After removing ttf-uralic all characters were displayed correctly. Reinstalling ttf-uralic did not change this, so everything works fine now. output of dpkg -l | grep ttf- ii libsdl-ttf2.0-0 2.0.9-1 ttf library for Simple DirectMedia Layer wit ii libttf2 1.4pre.20050518-0.5build1 FreeType 1, The FREE TrueType Font Engine, s ii ttf-arabeyes 1.1-9 Arabeyes GPL TrueType Arabic fonts ii ttf-arhangai 20030401-2 A TrueType font with Mongolian Cyrillic lett ii ttf-arphic-ukai 0.1.20060928-2.2 "AR PL ZenKai Uni" Chinese Unicode TrueType ii ttf-arphic-uming 0.1.20060928-2.1ubuntu1 "AR PL ShanHeiSun Uni" Chinese Unicode TrueT ii ttf-baekmuk 2.2-1ubuntu3 Baekmuk series TrueType fonts ii ttf-bengali-fonts 1:0.4.9 Free TrueType fonts for the Bengali language ii ttf-bitstream-vera 1.10-7 The Bitstream Vera family of free TrueType f ii ttf-bpg-georgian-fonts 0.5 BPG Georgian fonts ii ttf-dejavu 2.17-2 Vera font family derivate with additional ch ii ttf-devanagari-fonts 1:0.4.9 Free TrueType fonts for languages using the ii ttf-dustin 20030517-6 Various TrueType fonts from dustismo.com ii ttf-dzongkha 0.3-1 TrueType fonts for Dzongkha language ii ttf-farsiweb 0.4.dfsg-6 FarsiWeb free TrueType Farsi fonts ii ttf-freefont 20060501cvs-12 Freefont Serif, Sans and Mono Truetype fonts ii ttf-gentium 1.02-2ubuntu2 Gentium TrueType font ii ttf-georgewilliams 1.0-1 Free unicode TrueType fonts by George Willia ii ttf-gujarati-fonts 1:0.4.9 Free TrueType fonts for the Gujarati languag ii ttf-indic-fonts 1:0.4.9 Metapackage for free Indian language fonts ii ttf-isabella 1.01-6ubuntu1 The Isabella free TrueType font ii ttf-junicode 0.6.13-1 a Unicode font for medievalists (Latin, IPA ii ttf-kacst 1.6.2+mry-1 KACST free TrueType Arabic fonts ii ttf-kannada-fonts 1:0.4.9 Free TrueType fonts for the Kannada language ii ttf-khmeros 4.0-2 KhmerOS Unicode fonts for the Khmer language ii ttf-kochi-gothic 1.0.20030809-4ubuntu2 Kochi Subst Gothic Japanese TrueType font wi ii ttf-kochi-mincho 1.0.20030809-4ubuntu2 Kochi Subst Mincho Japanese TrueType font wi ii ttf-lao 0.0.20060226-2 TrueType font for Lao language ii ttf-larabie-deco 1:20011216-1.1 Decorative fonts from www.larabiefonts.com ii ttf-larabie-straight 1:20011216-1.1 Straight fonts from www.larabiefonts.com ii ttf-larabie-uncommon 1:20011216-1.1 Special decorative fonts from www.larabiefon ii ttf-malayalam-fonts 1:0.4.9 Free TrueType fonts for the Malayalam langua ii ttf-mgopen 1.1-2 Magenta Open Truetype fonts ii ttf-mph-2b-damase 001.000.dfsg.2-1 font with ranges from the latest version of ii ttf-nafees 1.2-1 nafees free OpenType Urdu fonts ii ttf-opensymbol 2.3.0~src680m224-1ubuntu2 The OpenSymbol TrueType font ii ttf-oriya-fonts 1:0.4.9 Free TrueType fonts for the Oriya language ii ttf-paktype 0.0-4 PakType free OpenType Urdu fonts ii ttf-punjabi-fonts 1:0.4.9 Free TrueType fonts for the Punjabi language ii ttf-sil-charis 4.100-1 smart Unicode font family for Roman or Cyril ii ttf-sil-doulos 4.100-1 smart Unicode font for Latin and Cyrillic sc ii ttf-sjfonts 2.0.2-1ubuntu1 Some Juicy Fonts handwriting fonts ii ttf-summersby 1.007-1ubuntu1 Free TrueType typeface font ii ttf-tamil-fonts 1:0.4.9 Free TrueType fonts for the Tamil language ii ttf-telugu-fonts 1:0.4.9 Free TrueType fonts for the Telugu language ii ttf-thai-tlwg 1:0.4.7-1 Thai fonts in TrueType format ii ttf-thryomanes 2:1.2-5 A Unicode font covering Latin, Greek, Cyrill ii ttf-tmuni 0.0.20040806-1.2 font for Tibetan, Dzongkha and Ladakhi (Open ii ttf-unfonts 1.0.1-6 Un series Korean TrueType fonts ii ttf-uralic 0.0.20040829-1ubuntu1 Truetype fonts for Cyrillic-based Uralic lan ii ttf-xfree86-nonfree 4.2.1-3 non-free TrueType fonts from XFree86 ls /usr/share/fonts/truetype: arhangai openoffice ttf-dzongkha ttf-lao ttf-oriya-fonts ttf-tmuni arphic sjfonts ttf-farsiweb ttf-larabie-deco ttf-paktype ttf-xfree86-nonfree baekmuk thai ttf-gentium ttf-larabie-straight ttf-punjabi-fonts unfonts dustin ttf-arabeyes ttf-georgewilliams ttf-larabie-uncommon ttf-sil-charis uralic freefont ttf-bengali-fonts ttf-gujarati-fonts ttf-lucida ttf-sil-doulos Isabella.ttf ttf-bitstream-vera ttf-junicode ttf-malayalam-fonts ttf-summersby kochi ttf-bpg-georgian ttf-kacst ttf-mgopen ttf-tamil-fonts latex-xft-fonts ttf-dejavu ttf-kannada-fonts ttf-mph-2b-damase ttf-telugu-fonts msttcorefonts ttf-devanagari-fonts ttf-khmeros ttf-nafees ttf-thryomanes ls ~/.fonts/: fonts.dir