update broke fonts in firefox

[tsg1zzn]

I have Ubuntu Studio 14.04. The updates window popped up and asked me to install updates. Which I did. This somehow broke my font configuration. So that I have blurry fonts in firefox. No other application is affected.

I have modified nothing in /etc/fonts/conf.avail.

If updates changes the contents of /etc/fonts/conf.d I do not see the purpose of having a conf.avail/conf.d - organization. The purpose must be to let users link or unlink files in conf.d to files in conf.avail.

I don't expect updates to create links in /etc/fonts/conf.d that were previously created at installation time or upgrate time. So if I unlink something in /etc/fonts/conf.d I expect it to stay that way.

Changes to the files themselves should go in /etc/fonts/conf.avail.

Changes to which files are available by default in /etc/fonts/conf.d should be applied only when they are CHANGES. Not reinstall the default links with every update.

lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 14.04 LTS
Release: 14.04

~$ apt-cache policy fontconfig
fontconfig:
  Installed: 2.11.0-0ubuntu4.1
  Candidate: 2.11.0-0ubuntu4.1
  Version table:
 *** 2.11.0-0ubuntu4.1 0
        500 http://no.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty-updates/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     2.11.0-0ubuntu4 0
        500 http://no.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty/main amd64 Packages

[tsg1zzn (tsg1zzn)]

Actually other applications were affected to a certain degree, but they somehow ignore many of the font settings from /etc/fonts/conf.d, so it wasn't as noticable.

Old fonts were restored by checking which files were accessed today and unlinking them;

/etc/fonts/conf.d# unlink 30-metric-aliases.conf
/etc/fonts/conf.d# unlink 10-hinting-slight.conf
/etc/fonts/conf.d# unlink 11-lcdfilter-default.conf

[Ubuntu Foundations Team Bug Bot (crichton)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. It seems that your bug report is not filed about a specific source package though, rather it is just filed against Ubuntu in general. It is important that bug reports be filed about source packages so that people interested in the package can find the bugs about it. You can find some hints about determining what package your bug might be about at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/FindRightPackage. You might also ask for help in the #ubuntu-bugs irc channel on Freenode.

To change the source package that this bug is filed about visit https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/1333627/+editstatus and add the package name in the text box next to the word Package.

[This is an automated message. I apologize if it reached you inappropriately; please just reply to this message indicating so.]

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Thank you for your bug report. That's the only report we got about the issue so far it seems. It's weird that the fontconfig update would create that problem, can you try to downgrade back to the previous version and see if it resolves the issue for you?

Could you also add before/after screenshots to the bug showing the issue?

[tsg1zzn (tsg1zzn)]

I already resolved this issue by deleting the links, as described above.

I downgraded to 2.11.0-0ubuntu4, and nothing wrong happened. Then I upgraded, and still nothing wrong happened. So there must have been another package update that caused this. I don't know what other package would mess around in /etc/fonts/conf.d.

I will attach the pictures of before and after.

[tsg1zzn (tsg1zzn)]

This is after the update of many packages. It should not look like this.

[tsg1zzn (tsg1zzn)]

By the way, the file 30-metric-aliases.conf breaks font selection on all web pages containing font selectors like this:

font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;

in the case where Helvetica is NOT installed, while Arial IS installed. In css the font names are prioritized, and if the first isn't installed, the second should be chosen, and so on. So the web page should display in Arial, instead it displays in Nimbus Sans L. Because when the browser requests helvetica from fontconfig it should be denied and try the next option (Arial), instead it gets Nimbus Sans L and never gets to test for Arial.

This problem exists in several browsers. I'm not sure whose responsibility this is, browser or fontconfig.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for fontconfig (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

[tsg1zzn (tsg1zzn)]

Today it happened again, after an update of the following packages:

