Linux Mint Forums

System -- quad core, 16 gig of memory.
OS -- Mint 13, Mate

I tried to use Fontmatrix to disable some fonts on my system -- but never saw any changes (or indication of activation or de-activation). I closed the program. Perhaps 5 minutes later, almost all the fonts on my system turned into little black boxes for each letter. I am assuming when I de-activated fonts, I must have deactivated all the fonts I was using. Only my word processor shows any letters -- and a total of 2 fonts, neither of which I use.

I can still find Fontmatrix on my system, but can't read any of the menu items, obviously. I would like to activate all system fonts to see if that will bring back all the nice little letters.

What would help? Could someone post a couple of screen shots showing Fontmatrix 9.99 (or whatever is current for Mint 13) -- I think I can figure out what I need with the basic screen shot of the main display, and a shot of which-ever menu item lists the "activate all system fonts" option.

Another possible help would simply be directions -- like "main page, 4th item, 3rd line down".

Any help you can give to get me over my own stupidity would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

It was indeed a matter of deactivated fonts via Fontmatrix.

When I finished the work I needed to do on the Windows XP system, I got permission to reboot into a "live CD" mode for Mint 13. Once up and running, I used the live Software Manager to locate and add Fontmatrix to the live system. I opened the program, and looked over the menu structure, and located the menu items I needed. I then went back to the Mint 13 system I was trying to repair, and used the information thus gained to affect a partial restoration of readable fonts. From there, I altered the desktop to use the fonts I had back. Then I switched font managers and got the rest of the missing fonts reactivated.

The system is running well again, with slightly fewer fonts (ones I do not need). As I suspected, a couple of small screen shots or directions might have been enough -- but this worked.

It seems that the more I learn the more dangerous (to the system) I become!

Thanks for looking at the problem.