Missing Letters

[Chelle]

I am missing letters randomly. I saw another post about a similar problem, where they said it was likely a graphics problem. Mine is not in any programs however, only in the system menus - krunner and the application launcher. I didn't have this problem for the first week or two; it's only arrived recently, but I can't think of any changes that I've made that should affect it. I haven't upgraded anything yet, and only changed the sourcelist.

I did try going into the compositor section and changing the graphics rendering from GL 3.1 to GL 2.0 and then to Xrender - but each one only made it worse. Is there something else I should do?

Warning - I'm very new to linux (liking Maui a lot so far. so any answers need to be pretty detailed.

I'm sorry for not including a screenshot, but I couldn't figure out how to both hold the menu open (where the letters are missing) and take a screenshot at the same time, as the menu closes as soon as I move my mouse.

Also, I'm running this in VMware on a macbook pro.

Thanks much for your help.
Chelle

[Chelle]

Changing the General font away from Noto Sans seems to have fixed it for the time being. Hopefully, it will stay fixed.

[rocky7x]

Maybe try to regenerate the font cache with command (in terminal):

Code:

sudo fc-cache -fv

[kdemeoz]

Hi Chelle

Sorry i can't help regarding your primary query, but i can for your subsidiary point about "couldn't figure out how to both hold the menu open ... and take a screenshot at the same time, as the menu closes as soon as I move my mouse".

I've two suggestions you could try [btw though you might not need to do either of these anymore for your original problem, these methods can help for any future occasion].

1. Maui is my primary [single-boot] OS, but i have very many VirtualBox VMs for playing with & learning about lots of other distros. For now i'll assume that VMWare VMs act similarly to VB VMs [but maybe they don't?]. For this first method you'll use whatever the screen-capture is of your macbook pro, not of Maui. Do NOT [temporarily] run the VM in full-screen mode; scale it down so it only occupies say 1/2 or 2/3 of your screen, so you can see part of your mac desktop at the side. Open your mac SC pgm, & park it at the side of the VM. Set a say 5 or 10 second delay in the SC pgm's Capture function, & initiate it to capture a full-screen shot. Quickly move the pointer into the VM & do what you need to generate the target menu, then hold your breath & the mouse [to not scare off the timid menu, teehee] until the pgm captures the full screen. Use whatever tools you like to then crop the captured full-screen image to leave only the part of interest for you. Voila. I've used this method a lot, & though inelegant, it's been effective for me. If it does not work for you, then consider the next option...

2. "Shutter" is a magnificent Linux GNU screen-capture & editing pgm, with several sophisticated options for both the capture & editing phases. I love this pgm!! I can't recall if it's in the Maui repos [eg, via Synaptic], but if not you can get it here http://shutter-project.org/. It has a specific function for capturing Tooltips, & another for capturing Menus... how cool is that? I trust you'll deduce how to use it, but if not feel free to come back & i'll try to guide you. Good luck.

[leszek]

I'm sorry for not including a screenshot, but I couldn't figure out how to both hold the menu open (where the letters are missing) and take a screenshot at the same time, as the menu closes as soon as I move my mouse.

The screenshot application should have a timer for that purpose (also called delay). Just set it to 5 seconds and hit take new screenshot and then open up the menu and wait until the shot is taken.

Technically its a limitation of the Xserver that will be taken care if we finally have wayland as default.

As for the issue itself.
Which graphicscard and which driver ?

[Chelle]

Thank you, everyone.
The cache regenerating command didn't help, sadly.
kdemeoz - I should have thought of that! I've gotten so used to having it in full-screen, that I forgot it doesn't have to be. And I *cough* didn't notice the timer option. Oops. However, now I don't seem able to paste the image into Firefox. (I can copy it just fine - tried in Spectacle, Gwenview, Okular and Dolphin - there's just no option to paste it here. It's greyed out.)

The macbook's graphic card is Intel HD Graphics 3000 512 MB (Sandy Bridge). I looked it up and it says it supports OpenGL 3. All that I find for drivers in Maui is the VMWare one. But then, I currently only know one way to look.

System: Host: maui-virtual-machine Kernel: 4.4.0-42-generic x86_64 (64 bit)
Desktop: KDE Plasma 5.7.3 Distro: Ubuntu 1 xenial
Machine: System: VMware product: VMware Virtual Platform
Mobo: Intel model: 440BX Desktop Reference Platform
Bios: Phoenix v: 6.00 date: 07/02/2015
CPU: Single core Intel Core i5-2435M (-UP-)
speed: 2394 MHz (max)
Graphics: Card: VMware SVGA II Adapter
Display Server: X.Org 1.18.3 drivers: vmware (unloaded: fbdev,vesa)
Resolution: 1280x800@59.81hz
GLX Renderer: Gallium 0.4 on SVGA3D; build
GLX Version: 2.1 Mesa 11.2.0
Network: Card: Intel 82545EM Gigabit Ethernet Controller (Copper)
driver: e1000
Drives: HDD Total Size: 107.4GB (11.7% used)
Info: Processes: 251 Uptime: 5:07 Memory: 1464.4/3936.4MB
Client: Shell (bash) inxi: 2.2.35

Using the default noto-sans font and OpenGL 3.1, the application menu launcher is missing random S's and E's. Not all of them. Once in a while, it will show up in krunner in the suggestions below the box. With OpenGL 2.0, more letters get eaten. With Xrender, the entire screen does funky stuff. I changed that back in a hurry. If I switch to Droid Sans Fallback font, all letters return. Shutting down the VM and restarting doesn't change things. There never have been any problems with any programs.
Oh, if it makes any difference, I'm using the Oxygen theme.

[rocky7x]

Since you run it in VM, it doesn't matter which graphics card you have, since the VM emulates its own card. Why don't you try Virtualbox? Maui works flawlessly in it, as long as 3D acceleration in VM setup is disabled. Maybe try the same in VMware, but if it doesn't work, give Virtualbox a try, it probably won't disappoint you :-)

[kdemeoz]

Chelle, i strongly agree with rocky7x. It was my initial tests of Maui in a couple of my VB VMs, hosted in Mint 17.3 KDE4, which so impressed me that i decided to migrate my Tower to Maui. This was a great discovery IMO, after the disappointments in my other testing VMs of Kubuntu 16.04 [yetch], KFedora 24 [meh], & especially Mint 18 KDE [oh nooooooo; why such an old Plasma5, why backport to Kubuntu not Neon, where's my Root Actions gone?].

Note that the VB VM will only support XRender for Compositing, hence eye-candy like Desktop Cube & Wobbly Windows won't be available, but other valuable desktop effects still work fine [eg, Desktop Grid, Present Windows...]. Good luck, & enjoy -- i'm so pleased i came across Maui.

[Chelle]

I had tried Virtual Box, but it seemed to run really hot. But then, everywhere that I'd read about setting up linux in VB said to have 3D acceleration ON, so I will give it another try with it off. Thanks so much!

[leszek]

Also xrender as compositor makes a more fluent experience on vbox with 3D acceleration off in my experience.