[solved] after emerge, terminal doesn't correctly visualize

ad_meis · Last edited by ad_meis on Mon Dec 03, 2012 6:52 pm; edited 1 time in total

Dear All,

I had a few update (say, the update of 3 weeks) without restart my laptop.

Today after a reboot, I don't visualize correctly characters when writing in a terminal (Xfce Terminal Emulator).

I dont know much how to explain this... Simply when I open the terminal and write in there, it's not possible to recognize the characters I type.
Other applications (ie firefox) seems to work and visualize things correctly

Any suggestions? What should I check?

ad_meis · Posted: Thu Nov 29, 2012 10:46 pm Post subject:

Is there at least a way to see the latest installed packages ?
I suspect some X package got some problem... is there a way to see the latest emerge (both New and Upgrade)? Anywhere in /var/log?

VoidMage · Watchman Joined: 14 Oct 2006 Posts: 6196

There should be /var/log/emerge.log.

But, translation issues aside, what do you mean by "I don't visualize correctly" ?

ad_meis · Posted: Fri Nov 30, 2012 8:32 am Post subject:

Thanks for your answer. I started looking into /var/log/emerge.log (so far I could not get much from there)

The weird behaviors that I report is the following (I try to be as precise as possible):

1) When I type characters in a shell (terminal), they do not appear correctly on the screen. The pixel making up a character are all messed up. If I type "ddd" I cannot recognize those three characters on the screen. Also there are "stains" of green over the sequence of characters. It's like if the cursor (which is green) left some "stains" on the characters

2) I use xfce. In the top and bottom panel I have the symbols of various application, i.e. CPU graph, battery status, skype, etc etc. Also this symbols are not visualized correctly.

I tries remerging the base xfce packages (xfce4-meta xfce4-panel xfce4-session xfconf), but it did not help.

Thanks again for your help

ad_meis · Posted: Fri Nov 30, 2012 8:52 am Post subject:

Let me also add this.
I use gv -- An X11 user interface for Ghostscript. I use it to visualize scientific plots.
Well, I cannot correctly visualize the plots as well.
I ll try with a re-emerge of X11... it should do no harm, right?

VoidMage · Watchman Joined: 14 Oct 2006 Posts: 6196

Other than the line about gv, where it might be proper, the more correct term would be "displayed".

But anyway, while most of those programs are gtk+, gv is not, which suggests a problem with the driver.
Pastebin your xorg log. If it's an intel card, update to xf86-video-intel 2.20.14 - there was a significant problem with sna fixed.

ad_meis · Posted: Sun Dec 02, 2012 6:26 pm Post subject:

Dear VoidMage, and all forum readers,

thanks again for the answer. Also thanks for the tip, "display" is indeed the right word.

I have emerged xf86-video-intel 2.20.14, but it did not solve my problem: it is still not possible to display correctly on the screen the characters that I type.

Here is my Xorg.0.log http://pastebin.com/rUtMUg9n
(at the very end, it mentions some problem with the synaptics touchpad, but I have no problem with it)

ad_meis · Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2012 6:53 pm Post subject:

I cannot really explain what did the trick...
I updated the kernel (from 3.0.0 to 3.5.7) and re-emerged intel as well as other drivers.