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Firefox 57 won't load text on some pages (Ubuntu 16.04)

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Today, I upgraded to Firefox 57 on Ubuntu 16.04. Now, suddenly a lot of pages are not anymore displayed completely -- it looks as if some or all text was just left out (see screenshots). This happens primarily on Google pages (Calendar, YouTube, etc.), but also on other ones. I suppose it has to do with heavy JS or CSS usage.

I tried clearning caches, and starting in safe mode, but nothing helps.

Very annoying. Basically, my browser is partially broken.

Uploading images here also doesn't work, so: - https://s18.postimg.org/uefquth09/Screenshot-2017-11-16_Firefox_Screenshots.png for https://screenshots.firefox.com/#tour, - https://s18.postimg.org/bndtkqmgp/Screenshot-2017-11-16_Google_Calendar.png to https://accounts.google.com.

Today, I upgraded to Firefox 57 on Ubuntu 16.04. Now, suddenly a lot of pages are not anymore displayed completely -- it looks as if some or all text was just left out (see screenshots). This happens primarily on Google pages (Calendar, YouTube, etc.), but also on other ones. I suppose it has to do with heavy JS or CSS usage. I tried clearning caches, and starting in safe mode, but nothing helps. Very annoying. Basically, my browser is partially broken. Uploading images here also doesn't work, so: - https://s18.postimg.org/uefquth09/Screenshot-2017-11-16_Firefox_Screenshots.png for https://screenshots.firefox.com/#tour, - https://s18.postimg.org/bndtkqmgp/Screenshot-2017-11-16_Google_Calendar.png to https://accounts.google.com.

Modified by etaoin_shrdlu

Chosen solution

Going to about:preferences > Language & Appearance > Advanced, and unsettin "Allow pages to choose their own fonts, instead of your selections above" resolves the issue for me.

Now, all fonts are defaulted to the ones available on my system -- this is acceptable compared to seeing nothing at all, but not ideal. I would still like to have custom fonts back.

Read this answer in context 👍 5

All Replies (7)

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I now strongly suspect that this has to do with the loading of fonts.

An example (see screenshots): in Wikipedia articles, I consistently don't see the headings. If I hover over the "font"-rule of the corresponding h1-tag in the "Rules" tab of the inspector, no font preview is shown, although the rule says "Linux Libertine','Georgia','Times',serif;". On the other hand, the "Fonts" tab shows the font to be "TeXGyreTermes-Regular system; Used as: 'TeX Gyre Termes'".

But if I disable this font-rule, I suddenly see the text appear, and the "Fonts" tab says "DejaVu Sans system".

Modified by etaoin_shrdlu

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Chosen Solution

Going to about:preferences > Language & Appearance > Advanced, and unsettin "Allow pages to choose their own fonts, instead of your selections above" resolves the issue for me.

Now, all fonts are defaulted to the ones available on my system -- this is acceptable compared to seeing nothing at all, but not ideal. I would still like to have custom fonts back.

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TeX Gyre Termes is just a Times clone. It’s normal font substitution; choosing the closest match to the specified font.

The solution for me was to change a new sandbox setting. In about:config change security.sandbox.content.level to 2 (or 1 if that doesn’t work).

This seems like a bug to me, but I’m having trouble even finding a link to bug tracking around Mozilla. Maybe mentioning bugs is considered bad PR.

See also:

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Sure, my solution is only a workaround. There's a somehow milder solution on SO, though, which I'm now using.

And the problem is already reported: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1418240. But yeah, I also had trouble finding their bug trackig site...

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it seems that security.sandbox.content.level may be doing something, but I do not like to change setting w/o knowing what this means.

The font thing is not doing anything for me as this is already selected

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