Fonts in Firefox "crumble" (Mint 16 Mate RC)

[yusufbolu]

I tried with final release (Mate 32bit) with USB live boot. The same. Then it is not about RC or Finale release.

intel graphic..??

Yes, it seems like the problem is with Intel graphics. I'll try to experiment with a non-intel card.

[wayne128]

I tried with final release (Mate 32bit) with USB live boot. The same. Then it is not about RC or Finale release.

intel graphic..??

Yes, it seems like the problem is with Intel graphics. I'll try to experiment with a non-intel card.

I am very surprised to read that Mate 32-bit also has the same issue.

All the time I was thinking it might be cinnamon issue due to high demand on graphic card.

In order to find out, I downloaded Mint16-Mate 32 bit iso, make bootable usb flash, run live..
make no change in any place, just get onto firefox, read forum,
and I confirm the same issue happens

In fact it occurs so often while I am typing this post, right on the open windows...

Both cinnamon and Mate on Mint16 .... No good.

mint@mint ~ $ inxi -Gx
Graphics: Card: Intel 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller bus-ID: 00:02.0
X.Org: 1.14.3 drivers: intel (unloaded: fbdev,vesa) Resolution: 1600x900@60.0hz
GLX Renderer: Mesa DRI Intel Q45/Q43 x86/MMX/SSE2 GLX Version: 2.1 Mesa 9.2.1 Direct Rendering: Yes
mint@mint ~ $ uname -a
Linux mint 3.11.0-12-generic #19-Ubuntu SMP Wed Oct 9 16:12:00 UTC 2013 i686 i686 i686 GNU/Linux
mint@mint ~ $

[joncr]

FWIW, I use Intel video and the color of text in Firefox and Thunderbird here, in any distribution, changes to blue during scrolling.

It's corrected by turning off smooth scrolling.

Maybe worth a try for the OP.

[catfish12]

ok so its intel possible cause of problem on mint 16 cinamon mate own desktop enviroment ?
so hopefully this will not effect xfce kde which i ran xfce before no issues or iam i wrong
iam quite new to all this

i also found this not sure if we can use this fix or how ???

https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/20603

[catfish12]

HI i have been running mint 16 in xcfe session mode and no font or text problems
the problem is intel to get into xfce just log out
and select from login xfce session i had to tweak it to have a pannel at bottom
and few other things
iam sticking to this until the offical mint 16 xfce is out

edit Also boot system with mint cinamon or mate with software rendering from login no font/text problems

low cpu with rendering

[url=http://www.imagebam.com/image/b1246e293189348][img]http://thumbnails108.imagebam.com/29319/b1246e293189348.jpg[/img][/url]

[eni24]

Hi,

I have the same issue running the official Mint 16 release on lenovo T400 (ibm internal gfx card). I have crumbled fonts all over the place, mainly in libreoffice and apache openoffice. Interesting phenomenon: In Libre Office crumbled fonts disappear on mouseclick. In Open Office they dont, but after a window resize or minimise->maximise sequence.

Would love a solution to this as I'm using my laptop for presentations. Any advise greatly appreciated!

[catfish12]

hi have you tried mint cinamon/mate in software rendering ? just log out click on the green man box in menu logout not shut down click
on name or account little cog icon drop down menu cinamon or mate with software rendering
password set as defualt or this session only see if that helps
i spent a week with this issue just by luck this worked in my case

[eni24]

Hi catfish,

thanks a lot, but unfortunately it didn't help for me. I logged out & back in with software rendering and found crumbled characters in Firefox within a minute. An (of course) the CPU is quite high.

Glad it worked for you though

[Oldbwl]

so far it seems a common thing

intel graphic..??

I have 3 machines running Linux 16. Only on the one with the intel grahics do I see this issue. And so far only in Firefox

[catfish12]

sorry to hear the software rendering did not work they need to fix this it is a big problem
and a large user base will have intel graphics

[kpearsonxyz]

Maybe try Linux Mint Debian Edition, Mate and see how it goes. Did you get the problem on the LiveCD session or only after the installation. If it was during the Live session (like you played long enough to find out, right? so my question is probably dumb), then you could use the LiveCD of LMDE and see...

This is perhaps related to the Intel drivers. You might try adding nomodeset at boot in the grub commandline. Then boot and see. To do that, you edit:

Code: Select all

sudo vi /etc/default/grub

(or use Nano if your prefer) and add this line, or append to it:

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GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="nomodeset"

If there is something else on the line already, put a space between the last one and then add nomodeset inside the quotes, and after you save the edit run:

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sudo update-grub2

when the update is complete do

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sudo reboot

and good luck.

