No text in Firefox

[finotti]

This might a issue with only my system (which is actually running aptosid, not siduction), but just in case: after a DU today, the site text does not appear in several sites under Firefox, even siduction's own site, as one can see in the attachment.  

I am 99% sure nothing was removed with the DU.  Starting in safe mode also does not fix the issue.  I also tried to change the default font in Firefox, but it did not help either.

Does anyone else see this, or is it just my system?

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# apt policy firefox
firefox:
  Installed: 112.0-1
  Candidate: 112.0-1
  Version table:
*** 112.0-1 500
        500 http://debian-archive.trafficmanager.net/debian unstable/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status



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# inxi -v3
System:
  Host: debian Kernel: 6.2.0-10.slh.1-aptosid-amd64 arch: x86_64 bits: 64
    compiler: gcc v: 12.2.0 Desktop: KDE Plasma v: 5.27.2 Distro: aptosid
    2013-01 - kde-full - (201305050307) base: Debian GNU/Linux 12 (bookworm)
Machine:
  Type: Desktop System: ASUS product: All Series v: N/A serial: N/A
  Mobo: ASUSTeK model: Z87-PRO v: Rev 1.xx serial: 140120922701297
    UEFI: American Megatrends v: 2103 date: 08/18/2014
Battery:
  Device-1: hidpp_battery_0 model: Logitech M310
    charge: 55% (should be ignored) status: discharging
  Device-2: wacom_battery_0 model: Wacom Intuos S charge: 0% status: N/A
CPU:
  Info: quad core model: Intel Core i7-4771 bits: 64 type: MT MCP
    arch: Haswell rev: 3 cache: L1: 256 KiB L2: 1024 KiB L3: 8 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 3530 high: 3704 min/max: 800/3900 cores: 1: 3498 2: 3499
    3: 3498 4: 3498 5: 3498 6: 3545 7: 3503 8: 3704 bogomips: 55969
  Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
Graphics:
  Device-1: AMD Cape Verde PRO [Radeon HD 7750/8740 / R7 250E]
    vendor: VISIONTEK driver: amdgpu v: kernel arch: GCN-1 bus-ID: 01:00.0
    temp: 49.0 C
  Device-2: Logitech Webcam C270 type: USB driver: snd-usb-audio,uvcvideo
    bus-ID: 3-3.3:8
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.7 with: Xwayland v: 22.1.9 driver: X:
    loaded: amdgpu dri: radeonsi gpu: amdgpu resolution: 1: 1920x1080~60Hz
    2: 1920x1080~60Hz
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6 Mesa 22.3.6 renderer: AMD Radeon Graphics (verde LLVM
    15.0.6 DRM 3.49 6.2.0-10.slh.1-aptosid-amd64) direct-render: Yes
Network:
  Device-1: Intel Ethernet I217-V vendor: ASUSTeK driver: e1000e v: kernel
    port: f040 bus-ID: 00:19.0
  IF: eth0 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: e0:3f:49:a3:4c:a6
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 13.88 TiB used: 7.16 TiB (51.6%)
Info:
  Processes: 396 Uptime: 4h 58m Memory: 31.3 GiB used: 20.61 GiB (65.8%)
  Init: systemd target: graphical (5) Compilers: gcc: 12.2.0 Packages: 7465
  Shell: Bash v: 5.2.15 inxi: 3.3.26



[edlin]

There are no abnormalities here.

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apt policy firefox
firefox:
 Installiert:           112.0-1
 Installationskandidat: 112.0-1
 Versionstabelle:
*** 112.0-1 500
       500 https://deb.debian.org/debian unstable/main amd64 Packages
       100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

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inxi -v3
System:
 Host: Devil Kernel: 6.2.11-1-siduction-amd64 arch: x86_64 bits: 64
   compiler: gcc v: 12.2.0 Desktop: KDE Plasma v: 5.27.2 Distro: siduction
   22.1.2 Masters_of_War - kde - (202303151559) base: Debian GNU/Linux 12
   (bookworm)
Machine:
 Type: Desktop System: ASUS product: N/A v: N/A serial: <superuser required>
 Mobo: ASUSTeK model: ROG STRIX B550-F GAMING v: Rev X.0x
   serial: <superuser required> UEFI: American Megatrends v: 3002
   date: 02/23/2023
Battery:
 Device-1: hidpp_battery_0 model: Logitech Marathon Mouse/Performance Plus
   M705 charge: 55% (should be ignored) status: discharging
CPU:
 Info: 6-core model: AMD Ryzen 5 5600G with Radeon Graphics bits: 64
   type: MT MCP arch: Zen 3 rev: 0 cache: L1: 384 KiB L2: 3 MiB L3: 16 MiB
 Speed (MHz): avg: 1891 high: 4200 min/max: 1400/4807 boost: disabled
   cores: 1: 1400 2: 4200 3: 1400 4: 4198 5: 1400 6: 1400 7: 1400 8: 1400
   9: 1400 10: 1700 11: 1400 12: 1400 bogomips: 100804
 Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm
Graphics:
 Device-1: AMD Cezanne [Radeon Vega Series / Radeon Mobile Series]
   vendor: ASUSTeK driver: amdgpu v: kernel arch: GCN-5 bus-ID: 0a:00.0
   temp: 28.0 C
 Display: wayland server: X.Org v: 1.22.1.9 with: Xwayland v: 22.1.9
   compositor: kwin_wayland driver: X: loaded: amdgpu
   unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,vesa dri: radeonsi gpu: amdgpu
   resolution: 1920x1200~60Hz
 API: OpenGL v: 4.6 Mesa 22.3.6 renderer: AMD Radeon Graphics (renoir LLVM
   15.0.6 DRM 3.49 6.2.11-1-siduction-amd64) direct-render: Yes
...

edlin

[finotti]

Thanks, edlin!  I suppose it is a problem with my system then...  

It seems like it happened with version 112 coming in.  Does anyone have any ideas on what could cause it?

[unklarer]

Why don't you rename everything in the $HOME of FF and then test:

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apt update; apt install --reinstall firefox

[Pip]

Is there no text in Firefox, or is the text just the same colour as the background (something I've encountered in the past since I have dark background/white text in my set up: sites will define the background of their pages but assume that the text will be black)?

[finotti]

The text is there, but it does not show. I can click on links and select text.  But even when selected, the text does not appear.

I tried switching from dark to light theme, but it had no effect.

I also tried changing the default font, but it also did not help...

It also only affects some websites, but not others.

[Pip]

Make a note of the site name.
Close down Firefox.
mv ~/.mozilla{,.old}
Start Firefox. Copy in the site name.
If you see text again, there's something with your Firefox configuration that's causing the issue - an add-on or theme, perhaps.

[finotti]

Thanks, pip!  I had already tried that without success.  But I found something that worked: https://www.reddit.com/r/flatpak/comments/g1owya/firefox_some_workaround_for_fonts/

It seems I needed to do:

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# apt purge xfonts-75dpi xfonts-100dpi


Everything worked after that.

Before purging, we would get, for instance:

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$ fc-match Helvetica

helvR12-ISO8859-1.pcf.gz: "Helvetica" "Regular"


After:

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$ fc-match Helvetica

NimbusSans-Regular.otf: "Nimbus Sans" "Regular"


Thanks all for the help!