squares instead of words on desktop how to get back to letters instead

It could sound like the language setting has been changed to 'no language'. Web sites would not be affected because they are supposed to show the language of the site, not the computer.

I'm personally on Kubuntu, so the graphical environment is different, but try going to the language settings menu on the new computer and then mirror your actions on the old computer. That way the blocks shouldn't be an obstacle to finding the correct settings.

Hope this helps.
Nicolai M.

I too have squares instead of words on my desktop. It all started after trying to download the new ubuntu. I've looked at trying to go to my language settings but am unable to find them. Maybe a command would help. if you could help me with a command to return my computer to normal would be much appreciated.

Hey DaveB
I'm not really the kind who uses commands, I find them hard to remember and usually only know those that I either find on Google or have written down. :) (Besides, the original poster said easy answers.)
I did however find a general setup guide that contained some useful commands. I have tried to break them down to an understandable process.

| First you need to change the keyboard setting. This might already be okay, but if you're not sure, I advice you to take this step

setxkbmap -model pc104 -layout us

| The 'us' in the end is for the American keyboard-setting. Since I don't know what you would prefer, I just picked the default.

| Secondly you need to change the language for the entire system. To do this, you need to go to the correct folder:

cd '/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/'

| Then you set the appropriate language:

export LANG=English

| This should have changed the language setting, but just to be certain you can check by typing this:

locale

| The result should look something like this (or it did on my computer at least ;)

nicolai@nicolai-laptop:/usr/X11R6/lib/X11$ locale
locale: Cannot set LC_CTYPE to default locale: No such file or directory
locale: Cannot set LC_MESSAGES to default locale: No such file or directory
locale: Cannot set LC_ALL to default locale: No such file or directory
LANG=English
LC_CTYPE="English"
LC_NUMERIC="English"
LC_TIME="English"
LC_COLLATE="English"
LC_MONETARY="English"
LC_MESSAGES="English"
LC_PAPER="English"
LC_NAME="English"
LC_ADDRESS="English"
LC_TELEPHONE="English"
LC_MEASUREMENT="English"
LC_IDENTIFICATION="English"
LC_ALL=

| You still need to restart the computer for the entire system to change, but then it will hopefully be fine.

Hope this helps
Nicolai M

Hi Nicolai

I followed your instructions and got the same results as you did. But after restarting my computer I still have the squares instead of letters

its so annoying as all my email show up as rows and rows of squares. As I said in my earlier message this all happened when I upgraded

from the upgrade manager. I wish I'd just kept the older version. Thanks very much for your help. Any other ideas? I've already wasted a

whole week-end trying to fix the problem. Thanks again, Dave.

Serres
I just wanted to say that I do not consider your thread hijacked, and I'm still here if you need additional help. You might want to specify whether you had just upgraded your system like DaveB had.
Did you mean suddenly as in "I just went out to get a cup of coffee", or did it behave like that when you turned it on? Had you run Synaptic the previous session?

DaveB
Had you used Automatix or Easyubuntu back in Edgy? People here usually say it messes up your system. If not, it might have been the server-overload that caused you to get a bad package or of course an extremely nasty bug.

I must admit I'm drawing a blank, the only (for me) solvable solution would be to change the font (so crazy it just might work!), but otherwise my own solution would be to save all important data on another drive via a live-CD and then do a normal installation. Not that I should recommend that practice on a site like this, I guess. :)

I haven't really the time to do a proper dissemination of the walkthrough, so I'll just post the site I got my info from. You sound like you might know how to fiddle around for yourself. :)

http://www.linux.com/howtos/Intkeyb/x53.shtml

The first part is what I originally used. You just start with "Install fonts".