2016-08-19 12:48:03 upgrade libgcrypt11-dev:amd64 1.5.3-2ubuntu4.3 1.5.3-2ubuntu4.4
2016-08-19 12:48:03 upgrade libgcrypt11:i386 1.5.3-2ubuntu4.3 1.5.3-2ubuntu4.4
2016-08-19 12:48:03 upgrade libgcrypt11:amd64 1.5.3-2ubuntu4.3 1.5.3-2ubuntu4.4
2016-08-19 12:48:03 upgrade eq10q:amd64 1.2-2 2.0+r136.2~ubuntu14.04.1
2016-08-19 12:48:04 upgrade libfontconfig1:i386 2.11.0-0ubuntu4.1 2.11.0-0ubuntu4.2
2016-08-19 12:48:04 upgrade libfontconfig1:amd64 2.11.0-0ubuntu4.1 2.11.0-0ubuntu4.2
2016-08-19 12:48:04 upgrade libfontconfig1-dev:amd64 2.11.0-0ubuntu4.1 2.11.0-0ubuntu4.2
2016-08-19 12:48:05 upgrade fontconfig-config:all 2.11.0-0ubuntu4.1 2.11.0-0ubuntu4.2
2016-08-19 12:48:05 upgrade google-chrome-beta:amd64 53.0.2785.57-1 53.0.2785.70-1
2016-08-19 12:48:09 upgrade libmtp-common:all 1.1.6-20-g1b9f164-1ubuntu2.1 1.1.8-1ubuntu1~14.04.1
2016-08-19 12:48:09 upgrade libmtp-runtime:amd64 1.1.6-20-g1b9f164-1ubuntu2.1 1.1.8-1ubuntu1~14.04.1
2016-08-19 12:48:10 upgrade libmtp9:amd64 1.1.6-20-g1b9f164-1ubuntu2.1 1.1.8-1ubuntu1~14.04.1
2016-08-19 12:48:10 upgrade libserd-0-0:amd64 0.18.2~dfsg0-2 0.22.0~dfsg0-2~14.04.1
2016-08-19 12:48:10 upgrade openjdk-7-jre:amd64 7u101-2.6.6-0ubuntu0.14.04.1 7u111-2.6.7-0ubuntu0.14.04.3
2016-08-19 12:48:10 upgrade icedtea-7-jre-jamvm:amd64 7u101-2.6.6-0ubuntu0.14.04.1 7u111-2.6.7-0ubuntu0.14.04.3
2016-08-19 12:48:11 upgrade openjdk-7-jre-headless:amd64 7u101-2.6.6-0ubuntu0.14.04.1 7u111-2.6.7-0ubuntu0.14.04.3
2016-08-19 12:48:14 upgrade opera-developer:amd64 41.0.2315.0 41.0.2323.0
2016-08-19 12:48:18 upgrade swh-lv2:amd64 1.0.15+20130517.git978d5d8-1 1.0.15+r35.1~ubuntu14.04.1
2016-08-19 12:48:18 upgrade update-manager:all 1:0.196.14 1:0.196.19
2016-08-19 12:48:18 upgrade update-manager-core:all 1:0.196.14 1:0.196.19
2016-08-19 12:48:19 upgrade python3-update-manager:all 1:0.196.14 1:0.196.19
2016-08-19 12:48:19 upgrade update-notifier:amd64 0.154.1ubuntu1 0.154.1ubuntu2
2016-08-19 12:48:19 upgrade update-notifier-common:all 0.154.1ubuntu1 0.154.1ubuntu2
2016-08-19 12:48:19 upgrade calf-plugins:amd64 0.0.19+git20131202-1 0.0.60+r1683.6.20160813~ubuntu14.04.1
2016-08-19 12:48:21 upgrade gpgv:amd64 1.4.16-1ubuntu2.3 1.4.16-1ubuntu2.4
2016-08-19 12:48:31 upgrade gnupg:amd64 1.4.16-1ubuntu2.3 1.4.16-1ubuntu2.4
2016-08-19 12:48:33 upgrade openssh-client:amd64 1:6.6p1-2ubuntu2.7 1:6.6p1-2ubuntu2.8
2016-08-19 12:48:33 upgrade a2jmidid:amd64 8~dfsg0-1 8+r170.3~ubuntu14.04.1
2016-08-19 12:48:33 upgrade fontconfig:amd64 2.11.0-0ubuntu4.1 2.11.0-0ubuntu4.2
2016-08-19 12:48:34 upgrade openscad-nightly:amd64 20160811T205250.gitaf338f3-1468.1 20160818T221323.git37bc956-1478.1
2016-08-19 12:48:34 upgrade ssh-askpass-gnome:amd64 1:6.6p1-2ubuntu2.7 1:6.6p1-2ubuntu2.8
2016-08-19 12:48:35 upgrade guitarix:amd64 0.28.2-4 0.34.0-0~14.04.2

The following links were added or updated:
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4,0K 2016-08-19 12:48:43.591866038 +0200 ./
drwxr-xr-x 5 root root 4,0K 2016-08-19 12:48:43.584866038 +0200 ../
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 31 2016-08-16 21:18:00.000000000 +0200 10-antialias.conf -> ../conf.avail/10-antialias.conf
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 29 2016-08-16 21:18:00....