New bug, size 15 font clipped in many menus

[waylo]

I just upgraded to 9.2.1x86 from 9.1.9 and I've noticed that in many screens the top of the text is clipped.

Attached is a sample.

In the schedule view, the font is set to 15. Any other font size seems to scale just fine (even bigger fonts). The same result can be seen in some other on screen menus as well.

[wnjj]

FreetypeFontJNI.dll is now being compiled from source code for both 32 and 64-bit versions. Earlier V9 versions used the V7 DLL. Something must be different there. Can you try shutting down SageTV then backing up and replacing that DLL with one from an earlier version to see if that helps?

You can also try setting “ui/disable_freetype_fonts=true” in sage.properties.

[waylo]

Thanks for the rapid troubleshooting options!

I replaced FreetypeFontJNI.dll with the older one from 9.1.9 on the server install. YES! Success.

[wnjj]

Originally Posted by waylo

Thanks for the rapid troubleshooting options!

I replaced FreetypeFontJNI.dll with the older one from 9.1.9 on the server install. YES! Success.

That’s going to be a tough one to sort out. The source code for Freetype fonts is part of the native Linux environment (which is included in MinGW for the Windows build). In other words we have little to no control over it. There may be ways to adjust the SageTV graphics system to accommodate. I found some old revision notes from early version 7 that talked about clipped or offset glyphs.

[jerrym]

Originally Posted by wnjj

That’s going to be a tough one to sort out. The source code for Freetype fonts is part of the native Linux environment (which is included in MinGW for the Windows build). In other words we have little to no control over it. There may be ways to adjust the SageTV graphics system to accommodate. I found some old revision notes from early version 7 that talked about clipped or offset glyphs.

I also had this same issue on my Server instance. When I "upgraded" from 9.1.10 to 9.2.0 64 bit. The process that I used was I installed the 64 bit version, copied all of my 32 bit version to the 64 bit directory (changing all of the directory references), and then ran the 64 bit version again with a "Repair". Everything worked, but I had the same clipped font. At first I noticed it in Gemstone so I switched to the default STV and saw the same issue.

Ultimately, I just did a fresh install to get rid of the issue.

There must be something unique about the upgrade that causes the font issue where a clean install is not affected by it. Probably not helpful, but just letting you know that I was also affected by this and that it was tied to an upgrade.

[wnjj]

Originally Posted by jerrym

I also had this same issue on my Server instance. When I "upgraded" from 9.1.10 to 9.2.0 64 bit. The process that I used was I installed the 64 bit version, copied all of my 32 bit version to the 64 bit directory (changing all of the directory references), and then ran the 64 bit version again with a "Repair". Everything worked, but I had the same clipped font. At first I noticed it in Gemstone so I switched to the default STV and saw the same issue.

Ultimately, I just did a fresh install to get rid of the issue.

There must be something unique about the upgrade that causes the font issue where a clean install is not affected by it. Probably not helpful, but just letting you know that I was also affected by this and that it was tied to an upgrade.

That’s great info. I looked into this more and found there is a fontcache directory. I wonder if deleting or renaming that would solve it. That would force the “new” DLL to rebuild those files.

Waylo, if you wanted to try restoring the “new” DLL and rename the fontcache directory to see what happens that would prove it. Otherwise I’ll try to replicate it here.

[waylo]

Great troubleshooting, I'll try it when I get home.

[waylo]

Okay, I replaced the 9.2.1. dll to its original state, erased fontcache and restarted SageTV. Great, it worked!

I did the same on my windows client install with good results too.

BUT! On my Android client, all text became horribly garbled. I don't know why that would be. (I also realized that the fix on the server did not fix the clipped text on the Android client).

Since I rely on the Android client quite a bit, I changed it back on the server to the old fix (rather have it clipped that garbled).

[wnjj]

Originally Posted by waylo

Okay, I replaced the 9.2.1. dll to its original state, erased fontcache and restarted SageTV. Great, it worked!

I did the same on my windows client install with good results too.

BUT! On my Android client, all text became horribly garbled. I don't know why that would be. (I also realized that the fix on the server did not fix the clipped text on the Android client).

Since I rely on the Android client quite a bit, I changed it back on the server to the old fix (rather have it clipped that garbled).

I'm not quite clear. So clearing the cache works fine with the new DLL in 9.2.1 on the Windows clients but the same DLL has garbled fonts on the miniclient? Then when you switched back to the old DLL, something is still clipped or all is well?

[waylo]

Sorry I wasn't so clear. An attempt to clarify:

1. Changing back the old .dll, OR removing the fontcache folder and keeping the new .dll, fixes the characters on the machine the change is made. So both my x32 server and x32 client can be fixed with either method.

2. I also use the Android miniclient on my Nvidia Shield. I'm not sure how the fonts work in this implementation. I will probably need to do more experimentation here to confirm these observations, but here are the scenarios so far:
a. When the server was first upgraded, the type was clipped on the server, and also on the miniclient
b. When the server was fixed with the old .dll, the type was fixed on the server, but still clipped on the miniclient.
c. When the server was fixed by clearing the fontcache folder (keeping the new .dll), the miniclient had horribly garbled text. I had to restore the old .dll to the server to get readable text on the Android miniclient.

If you've ever followed the android miniclient threads, similar garbled text occurs when memory is an issue with the shield. Seems like the app really doesn't like being kept open in the background. I do not know if this is a related bug or not.