Font Display of Gnome GUI broken after recent update

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Today I updated my Gentoo box, these packages are updated:

Sun Dec 11 09:33:27 2022 >>> gui-libs/wlroots-0.15.1
     Sun Dec 11 11:54:42 2022 >>> sys-devel/gcc-12.2.1_p20221210
     Sun Dec 11 12:10:24 2022 >>> sys-devel/llvm-common-15.0.5
     Sun Dec 11 12:10:40 2022 >>> app-arch/bzip3-1.1.8
     Sun Dec 11 12:10:54 2022 >>> app-text/tree-2.0.4
     Sun Dec 11 12:11:00 2022 >>> virtual/editor-0-r4
     Sun Dec 11 12:11:28 2022 >>> app-arch/xz-utils-5.2.9
     Sun Dec 11 12:11:42 2022 >>> dev-libs/libpcre2-10.40-r1
     Sun Dec 11 12:11:57 2022 >>> media-libs/tiff-4.4.0-r2
     Sun Dec 11 12:13:03 2022 >>> sys-apps/coreutils-9.1-r1
     Sun Dec 11 12:13:31 2022 >>> dev-libs/nss-3.86
     Sun Dec 11 12:13:36 2022 >>> dev-perl/TermReadKey-2.380.0-r1
     Sun Dec 11 12:14:34 2022 >>> dev-libs/openssl-1.1.1s
     Sun Dec 11 12:14:44 2022 >>> sys-devel/clang-common-15.0.5
     Sun Dec 11 12:14:49 2022 >>> dev-util/vulkan-headers-1.3.231
     Sun Dec 11 12:15:06 2022 >>> sys-libs/libomp-15.0.5
     Sun Dec 11 12:15:25 2022 >>> dev-util/ccache-4.6.3
     Sun Dec 11 12:15:31 2022 >>> x11-base/xorg-proto-2022.2
     Sun Dec 11 12:15:36 2022 >>> dev-libs/wayland-protocols-1.30
     Sun Dec 11 12:15:46 2022 >>> x11-libs/pixman-0.42.2
     Sun Dec 11 12:20:08 2022 >>> dev-lang/python-3.10.9
     Sun Dec 11 12:20:29 2022 >>> dev-libs/libxml2-2.10.3-r1
     Sun Dec 11 12:20:41 2022 >>> dev-libs/libxslt-1.1.37-r1
     Sun Dec 11 12:21:55 2022 >>> sys-apps/systemd-251.8
     Sun Dec 11 12:22:22 2022 >>> sys-apps/sed-4.9
     Sun Dec 11 12:22:27 2022 >>> dev-python/gpep517-11
     Sun Dec 11 12:26:56 2022 >>> dev-lang/python-3.11.1
     Sun Dec 11 12:27:05 2022 >>> x11-libs/libdrm-2.4.114
     Sun Dec 11 12:27:13 2022 >>> x11-libs/libXau-1.0.10
     Sun Dec 11 12:27:22 2022 >>> x11-libs/libxshmfence-1.3.1
     Sun Dec 11 12:27:28 2022 >>> dev-python/charset_normalizer-3.0.1
     Sun Dec 11 12:27:33 2022 >>> dev-util/gdbus-codegen-2.74.3
     Sun Dec 11 12:27:39 2022 >>> x11-misc/xkeyboard-config-2.37
     Sun Dec 11 12:28:04 2022 >>> app-arch/libarchive-3.6.1-r1
     Sun Dec 11 12:28:11 2022 >>> x11-libs/libpciaccess-0.17
     Sun Dec 11 12:28:33 2022 >>> dev-util/glslang-1.3.231-r2
     Sun Dec 11 12:28:42 2022 >>> x11-libs/libfontenc-1.1.6
     Sun Dec 11 12:29:59 2022 >>> app-crypt/mit-krb5-1.20.1
     Sun Dec 11 12:30:07 2022 >>> x11-apps/rgb-1.1.0
     Sun Dec 11 12:30:14 2022 >>> dev-libs/libevdev-1.13.0
     Sun Dec 11 12:30:19 2022 >>> dev-python/alabaster-0.7.12-r1
     Sun Dec 11 12:30:24 2022 >>> dev-python/imagesize-1.4.1
     Sun Dec 11 12:30:29 2022 >>> dev-python/snowballstemmer-2.2.0-r1
     Sun Dec 11 12:30:35 2022 >>> dev-python/pytz-2022.6
     Sun Dec 11 12:30:46 2022 >>> x11-libs/libXfont2-2.0.6
     Sun Dec 11 12:30:57 2022 >>> dev-python/Babel-2.11.0
     Sun Dec 11 12:31:03 2022 >>> app-portage/gentoolkit-0.6.1-r3
     Sun Dec 11 12:31:38 2022 >>> sys-kernel/vanilla-sources-6.0.12
     Sun Dec 11 12:31:48 2022 >>> x11-libs/xcb-util-wm-0.4.2
     Sun Dec 11 12:31:58 2022 >>> x11-libs/xcb-util-renderutil-0.3.10
     Sun Dec 11 12:32:06 2022 >>> x11-libs/xcb-util-keysyms-0.4.1
     Sun Dec 11 12:32:16 2022 >>> x11-libs/libXext-1.3.5
     Sun Dec 11 12:32:25 2022 >>> x11-libs/libXrender-0.9.11
     Sun Dec 11 12:32:35 2022 >>> x11-libs/libxkbfile-1.1.1
     Sun Dec 11 12:32:44 2022 >>> media-libs/libglvnd-1.5.0
     Sun Dec 11 12:32:55 2022 >>> x11-libs/libXmu-1.1.4
     Sun Dec 11 12:33:03 2022 >>> x11-libs/libXxf86vm-1.1.5
     Sun Dec 11 12:33:14 2022 >>> x11-libs/libXft-2.3.6
     Sun Dec 11 12:33:22 2022 >>> x11-libs/libXinerama-1.1.5
     Sun Dec 11 12:33:32 2022 >>> x11-libs/libXtst-1.2.4
     Sun Dec 11 12:34:01 2022 >>> media-video/pipewire-0.3.61
     Sun Dec 11 12:34:08 2022 >>> media-libs/vulkan-loader-1.3.231
     Sun Dec 11 12:34:35 2022 >>> dev-libs/glib-2.74.3-r1
     Sun Dec 11 12:35:08 2022 >>> net-print/cups-2.4.2-r6
     Sun Dec 11 12:54:34 2022 >>> sys-devel/llvm-15.0.5
     Sun Dec 11 12:56:44 2022 >>> media-libs/mesa-22.2.3
     Sun Dec 11 12:57:05 2022 >>> x11-base/xwayland-22.1.5
     Sun Dec 11 12:58:20 2022 >>> media-video/ffmpeg-4.4.3
     Sun Dec 11 12:58:29 2022 >>> media-libs/freeglut-3.4.0
     Sun Dec 11 12:59:28 2022 >>> app-i18n/ibus-1.5.27
     Sun Dec 11 13:00:20 2022 >>> dev-lang/ruby-2.7.7
     Sun Dec 11 16:47:31 2022 >>> dev-ruby/racc-1.6.0
     Sun Dec 11 16:47:39 2022 >>> x11-libs/xcb-util-image-0.4.1
     Sun Dec 11 16:47:48 2022 >>> x11-libs/xcb-util-cursor-0.1.4
     Sun Dec 11 16:47:58 2022 >>> gui-libs/wlroots-0.16.0
     Sun Dec 11 17:04:41 2022 >>> sys-devel/clang-15.0.5
     Sun Dec 11 17:04:58 2022 >>> sys-libs/compiler-rt-15.0.5
     Sun Dec 11 17:05:37 2022 >>> sys-libs/compiler-rt-sanitizers-15.0.5
     Sun Dec 11 17:05:41 2022 >>> sys-devel/clang-runtime-15.0.5
     Sun Dec 11 17:06:36 2022 >>> sys-devel/lld-15.0.5
     Sun Dec 11 17:06:41 2022 >>> dev-python/sphinxcontrib-applehelp-1.0.2-r1
     Sun Dec 11 17:06:47 2022 >>> dev-python/sphinxcontrib-devhelp-1.0.2-r1
     Sun Dec 11 17:06:52 2022 >>> dev-python/sphinxcontrib-jsmath-1.0.1-r2
     Sun Dec 11 17:06:57 2022 >>> dev-python/sphinxcontrib-htmlhelp-2.0.0-r1
     Sun Dec 11 17:07:03 2022 >>> dev-python/sphinxcontrib-serializinghtml-1.1.5-r1
     Sun Dec 11 17:07:08 2022 >>> dev-python/sphinxcontrib-qthelp-1.0.3-r1
     Sun Dec 11 17:07:15 2022 >>> dev-python/sphinx-5.3.0
     Sun Dec 11 17:07:32 2022 >>> sys-fs/btrfs-progs-6.0.2
     Sun Dec 11 18:15:04 2022 >>> net-libs/webkit-gtk-2.38.2
     Sun Dec 11 19:00:16 2022 >>> www-client/firefox-107.0.1
     Sun Dec 11 19:01:34 2022 >>> mail-client/evolution-3.44.4-r4

