Q4OS Forum

Q1derous

Member

Registered: 2025-03-01

Posts: 36

Font Manager Crashing

Hi All,

This might be a “ran an update and it broke issue”, but ... when launching Font Manager (0.8.8-2), the main screen appears for about 2 seconds, then the monitor rezzes out, crashes, goes to black, and then kicks the system out to the login screen.

I tried uninstalling and reinstalling it but that didn't help.
Checked Discover and the Synaptic Pkg Mngr, both show the latest version as 0.8.8-2.
Checked Debian's site [https://packages.debian.org/trixie/font-manager]. It shows the latest version as 0.9.4-2.
Checked Q4OS Software Center for an optimized version, but it's not listed in there. (What, no font mngr included? Gasp!) 

Any suggestions on how to fix the problem, or is this a dependency issue and do I just wait for future updates to automagically resolve the issue?

Last edited by Q1derous (2026-03-13 20:06)

bin

Member

From: U.K.

Registered: 2016-01-28

Posts: 1,560

Re: Font Manager Crashing

By the sound of it you are still running Q4OS 5.8 Aquarius in which case 0.8.8-2 is the correct version https://packages.debian.org/bookworm/font-manager
Font management in Plasma - which I guess you are running as you mention Discover - is handled in the settings utility. It is certainly not installed as part of Q4OS 6 Andromeda.

hchiper

Member

From: Belgium

Registered: 2020-07-28

Posts: 788

Re: Font Manager Crashing

font-manager is  tool designed for GNOME and other desktop environments (DE) which are based on GTK.
The two main DE used with Q4OS are Plasma and Trinity, which are not based on GTK (they are based on Qt and TQt respectively). Compatibility issues might arise and I presume it is the reason why font-manager is not present in Software Centre and why you encounter a crash.
If you're using Plasma, look in System Settings, a font manager is available there, so you don't need the font-manager package.
If you're using Trinity, I'm pretty sure a font manager is also available there.

---

Q4OS machine: Samsung R519 - Pentium T4200 2.0 GHz - 4 GB RAM - 500 GB SSD

Q1derous

Member

Registered: 2025-03-01

Posts: 36

Re: Font Manager Crashing

bin - you're right, sorry forgot to mention that. Yes, still on 5.8 and Plasma. Will upgrade to the current version and build from scratch when I get a new system.

hchipher - good points, I did notice that it was for Gtk, but I thought i'd give it a go anyway ... and it was working fine for the last year or so, but now, well ... kaboom! heh Oh well.

Thanks for the tip (you too bin) re/ the feature in System Settings. It's not as handy as Font Manager which has multiple layouts and views, and you can type in your own text to preview (you know, instead of “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog”. That dog needs some Red Bull) and compare it with other fonts, but it will do the trick.

hchiper

Member

From: Belgium

Registered: 2020-07-28

Posts: 788

Re: Font Manager Crashing

Try right-clicking in the font preview: you will see an option to choose the type of preview (a sample sentence or all available characters) and an option to enter a sentence of your choice (a sentence that contains all the letters of the alphabet is called a "pangram", as I recently learned).

Last edited by hchiper (2026-03-13 08:44)

---

Q4OS machine: Samsung R519 - Pentium T4200 2.0 GHz - 4 GB RAM - 500 GB SSD

Q1derous

Member

Registered: 2025-03-01

Posts: 36

Re: Font Manager Crashing

Okay, that works, cool beans. Thanks!

D'oh! Spoke too soon. Now I'm noticing that the system still crashes out to the login screen even after scrolling around and checking various fonts in System Settings.

Also, I used Discover yesterday under Plasma Addons > Fonts to install 4 new fonts:     Antika, Pushkin, Rawengulk and RawengulkSans.
Mmm, but they're not showing up in the list in System Settings > Appearance > Font Mngt. Not in either of the All Fonts, Personal Fonts or System Fonts lists.
Just double-checked Discover again, and 3 of the installed fonts are there with the option to Remove. But one of them, Antika, isn't even listed there now.
But they do all show up in the bottom-left corner option for “Installed” in that list of items, with the option to Remove each.

And checking in applications, eg. - Libre Writer ... none of the 4 new fonts are available in there to use in a document. Any idea why would that would be?
At least using various fonts in an application doesn't crash the system.

Last edited by Q1derous (2026-03-13 20:11)

hchiper

Member

From: Belgium

Registered: 2020-07-28

Posts: 788

Re: Font Manager Crashing

Uninstall Font Manager if you didn't already.
I never used Discover, so I can't help on this topic.
When I need new fonts I download the .ttf files to a temporary folder on my disk, then I use System Settings > Appearance > Font Management to install the fonts from these files. The fonts you are looking for are available at no cost on many websites (I didn't pay attention whether they are copyrighted or not).

---

Q4OS machine: Samsung R519 - Pentium T4200 2.0 GHz - 4 GB RAM - 500 GB SSD

Q1derous

Member

Registered: 2025-03-01

Posts: 36

Re: Font Manager Crashing

Yes, I did a "Removal" of Font Manager with Synaptic and tested and the issue persists.
But I see that Synaptic shows there's still 2 other separate packages there for “font-manager-common” and also “font-viewer” (both with version: 0.8.8-2).
Pretty sure those were installed with Font Manager, and not part of the main system.
Do you think removing those would be fine, or might that affect something in the System Settings Font Management as well?

Also, erring on the side of caution, I didn't do a “Complete Removal” as I wasn't sure if removing its dependencies might include items that are shared by other programs and might mess things up even further.

Do you think if I were to reinstall FM, and then do a “Complete Removal”, that would then automatically include the “font-manager-common” and “font-viewer packages”, including dependencies ... without affecting anything else in the system?

q4osteam

Q4OS Team

Registered: 2015-12-06

Posts: 6,106

Website

Re: Font Manager Crashing

Do you think if I were to reinstall FM, and then do a “Complete Removal”, that would then automatically include the “font-manager-common” and “font-viewer packages”, including dependencies ... without affecting anything else in the system?

Yes, it's the right way.

Q1derous

Member

Registered: 2025-03-01

Posts: 36

Re: Font Manager Crashing

Reinstalled FM and then ran a “Complete Removal” of it and “font-manager-common” and “font-viewer” in Synaptic.

Rebooted, go into System Settings > Appearance > Font Management, click on a few font examples and after a half dozen or so clicks, Zap! ... rezzes and crashes out to the login screen again / still. Bah!

So at this point, can't be bothered wasting more time on this. Will just do without for now. Thanks for the help and suggestions.

q4osteam

Q4OS Team

Registered: 2015-12-06

Posts: 6,106

Website

Re: Font Manager Crashing

We will check font management in Plasma and post back.