Font changes after update. Don't know exactly how to change them back

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1

Hey folks. After an update last night the fonts changed in my entire desktop environment. Including my minimal interface and terminal fonts.
Now, I use dwm as my main WM, and have cinnamon available for when I need a more complete DE.
However, I’m not entirely sure where to update the system’s font settings.
I’m pretty sure it has to do with a Xorg setting, but the ecosystem is a bit difficult to understand. I see a lot of information on how to add and list the fonts available in my system, but I’m not sure how my system picks up which fonts to use where.

Can you guys help me understand how to set up my fonts properly?

2

See here.

Also look at the related aticles.

3

I’ve got the same issue, I’ve had a look through /etc/var/pacman.log and the only thing I can really see if is [2020-08-05T18:11:59+0100] [ALPM] warning: /etc/fonts/fonts.conf installed as /etc/fonts/fonts.conf.pacnew. My terminal font has changed along with the fonts on some websites which suggests some fonts might have been removed? A link to the font documentation doesn’t really help in this case.

Edit: so due to my poor copy and pasting I copied the wrong one, this was done again on the update that changed the fonts

[2022-02-15T14:20:23+0000] [ALPM] warning: /etc/fonts/fonts.conf installed as /etc/fonts/fonts.conf.pacnew
[2022-02-15T14:20:23+0000] [ALPM] upgraded fontconfig (2:2.13.94-2 -> 2:2.13.96-1)
4

That was 1.5 years ago and would (back then) not have changed anything unless you merged the two files or swapped one for the other.

5

Wrong.

I’ve admitted here that I have some of the worst google-fu on this planet (my babbling 2 yo. granddaughter would get better results than me, >50% of the time).

The fontconfig update changed the default fonts to Noto - as someone who spends ~50% of time in a terminal, it was an abhorrent change.

Well, 30+ years using linux, and I learned how to set my fonts, regardless of what the system defaults to. Yeah, took a bit of trial-and-error, but sometimes that’s how you have to roll.

Sigh…

$HOME/.config/fontconfig/fonts.conf

<fontconfig>
<alias>
    <family>serif</family>
    <prefer>
      <family>your_font</family>
    </prefer>
  </alias>
  <alias>
    <family>sans-serif</family>
    <prefer>
      <family>your font</family>
    </prefer>
  </alias>
  <alias>
    <family>monospace</family>
    <prefer>
      <family>your font</family>
    </prefer>
  </alias>
</fontconfig>

Even finer control is available.

6

Huuum, nice catch. I don’t have the warning and upgrade lines, but a few font hooks ran fontconfig cache was rebuilt.

[2022-02-16T20:01:58-0300] [ALPM] upgraded fontconfig (2:2.13.94-2 -> 2:2.13.96-1)
[2022-02-16T20:01:58-0300] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] Rebuilding fontconfig cache...
[2022-02-16T20:02:21-0300] [ALPM] upgraded lib32-fontconfig (2:2.13.94-1 -> 2:2.13.96-1)
[2022-02-16T20:02:21-0300] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] Rebuilding 32-bit fontconfig cache...
[2022-02-16T20:02:44-0300] [ALPM] upgraded noto-fonts-cjk (20211026-1 -> 20220126-1)
[2022-02-16T20:02:59-0300] [ALPM] running '40-fontconfig-config.hook'...
[2022-02-16T20:04:05-0300] [ALPM] running 'fontconfig.hook'...
[2022-02-16T20:04:05-0300] [ALPM] running 'fontconfig-32.hook'...
[2022-02-16T20:04:23-0300] [ALPM] running 'xorg-mkfontscale.hook'...

This is the command I ran, btw: grep font /var/log/pacman.log | grep 2022-02

7

I use DejaVu in my system. This was the second stable update in a row that changed my fonts to Noto.

The way I change them back is probably not correct, but it works until next update:

  • Find file /usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/60-latin.conf and open it up in sudoedit
  • In the <prefer> sections, move your favourite font to the top.
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