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Nathan Osman
Asked: 2011-10-26 10:33:31 +0800 CST

Why are letters overlapping in the terminal?

  • 772

I installed Oneiric as a guest OS in VirtualBox using the Mini CD. I installed the ubuntu-desktop package and everything seems to work fine - well, except for a font issue with the terminal:

As you can see, some of the letters overlap and it's difficult to read. I checked the settings and it the checkbox "Use the system fixed width font" is checked with "Monospace | 12" selected underneath it.

Edit: running the commands mentioned in the comments:

$ fc-match "Monospace"
DejaVuSansMono.ttf: "DejaVu Sans Mono" "Book"
$ gconftool --get /desktop/gnome/interface/monospace_font_name
Monospace 10
$ debsums ttf-dejavu-core
/usr/share/doc/ttf-dejavu-core/AUTHORS                                        OK
/usr/share/doc/ttf-dejavu-core/BUGS                                           OK
/usr/share/doc/ttf-dejavu-core/NEWS.gz                                        OK
/usr/share/doc/ttf-dejavu-core/README                                         OK
/usr/share/doc/ttf-dejavu-core/changelog.Debian.gz                            OK
/usr/share/doc/ttf-dejavu-core/copyright                                      OK
/usr/share/doc/ttf-dejavu-core/langcover.txt.gz                               OK
/usr/share/doc/ttf-dejavu-core/status.txt.gz                                  OK
/usr/share/doc/ttf-dejavu-core/unicover.txt.gz                                OK
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/ttf-dejavu/DejaVuSans-Bold.ttf                      OK
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/ttf-dejavu/DejaVuSans.ttf                           OK
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/ttf-dejavu/DejaVuSansMono-Bold.ttf                  OK
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/ttf-dejavu/DejaVuSansMono.ttf                       OK
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/ttf-dejavu/DejaVuSerif-Bold.ttf                     OK
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/ttf-dejavu/DejaVuSerif.ttf                          OK
11.10

9 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    Turns out the ttf-ubuntu-font-family Install ttf-ubuntu-font-family package somehow didn't get installed. Immediately after installing that package, the terminal font switched to the Ubuntu Monospace font and everything was readable again.

    • 19

  2. Open your terminal Go to Edit-->Profile Preferences and in general tab check "Use System fixed width font"

    • 3

  3. I have seen this kind of problem in my friend's gnome terminal.. just go to edit --> profiles and change the settings of the font of your terminal.. it should solve your problem.. :)

    • 2

  4. Had the same problem. This may be related. Bug #1166125

    Removing package pango-graphite fixed the problem for me:

    sudo apt-get purge pango-graphite
    • 2

    1. sudo apt-get install gnome-tweak-tool

    2. goto tweak tool

    3. goto fonts>monospace> select ubuntu mono regular 13pts

    • 1

  6. Go to Software Center and remove 'monospace font for pretty code listings and for the terminal'.

    If that doesn't do it for you, try to remove Terminal (gnome_terminal), log out and log in and install the Terminal(gnome-terminal).

    • 0

  7. I fixed this issue by running: gconf-editor /apps/gnome-terminal/profiles/Default

    and unchecking "Use System Font"

    • 0

  8. I fixed mine by using custom font monospace regular on all fronts.

    • 0

  9. I use ZSH and this was happening to me when using autocomplete.

    The solution was to add this to ~/.zshrc.:

    export LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8

    If you'd like to understand more, I recommend reading https://stackoverflow.com/questions/30479607/explain-the-effects-of-export-lang-lc-ctype-lc-all

    • 0