Mono WinForms apps don't show text on menus and button

Andrew: just for the sake of testing purposes, could you provide a screenshot? We got a similar issue on irc in the latest days, and it was due to the colors selected to draw the strings.

Created an attachment (id=324113)
screenshot of NClass

This doesn't seem to be the same bug. I switched to the Clearlooks theme before taking this screenshot and it has the same bug (I had been using the new Darkroom theme).

Another possible culprit would be cairo, etc. which we normally embed in gdiplus (with a specific version) but debian / ubuntu likes to link to the system version.

Just for info, I have the same problem. Was fine on Intrepid, (almost) no text rendered when upgraded to Karmic. Could well be a colour issue, since the text that *is* rendered is all black on a grey background, while all the missing text is (or isn't) on a white background.

Anything I can do to workaround or help diagnose further?

Just to clarify the above, these are all standard WinForms controls, with no explicit colour settings. So, for example, a read-only TextBox does render text. An editable TextBox does not. However, a Label doesn't render text either, even though it would be the same font and colour as the read-only TextBox.

See also: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/mono/+bug/456279

I have 2 boxes with similar configuration (Archlinux Mono 2.4.2). The first one is in fact a virtual machine (Vmware) and there is no text rendering problem with it.

The second one is a netbook with i945 graphic chipset (xf86-video-intel 2.9.0 driver) and I have the same issue as Andrew (cf. screenshot) and Ciaran with all the Mono applications I tried.

According to https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/mono/+bug/456279 it seems to be a problem with this particular version of the driver...

Could you confirm that you are using this driver too?

The machine I'm seeing this on has the i915 chipset. (using /lib/modules/2.6.31-14-generic/kernel/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/i915.ko)

I don't see any mention of the video driver on that launchpad bug - is that the wrong link, or am I looking in the wrong place?

In my understanding, it is a 2-part driver: the first part is in the kernel (i915.ko) and the second part is a Xorg module named xf86-video-intel (or xserver-xorg-video-intel in the Ubuntu package list).

The links above mentions the Xorg module.

Please could you try to find the package version on your system to confirm it is a 2.9.0 version problem?
For example, you can try the following command line:
dpkg -l | grep xserver-xorg-video-intel

Thank you.

Yes, you're right, that machine has version 2:2.9.0-1ubuntu2 of xserver-xorg-video-intel.

I'm still not seeing any mention of this stuff at https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/mono/+bug/456279 though, what I am doing wrong? Three comments, and the original report - no mention of video drivers or Xorg.

Uh... I'm sorry, copy/paste error.

I was referring to the following bug report: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xserver-xorg-video-intel/+bug/462349

I installed xf86-video-intel 2.9.1 (a.k.a xserver-xorg-video-intel) from sources and the text is back.

It seems definitively it is a driver problem and has nothing to do with mono.

I am having the same problem and I wanted to install xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.9.1.

But, I am having some difficulties. It appears that the instructions do not work that I found at:

http://intellinuxgraphics.org/install.html

"If these packages are available, building should be as simple as:
    $ ./autogen
    $ make
    $ sudo -c "make install"
"

In the first step there is no file "autogen" in the package.

Can someone help me figure out how to install this package?

The README found in the package is no help.

I am not an expert at Linux or Driver Install, so it is probably something obvious.

Hi All,

I am having the same trouble I downloaded the latest drivers ran
./configure
make
make install (as root)

all appeared to work ok but I do not know if and how to use the new driver as the program still appears not to render any text.

Any help would be appreciated

p.s. Trey I also downloaded the file you have with the autogen which I got from a link on the driver release announcement but this errored for me so downloaded it from the following link.

http://xorg.freedesktop.org/archive/individual/driver/

(In reply to comment #13)
> I am having the same trouble I downloaded the latest drivers ran
> ./configure
> make
> make install (as root)
>
> all appeared to work ok but I do not know if and how to use the new driver as
> the program still appears not to render any text.

"make install" places the new drivers in an incorrect directory.

Switch to a text console (ctrl-alt-f1) and execute:
# sudo service gdm stop
# sudo cp /usr/local/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/* /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers
# sudo service gdm start

Check /var/log/Xorg.0.log for the driver version currently in use. It should say something like:

  (II) Module intel: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
        compiled for 1.6.4, module version = 2.9.1
        Module class: X.Org Video Driver
        ABI class: X.Org Video Driver, version 5.0

Switching to the new drivers solved the problem for me.

(In reply to comment #14)
> (In reply to comment #13)
> > I am having the same trouble I downloaded the latest drivers ran
> > ./configure
> > make
> > make install (as root)
> >
> > all appeared to work ok but I do not know if and how to use the new driver as
> > the program still appears not to render any text.
>
> "make install" places the new drivers in an incorrect directory.
>
> Switch to a text console (ctrl-alt-f1) and execute:
> # sudo service gdm stop
> # sudo cp /usr/local/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/* /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers
> # sudo service gdm start
>
> Check /var/log/Xorg.0.log for the driver version currently in use. It should
> say something like:
>
> (II) Module intel: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
> compiled for 1.6.4, module version = 2.9.1
> Module class: X.Org Video Driver
> ABI class: X.Org Video Driver, version 5.0
>
> Switching to the new drivers solved the problem for me.

Thanks so much for this info I have not compiled much and this was exactly the step that I was missing.

For everyone's info this driver update solved the problem for me so it would look like the Intel driver is definitely the source of the problem.

Thanks again

*** Bug 561854 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***