[WONTFIX] Formula only shows small squares instead of glyphs

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blaap
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[WONTFIX] Formula only shows small squares instead of glyphs

Post by blaap »

When I try to enter a formula like sqrt(a+b), the display shows no root symbol and no + symbol. All formula symbols are replaced by empty white squares. Sometimes a floppy disk symbol is shown. The formula's show up correctly in OO2.3.0.
After I choose the catalog I see the greek symbol but I only see ALPHA and BETA correct (A and B). Nearly all other characters are missing.

OS=CentOS4.7
installed from OOo_3.0.0_LinuxIntel_install_en-US.tar.gz

This looks like a missing font issue, but I have no clue were to start debug. The only nonstandard way of installation is that I re-homed the RPMS:

rpm -vh --install --prefix /opt/openoffice.org3 *.rpm

I have both versions of OO installed to have a safe path back when issues (like this particular problem) occurs. I have been using OO3 for a couple of weeks now and this is the only remaining problem that prevents me from using it.

Installation on Windows XP works as expected.

Thanks for any help!
Last edited by blaap on Tue Dec 02, 2008 11:19 pm, edited 2 times in total.
astroskeptic
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Re: Formula only shows small squares instead of glyphs

Post by astroskeptic »

I just installed OOO 3.0.0 on XP and have the exact same problem. (example: a=b displays as: a floppy_glyph b). I tried changing the default font but to no avail. Any workarounds are appreciated. Thanks.
OOo 3.0.X on Ms Windows XP
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acknak
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Re: Formula only shows small squares instead of glyphs

Post by acknak »

What happens if (in Writer) you do Insert > Special Character, then select the "OpenSymbol" font?

That is the font that OOo uses for many of it's Math symbols, and it's shipped and installed with OOo.

You should see something like this:
opensymbol.png
opensymbol.png (8.86 KiB) Viewed 8215 times
You should be able to drag the scrollbar down and see a lot more symbols beyond those in the screenshot.

If that doesn't seem to be working, then maybe there's some post-install script that isn't working correctly. You might try, as a workaround, copying the fonts that are packaged with OOo into the .fonts directory in your home directory. That should at least allow OOo to use the fonts, although I would still worry that other details might still be broken--it would be better to fix the underlying problem.
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blaap
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Re: Formula only shows small squares instead of glyphs

Post by blaap »

Nothing happens. There is a symbol font but no opensymbol. Might it be that some rpm was missing in the tarball? I tried in OO2.3 and indeed the opensymbol is present there (but probably part of the OO2.3 installation and not system wide). I tried to search for files name like opensymbol on the entire filesystem, but have not found a thing. I listed the content of all installed RPMs and found no indication of a file for opensymbol. I search for opensymbol using yum, but no luck. Any idea how to solve this?
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acknak
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Re: Formula only shows small squares instead of glyphs

Post by acknak »

Here's what I see:

$ find -L /opt/openoffice.org.latest -iname 'op*.ttf'
/opt/openoffice.org.latest/basis-link/share/fonts/truetype/opens___.ttf
$ rpm -qf `!!`
rpm -qf `find -L /opt/openoffice.org.latest -iname 'op*.ttf'`
ooobasis3.0-ooofonts-3.0.0-9358.i586
$ tar tvzf /mnt/extra/packages/OOo_3.0.0rc4_20080930_LinuxIntel_install_en-US.tar.gz | grep fonts.*\.rpm
-rw-rw-r-- root/root 5017903 2008-09-30 09:15 OOO300_m9_native_packed-1_en-US.9358/RPMS/ooobasis3.0-ooofonts-3.0.0-9358.i586.rpm

Your details will likely be different; the parts I've highlighted in blue should be the same on your system.
AOO4/LO5 • Linux • Fedora 23
blaap
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Re: Formula only shows small squares instead of glyphs

Post by blaap »

Hi Acknak

Thanks for your swift reply! I already noticed you post a lot on this forum when I was searching for an answer :lol:
The rpm and font is indeed installed. I copied the file to my .fonts directory and math works again. The opencore font is now present! As a side effect I learned the !! syntax, handy!
The problem is however not solved. The installation is meant for dozens of users. Every users starts openoffice from the /opt directory. This directory is NFS mounted on all client workstations. You can perhaps imagine I don't want to instruct all users to copy a font to their home directory to make things work. I suspect that during installation a font path is not correctly set to point to /opt/openoffice.org3/openoffice.org/basis3.0/share/fonts/truetype/opens___.ttf
Do you have any clue how to fix this?

Thanks again for you help.
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acknak
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Re: Formula only shows small squares instead of glyphs

Post by acknak »

I think you're on the right track, but I don't know what to suggest. The font is packaged and installed as part of OOo, and I expect it should be registered internally with OOo, so that any user who can run OOo should also have access to this font.

If the file is unpacked in the correct place, then I would suspect that one of the post-install scripts--stored in the rpm archive and run automatically when the package is installed--is failing to do it's job completely. That's just my guess, and I have no knowledge of how that might work, so you already know as much as I do.

You best source of help at this point may be a CentOS board/list, as I suspect there is some system-level hiccup that prevents the install from registering the font.

If/when you find a solution, please post a follow-up here, so others can know what you found.
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blaap
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Re: Formula only shows small squares instead of gly

Post by blaap »

It appears to be a known bug related to Fontconfig if it is older than v2.4
This is the case for my CentOS4.7 installations. CentOS5.2 works OK.

http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=94146
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acknak
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Re: [WONTFIX] Formula only shows small squares instead of glyphs

Post by acknak »

Great! Thanks for that information.
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astroskeptic
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Re: [WONTFIX] Formula only shows small squares instead of glyphs

Post by astroskeptic »

Mysteriously my 3.0.0 installation on XP is now working properly, one day after installation with no changes on my part. Either this is an intermittant problem, or the app has reconfigured/updated itself. Is fontconfig used in the windows build and if so, is it something I can upgrade if this problem returns? Thanks.
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acknak
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Re: [WONTFIX] Formula only shows small squares instead of glyphs

Post by acknak »

Fontconfig is Linux-only as far as I know.
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