Word spacing issue in Firefox 3

Running Hardy 2.6.24-8-generic #1 SMP Thu Feb 14 20:40:45 UTC 2008 i686 GNU/Linux

A recent update replaced Firefox 2.0.0.12 with Firefox 3.0b3. Upon loading Firefox 3 for the first time (after a system restart), spacing between words on all web pages and chrome pages were the width of 4-5 spaces instead of one. The only text not affected is the window titlebar.

Even in a newly created Hardy user account Firefox still has this appearance.

Screen shot. Notice the wide word spacing.

Are you able to reproduce this bug, or does it happen only once?

Also, have you tried any other web pages? And does this persist throughout the entire session, or only immediately after opening?

It happens on all web pages throughout the session each time I run Firefox. All rendered text seems to be affected; web pages, dialogs, address bar, chrome, view-source, everything.

Happens for all users too, even root.

Have you tried using a different desktop environment?

maybe you have tweaked your font settings at some point?

I haven't tried a different desktop environment yet.

I did tweak font settings, but even on an un-tweaked fresh account it happens. I downloaded previous builds of Firefox and it only seems to happen in beta 3, whether the repo version or downloaded tar version.

I can confirm this as well. If someone needs a specific config file that causes this, please e-mail me and I will e-mail it.

I can confirm also. The same happens with Swiftfox and Seamonkey2 (both based on gecko 1.9)

Is there any specific information people need to help diagnose this bug?

Same here (after an upgrade from Firefox 3.0b3 to 3.0b4 and now 3.0b5).
Kubuntu (based on Hardy development branch - 2.6.24-15-386)

Can you please test this with a new profile or using safe-mode like:
firefox -safe-mode
and see if you can still reproduce this.

I still experience this in safe mode with a fresh profile on Firefox 3.0b5. It also happens with Mozilla XULRunner 1.9b5 - 2008040514 and when switching to KDE.

Same problem in safe-mode.
Joe

On 4/9/08, John Vivirito <email address hidden> wrote:
> Can you please test this with a new profile or using safe-mode like:
> firefox -safe-mode
> and see if you can still reproduce this.
>
> ** Changed in: firefox-3.0 (Ubuntu)
> Assignee: (unassigned) => Mozilla Bugs (mozilla-bugs)
>
>
> --
> Word spacing issue in Firefox 3
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/193108
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>

Added package xulrunner-1.9 due to comments.

I tracked this problem down on one of my Debian boxes; this may also apply to Ubuntu, but I'm not sure.

The culprit appears to be the pango-graphite package. If I purge it, the Exceptions and spacing bugs go away, suggesting that Firefox has no clue how to deal with the Graphite extensions to TrueType/OpenType fonts.

Gotcha!
Worked like a charm at Ubuntu Hardy 8.04 - Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686;
en-US; rv:1.9b5) Gecko/2008040514 Firefox/3.0b5!
After package remove multiple spaces turn into single spaces.
I was using Opera Browser since this bug starts.
Now I'll return back to FF3.
Thanks very much for this answer.
Best Regards,
Joe

On Wed, May 7, 2008 at 12:08 PM, Chris Lawrence <email address hidden> wrote:

> I tracked this problem down on one of my Debian boxes; this may also
> apply to Ubuntu, but I'm not sure.
>
> The culprit appears to be the pango-graphite package. If I purge it,
> the Exceptions and spacing bugs go away, suggesting that Firefox has no
> clue how to deal with the Graphite extensions to TrueType/OpenType
> fonts.
>
> --
> Word spacing issue in Firefox 3
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/193108
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>

Brilliant!
Indeed it works now after purging pango-graphite.

this is not really a firefox issue

Changed package to pango-graphite Firefox doesn suggest remocommend or depend on this pacakge it should be fixed in package.
Marked confirmed

In Linux Mint Daryna this issue affects all menu items too.
If it could be of any use I can provide a screenshot.

I had the same problem, as mentionned here, with Firefox 3. Maybe you would like to take a look at my bug report. The bug number is 247129, which is now marked as duplicate. I , too, could resolve my problem by purging pango-graphite, thanks to JM Williams and Chris Lawrence.

I solved just with removing the pango-graphite package.
Didn't need to purge, just remove :)

I can confirm this bug. Until the package is removed (and/or purged), spacing is ugly in firefox-3.0.
(For some reason it does not affect Firefox-2.0)

I am not sure if its a bug in firefox or this package. But it seems this package is to blame, since removing it solves the problem.

According to the Mozilla bug I added this is indeed a problem in firefox and fixed in the upstream trunk.

By the looks of the upstream bug it was fixed in pango-* but i asked to make sure and xulrunner 1.9 has been released.

This will be fixed in xulrunner-1.9.1b1 we have not yet started packaging it for Ubuntu, When we do this bug report after tests can be closed. Maybe it will hit for Jaunty.

Hi, I have exactly the same problem as described above, my spaces are about three times as big as they should be and it doesn't matter if I run ff in safe mode or in another user mode. I've tried to completely remove ff and install it again but it didn't make any difference. When I saw this post I've tried to search for pango-graphite and remove it but I saw it wasn't installed. Installing *-graphite and removing it again didn't make any difference. If anyone knows what to do please tell me.

Seems the bug is fixed upstream! Bug #247129 ( https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/247129 )

Is this still a problem for Ubuntu?

OK, messed up the bug number. Here is the real upstream bug:

mozilla-bugs #397860 ( https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=397860 )

This package has been removed from Ubuntu. Closing all related bugs.

According to Bugzilla, the bug has been fixed upstream.