Black squares instead of characters

[biber]

I get black squares instead of font characters in UaExpert:




Version: UaExpert-1.6.2-439-x86_64.AppImage
OS: Fedora 36 64bit
Stdout:
Fontconfig warning: no <cachedir> elements found. Check configuration.
Fontconfig warning: adding <cachedir>/usr/lib/fontconfig/cache</cachedir>
Fontconfig warning: adding <cachedir prefix="xdg">fontconfig</cachedir>

Im happy to provide more info if needed.

[Support Team]

Hi,

it seems like your Fedora system does not allow access to the system fonts, hence UaExpert GUI made with Qt cannot access the fonts and has no characters to display. This is most likely a configuration error on your Fedora due to running AppArmor or Firejail.

We are currently installing a Fedora test system to reproduce the isssue.

[biber]

Hi,

thank you for looking into this.
I have neither AppArmor nor Firejail installed and SELinux does not report any denials. Any other application installed via Appimage does work fine too.

I tried older Versions of UaExpert and they work! Bisceting this issue by hand shows that Version 1.5.1 is the last Version that works for me. So it seems that Version 1.6.0 introduced the issue.

[Support Team]

Hi,

thank you for further investigation. We tested with the Fedora and (as you said) the access permission (Firejail or other) seem not to be the reason. Our second guess it the "old" QT version that we are using in UaExpert, but that is also not the cause of the issue, the even older 1.5.x series works fine. There might be something else missing in the app image, from our 1.5.x series to the 1.6.x series of UaExpert, which is present on all other Linux Distros, where the app image works like a charm. We experienced this only in combination with Fedora so far.
Still need further investigation.

[cybusFA]

Could you please provide the download list for older versions so that we can bypass this issue?

I am having the same problem and can't find any download link for previous working versions.

Thanks!

[hvbrand]

Same here. Fedora 37 shows only black squares.

[Support Team]

Hi,

the Fedora is missing some old font packages (which are present in other distros, like the Debian we typically use).

You can try to make it work with this approach:

$ ./UaExpert-1.6.0-414-x86_64.AppImage --appimage-extract $ cd squashfs-root $ scp $RHEL8/usr/lib64/libfontconfig.so.1.12.0 usr/lib $ cd usr/lib $ ln -s libfontconfig.so.1.12.0 libfontconfig.so $ ln -s libfontconfig.so.1.12.0 libfontconfig.so.1 $ cd - $ ./AppRun

[cybusFA]

I tried your approach and it is still not working.

I am now on Fedora 37. Could you please provide a working AppImage or at least an older version where there was no issue with the fonts?

Thanks.

[thorseye]

Did you find a solution for this? I've got the same issue, running Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.1 (Plow).

[Support Team]

Hi,

no, unfortunately there is currently no solution, except using the (old) UaExpert v1.5.x series. Long term customers will have that older version in their purchased delivery folder. Other alternative, insted of using Redhat/Fedora, is to use Debian, Ubuntu, or the like where UaExpert v1.6.x series works like a charm. Furthermore you could use the Windows edition of UaExpert which runs on all Desktop-Windows from WinXPsp3 up to Win11 including the related Windows-Server OSes and conenct to your UA servers remotely.

On the mid term we will update the UaExpert to modern QT library, hoping for better compatibility with different Linux distros.