After reboot, large parts of the text display are broken. I can’t even make a screenshot, can not find the screenshot tool on desktop, and launching gnome-screenshot from terminal seems not to work. Well terminal and Firefox works at least still. Asking google gives 16.04 - gnome icons messed up on top bar - show white blocks - Ask Ubuntu, and indeed using the font tool to set scaling from my initial 1.80 to 2.0 fixes it temporary. Then, setting it back to 1.80 was still OK, but now after reboot all is broken again. Well, at least I have a list of the packages that have been updated, and I am using btrfs which in principle allows restoring the last snapshot. The GDM start screen is broken too, for the field where I have to type my user password, the hinting text is broken.

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Actually letting font scale at 2.0 does fix it only up to the next reboot. After reboot text display is again broken, even in GDM start screen.

I forgot to mention that I today also updated the linux kernel from 6.0.8 to 6.0.12, but I can not imagine that this can be the reason. And I am using wayland.

And no, selecting other fonts does only help temporary, I changed to DejaVu, but after log out and in again, text is again broken.

[EDIT] I had some hope that only the home directory may be corrupted, like font cache. So I created a new user and logged in from GDM into that account. But problem persists. So one of the updated packages seems to be broken.

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Was already going to do a screenshot with my smartphone at least, but now google found this, which looks exactly like my issue: Certain characters disappear in gnome-shell UI (glyph cache corruption?) (#2389) · Issues · GNOME / gnome-shell · GitLab

OK, then we can continue debugging tomorrow.

And it is not Kernel related, I booted in old 6.0.8 again, and have same issue. And latest mesa-22.3.0 does not help. And it is for AMDGPU.

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I have finally fixed it. It seems to be an issue of using LTO (Gentoo-LTO) together with the new Mold linker. After uncommenting the use of mold in make.conf, recompiling following packages, and rebooting, it works again.

emerge -av --oneshot media-libs/mesa media-libs/freeglut x11-base/xwayland media-libs/vulkan-loader
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That’s just luck, I’m afraid: The Mesa issues referenced in the gnome-shell issue above do not mention mold. However, the issue does randomly become (un)reproducible due to so far unknown factors.

The only known reliable workaround so far is to disable LTO for the Mesa build.

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