Icecat not displaying numbers, but letters display fine.

Icecat not displaying numbers, but letters display fine.

[Matthew Brooks]

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I recently switched away from using a full desktop environment to just xorg and a custom DE (specifically: DWM 6.1), and while most things work fine, icecat isn't showing any numbers at all, just blank spaces. Letters display fine.
The instructions for manually starting X instead of using a full DE where the ones posted in this "How To" here in July:
https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/help-guix/2018-07/msg00080.html

When I manually told icecat to use Unifont as the default font, some pages display numbers properly, though the address bar, tab title, and a few other UI things, still don't show any numbers, and some pages (such as the help archives: "https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/help-guix/") still don't display numbers, just completely empty spaces.

Note that this is *not* a case of missing glyphs where weird squares show up, this is completely empty space as if all the numbers do exist and are just invisible.

Also, if I use "Inspect Element" on a page with missing numbers, the numbers show up just fine in the inspect element area, but still not on the actual page.

I even manually went through icecat's about:config page, and manually changed every, single, font, listed anywhere to be Unifont, but numbers still mostly don't show up.

If I remove the icecat config folder (~/.mozilla) then no numbers show up at all, so it appears that it can't just be some weird conflict with any custom configuration of icecat.

I'll also specify that I'm just using a standard "en_US.UTF-8" locale, and the pages I've checked are all just standard English pages, so this shouldn't be some weird locale/encoding issue or anything.


I have a hunch that certain applications (Libreoffice and Emacs also seem to have font problems of their own, but I don't want to get into all that in this message) are expecting some kind of font and/or info that they're not getting on a bare-bones install, and thus either semi-fail to find fonts, and/or just always assume certain fonts exist without checking. This isn't based on anything concrete though, so it may be wildly off-base.


I have no idea what kind of info would be needed to troubleshoot this, so I've included what seems like the obvious basics below. If anyone needs more info, just let me know and I'll be happy to provide it.

Below are
Guix version:
script that starts xorg:
relevant bits from config.scm:
list of installed packages and version:
in that order.

Note that the config.scm section is also taken from the "How To", and I don't quite understand the changes it listed, so if something there looks screwy it probably is screwy and is not a deliberate choice, so please let me know if something there is wrong and/or ridiculous.

Anyway, system info follows:


guix version:
guix (GNU Guix) cc661cb348818da41e7f6ef3dc86bbb66f1e14a1


The script I'm using to start X (slightly modified from the aforementioned "how to") is this:
#!/home/matthewfbrooks/.guix-profile/bin/bash
VTNUM="vt$(fgconsole)"
$GUIX_PROFILE/bin/xinit -- $GUIX_PROFILE/bin/Xorg :0 $VTNUM -keeptty -configdir $GUIX_PROFILE/share/X11/xorg.conf.d -modulepath $GUIX_PROFILE/lib/xorg/modules


Relevant config.scm sections:
(use-modules (gnu) (gnu system nss) (srfi srfi-1) (gnu services desktop) (gnu services xorg))
(use-service-modules desktop)
(use-package-modules certs gnome)
...
<snip>
...
  (packages (cons* nss-certs gvfs %base-packages))
  
  (services
   (remove (lambda (service)
	     (eq? (service-kind service) slim-service-type))
   %desktop-services))