[Oldbwl]

Just looking at trying out your code and found the error also happens in Terminal.

[fernandoacorreia]

I'm facing the same issue on a fresh Linux Mint 16 Cinnamon installation.

I get randomly garbled text. It gets fixed if I scroll it out of the window and back in, if I select it with the mouse, or sometimes if I click on a different window.

This video demonstrates the glitch: http://youtu.be/jb9cyauG6zY

System specifications:

Dell Latitude E4300 laptop with Mobile Intel® GS45 Express Chipsets, Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD.

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$ uname -a

Linux fernando-E4300 3.11.0-12-generic #19-Ubuntu SMP Wed Oct 9 16:20:46 UTC 2013 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

$ lspci -v

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Memory Controller Hub (rev 07)
        Subsystem: Dell Device 024d
        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
        Capabilities: [e0] Vendor Specific Information: Len=0a <?>
        Kernel driver in use: agpgart-intel

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 07) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
        Subsystem: Dell Device 024d
        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 44
        Memory at f6c00000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4M]
        Memory at e0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
        I/O ports at ef98 [size=8]
        Expansion ROM at <unassigned> [disabled]
        Capabilities: [90] MSI: Enable+ Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit-
        Capabilities: [d0] Power Management version 3
        Kernel driver in use: i915

00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 07)
        Subsystem: Dell Device 024d
        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
        Memory at f6b00000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=1M]
        Capabilities: [d0] Power Management version 3

[Semmu]

Hi!

I'm glad I finally found other people with the exact same issue. It must be the graphics card bug, I have an integrated Intel, just like you.

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Graphics:  Card: Intel Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller bus-ID: 00:02.0 
           X.Org: 1.13.0 drivers: intel (unloaded: fbdev,vesa) Resolution: 1366x768@60.0hz, 1920x1080@60.0hz 
           GLX Renderer: Mesa DRI Mobile Intel GM45 Express Chipset GLX Version: 2.1 Mesa 9.0.3 Direct Rendering: Yes

I have also recorded a video about the bug, here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQQIKPb0THE
The letters are blinking because of the animated ad on the right.
And the sad thing is that it is system wide, I saw it on GTK tooltips as well.
I think I will try out another font renreding library, for example this: http://www.webupd8.org/2013/06/better-font-rendering-in-linux-with.html

Is there an "official" bugreport somewhere already? I would like to follow the bugfix.

[wyatt8740]

I have another Lenovo, the Lenovo g550 laptop. I upgraded from mint 14 nadia MATE, and 16 gives me this problem, not just in firefox but in mate-terminal and others as well. They do not deteriorate over time, but are annoying. This is the 32 bit MATE version and my graphics chipset is a Intel GMA (Mobile series 4 integrated).

I should mention I am using a live USB but never had trouble doing this in 14.

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mint@mint ~ $ inxi -Gx
Graphics:  Card: Intel Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller bus-ID: 00:02.0 
           X.Org: 1.14.3 drivers: intel (unloaded: fbdev) FAILED: vesa Resolution: 1366x768@60.0hz 
           GLX Renderer: Mesa DRI Mobile Intel GM45 Express Chipset x86/MMX/SSE2 GLX Version: 2.1 Mesa 9.2.1 Direct Rendering: Yes

*EDIT*

They do deteriorate over time. I just failed to notice.

[catfish12]

hmm looks like a wider problem effects linux manjaro

http://forum.manjaro.org/index.php?topic=7269.0

possible intel cause quote

'i ve recently discovered that these glitches are caused by using SNA on my Intel GMA45 chipset.
According to an Intel dev:
Quote

To be fair, it is a GPU bug... Except that they officially do not exist. (UXA triggers the same bugs as well, except there I used a very big hammer and spent the time developing SNA to try to characterise the problem and find a better solution

not good for linux in general

[Semmu]

I have the exact same laptop, Lenovo G550.
I just don't know what could cause this bug. The new kernel? The new driver packages? Is there a way to downgrade them to get rid of this bug? I just don't know why did the devs fix something that is not wrong...

[Flemur]

I saw something similar with the Ubuntu font(s) (a few months ago, tho). Using a different font fixed it.

[catfish12]

Try settings appearance fonts antialiasing off worth a try

[fernandoacorreia]

Reported as Bug #1261352:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/linuxmint/+bug/1261352