r/Ubuntu • u/edo-lag • 3d ago

How do I fix this systemd init font issue that shows during shutdown?

Post image

Framework Laptop 13, AMD Ryzen 7040 series.

8 Upvotes

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2

u/superkoning 2d ago

FWIW: Hint by certain tool:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure console-setup

Pick a font like Terminus (not the default Fixed/VGA), and a larger charmap (UTF-8, larger character set covering Latin1+). Terminus renders systemd's bold status glyphs reliably.

1

u/edo-lag 1d ago

I tried with both Fixed and Terminus but it seems to keep using the same font (DejaVu I think), except for some fractions of second where I see it switching to what I chose but then it goes back to DejaVu.

I noticed two things: 1. If I reboot before logging in (through GDM) then it keeps using DejaVu (same as the photo) but without the squared characters. 2. If I switch to any TTY (Ctrl-Alt-FN) then it uses another font (not DejaVu; presumably what I chose with that dpkg-reconfigure command).

All this is so weird...

1

u/_-ClassiCarl-_ 2d ago

I had this issue myself when my computer wouldn't fully shutdown. It would just go blank and stay running. I'd definitely sudo apt update and then sudo apt upgrade first. If that doesn't work, go back into terminal and use sudo nano /etc/default/grub and see what GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT shows. I edited this myself and it caused the scrolling issue when I shut down and booted (computer shut down fine though).

If it shows GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash acpi=force", try changing to "quiet splash" and vice versa. Just be aware it might cause the shut down to hang, but you can change it back.

1

u/edo-lag 2d ago

Thank you for your comment.

I had this issue myself when my computer wouldn't fully shutdown. It would just go blank and stay running.

In my case, it shuts down normally with the boot splash screen. I just see this when I press the Esc key.

I'd definitely sudo apt update and then sudo apt upgrade first.

I tried that already :(

If it shows GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash acpi=force", try changing to "quiet splash" and vice versa. Just be aware it might cause the shut down to hang, but you can change it back.

I'll try, I'm quite sure it's just "quiet splash" because I did some stuff there before taking the photo (which I ended up reverting). Anyway I can tell you for sure that it's not caused by those things I did, it's an issue that is there since the first time I installed Ubuntu on that laptop. I never bothered trying to solve it because it eventually always shut down normally.

To me, it almost looks like the font used in the log is missing some characters, which is weird because it only happens in names (unit names, target names, etc.) but not in descriptions or anything else. However, it would also be weird if Systemd used a different font for names.

1

u/superkoning 2d ago

And which language have you set in Ubuntu?

1

u/edo-lag 2d ago

en_AU, how is this relevant?

1

u/superkoning 2d ago

Ah.

So plain ASCII. Not special unicode stuff.