The packages and versions I have installed are:
aspell	0.60.6.1	out	/gnu/store/8qg0ff0qwj5d9c41kcj2pjalfmcq5p68-aspell-0.60.6.1
aspell-dict-en	2018.04.16-0	out	/gnu/store/iky1g9wlrd6fbnjl8spxnd1832j3qsl3-aspell-dict-en-2018.04.16-0
bash	4.4.19	out	/gnu/store/q4b3s9y4i0da36drp7zfq9yqcf43s47v-bash-4.4.19
claws-mail	3.17.1	out	/gnu/store/iinb1ndy5bhprsrg39zv5g9bmir231s5-claws-mail-3.17.1
cryptsetup	1.7.5	out	/gnu/store/al6cv0al263n00ml5gsyrhr71qjh89f0-cryptsetup-1.7.5
dwm	6.1	out	/gnu/store/qlxxjbzmy5rwzr7dwq4ba514wmjw5sii-dwm-6.1
emacs	26.1	out	/gnu/store/q6yzzqslwy8bn5qndz04wardlan7ay3k-emacs-26.1
feh	3.0	out	/gnu/store/z6arc1ii2rkhcvq6p8phd2jyaf1fgq2j-feh-3.0
ffmpeg	4.1	out	/gnu/store/k7wad1b301c0lf9cxnbp995x1bmvhprp-ffmpeg-4.1
font-gnu-unifont	11.0.02	out	/gnu/store/dhlilvir436cabna01vnac1ag4jbwixf-font-gnu-unifont-11.0.02
freetype	2.9	out	/gnu/store/ap7f3ak574a4vq18grrpak0dlkg5nfdc-freetype-2.9
gcc-toolchain	8.2.0	out	/gnu/store/7arj5zd8z78v67jk4bvhi17bm4xppjma-gcc-toolchain-8.2.0
gimp	2.10.6	out	/gnu/store/q04fvkvs319w2bq56sgskllz3rydpk6x-gimp-2.10.6
git	2.19.1	out	/gnu/store/gcmgfrwm7jhfsgqc9kiibifnc6if66gi-git-2.19.1
gnupg	2.2.11	out	/gnu/store/lyjdv9fm38gl32cscsymb3npqnq3zm48-gnupg-2.2.11
guile	2.2.4	out	/gnu/store/p9wm67w3rfw3hlb9iljgvsfn84mz4w9d-guile-2.2.4
guile-readline	2.2.3	out	/gnu/store/i0nqs30zn0bdij5zwagqx1chcdk460ai-guile-readline-2.2.3
icecat	60.3.0-gnu1	out	/gnu/store/x3nd9rnvccwfjl09ic0hs0rpzrbi6i0c-icecat-60.3.0-gnu1
inkscape	0.92.3	out	/gnu/store/j0bnvjpg1f3ws2k5z44d49ri5d1wiwnq-inkscape-0.92.3
keepassxc	2.3.4	out	/gnu/store/8piai9nfg5i996hv2vlkax6x39qhvbkf-keepassxc-2.3.4
libxft	2.3.2	out	/gnu/store/3831yvriyp3fkfiv9spvm53l1m1j6cdn-libxft-2.3.2
libxinerama	1.1.4	out	/gnu/store/8h498pmiqrkcn87dx1lqvl2lvsxc463c-libxinerama-1.1.4
links	2.17	out	/gnu/store/30nh3w8vy60zcfg6ri3xcs9gha2qqnc0-links-2.17
make	4.2.1	out	/gnu/store/l34x52d3mghschj7w7iap25sjrxh75ag-make-4.2.1
mc	4.8.20	out	/gnu/store/zgvk9k9rfwmk92mwc0179vz5klr7qadl-mc-4.8.20
openssh	7.9p1	out	/gnu/store/sl4rfsnh6mabx9a76yplx0k2wsm0s5gb-openssh-7.9p1
openvpn	2.4.6	out	/gnu/store/rll059nm02irxbp5is0zcsslzxbwh6bw-openvpn-2.4.6
p7zip	16.02	out	/gnu/store/h5iqyvpnnnixbr7pmckbhcqg9sfk12ni-p7zip-16.02
perl-image-exiftool	11.11	out	/gnu/store/bfhaqa3cj5jdzxji3vvxpbs69bjyp6fr-perl-image-exiftool-11.11
pinentry-qt	1.1.0	out	/gnu/store/26ba4cl7gakgvnc2f569s757acfgql45-pinentry-qt-1.1.0
pkg-config	0.29.2	out	/gnu/store/vjxqhnn5vf223prpkq6yk3vcjlvqdx15-pkg-config-0.29.2
python	3.6.5	out	/gnu/store/ld32bzn3dxjbd29v4i2p0jnaak31dssn-python-3.6.5
screen	4.6.2	out	/gnu/store/6w64bgpdb8kp256vkpz6jcmgh2mh0bfm-screen-4.6.2
sdl2	2.0.9	out	/gnu/store/9ca3cr12c2y8f9s1y8h6i6nar08fv0ps-sdl2-2.0.9
sdl2-image	2.0.3	out	/gnu/store/rn725gga8xsgf8rn930mdkiad2gy6jhz-sdl2-image-2.0.3
transset-df	6	out	/gnu/store/mig7a3wglvhwam4psdx7ni7akz0kd75n-transset-df-6
wget	1.19.5	out	/gnu/store/r2lzy5abk6lfwq83518vfikyra4570l4-wget-1.19.5
xcompmgr	1.1.7	out	/gnu/store/nmxq1aml69im6dzd2l227n9h4iqsi1bd-xcompmgr-1.1.7
xf86-input-evdev	2.10.6	out	/gnu/store/7ky32rvsdwarj3x51bdcc50nk60iyqgp-xf86-input-evdev-2.10.6
xf86-input-libinput	0.28.1	out	/gnu/store/sb1x573pfwd5sgqxhvmskwh3hrrj3qlp-xf86-input-libinput-0.28.1
xf86-input-synaptics	1.9.1	out	/gnu/store/xxc7bmsasgxf72zmf9i5324s9ywdz44f-xf86-input-synaptics-1.9.1
xf86-video-fbdev	0.5.0	out	/gnu/store/86hmsv1d4k2vmp4df99n2iw922h1jclp-xf86-video-fbdev-0.5.0
xf86-video-intel	2.99.917-11.0932a6b	out	/gnu/store/vb19sv13j175ic2m4rjfa017yqqdlq4l-xf86-video-intel-2.99.917-11.0932a6b
xinit	1.4.0	out	/gnu/store/68816g84f9cbf6ybzy9msh7fv2lf98xm-xinit-1.4.0
xorg-server	1.20.3	out	/gnu/store/xmpl6jq0ya9kkcvsv6hr7q0kxc31byim-xorg-server-1.20.3
xterm	335	out	/gnu/store/i2sjzx5il67ffb4xsak0m6nzsvsmjbsc-xterm-335

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