver?
I have seen text look like that using the generic 'vesa' driver.
It would be an idea to post the contents of /etc/X11/xorg.conf.

hi,

I have an ATI Radeon HD4850.
In my ongoing attempt to fix this issue I installed fglrx drivers for my graphics card, thinking that was one of the differences between my previous Ubuntu installation. Unfortunately this didn't fix the problem.

Anyhow here are the contents of xorg.conf:

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Generic Keyboard"
Driver "kbd"
Option "XkbRules" "xorg"
Option "XkbModel" "pc104"
Option "XkbLayout" "us"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Configured Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "ATI"
Driver "fglrx"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Configured Monitor"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Monitor "Configured Monitor"
DefaultDepth 24
EndSection

the trooper · 04-20-2009, 08:09 AM

I take it you have direct rendering?
I think the command was fglrx | grep "direct rendering"
Should return with a "Yes".

bluefly · 04-20-2009, 08:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by the trooper

I take it you have direct rendering?
I think the command was fglrx | grep "direct rendering"
Should return with a "Yes".

actually it doesn't find "fglrx"

the trooper · 04-20-2009, 08:19 AM

Do you have the mesa-utils package installed?

bluefly · 04-20-2009, 08:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by the trooper

Do you have the mesa-utils package installed?

just installed it, but still can't recognize "fglrx"

the trooper · 04-20-2009, 08:31 AM

Maybe i have the syntax wrong.....

Here's what i do with an Nvidia card:

Code:

ade@Pc1:~$ glxinfo | grep "direct rendering"
direct rendering: Yes

Give that a try and see what you get.

bluefly · 04-20-2009, 08:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by the trooper

Maybe i have the syntax wrong.....

Here's what i do with an Nvidia card:

Code:

ade@Pc1:~$ glxinfo | grep "direct rendering"
direct rendering: Yes

Give that a try and see what you get.

that worked and returned "Yes" as you expected

the trooper · 04-20-2009, 08:44 AM

Ok, that's good.
I'm running out of ideas,maybe there's something shown in the X log file:

cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log | grep EE

Maybe there is something there?

bluefly · 04-20-2009, 08:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by the trooper

Ok, that's good.
I'm running out of ideas,maybe there's something shown in the X log file:

cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log | grep EE

Maybe there is something there?

no, everything seems fine there.

I found some interesting topics regarding this issue a few minutes ago, they seem to address Qt 4.5.0 directly, which verifies my suspicion that's it's indeed a Qt specific problem.
I'll try my luck with those, but thanks anyway.

Here are some links to them if someone stumbles upon this thread:

http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=69215
http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=67031&p=2
http://www.nabble.com/Bug-448555:-fi...d22557271.html
http://www.nabble.com/blurry-fonts-a...d15148606.html
http://www.mail-archive.com/debian-q.../msg25168.html
http://www.robodesign.ro/mihai/blog/...font-rendering

the trooper · 04-20-2009, 08:55 AM

Ok,sorry i can't be more help.
When you do find a solution don't forget to post back here,as this will help other people searching this problem.

rerushg · 04-20-2009, 08:55 AM

How about screen resolution? Are you using best native rez & refresh? Modern displays will often accept other rates but won't look very good doing it

bluefly · 04-20-2009, 09:11 AM

I believe I fixed it. In one of the those links there was the contents of .fonts.conf, I tried using it and it worked! Text in the apps I showed before is now looking good again.

Here's the .fonts.conf that fixed it for me:

Code:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd">
<fontconfig>
 <match target="font" >
  <edit mode="assign" name="hinting" >
   <bool>true</bool>
  </edit>
 </match>
 <match target="font" >
  <edit mode="assign" name="hintstyle" >
   <const>hintfull</const>
  </edit>
 </match>
 <match target="font" >
  <edit mode="assign" name="rgba" >
   <const>rgb</const>
  </edit>
 </match>
 <match target="font" >
  <edit mode="assign" name="antialias" >
   <bool>true</bool>
  </edit>
 </match>
</fontconfig>

the trooper · 04-20-2009, 09:15 AM

Good stuff!.
Just out of interest, where is the file you have edited?
In my home directory i only have .fontconfig.