Why does my terminal letter-spacing decrease when I disable a display return from using /dev/tty?
I've got a curious hardware situation, and I've run into a curious software quirk. I have a laptop with a broken screen that I have hooked up to an external display. I start up an X session and open a urxvt terminal. With the setting URxvt.letterSpace: -1 in my Xresources file, the text in my terminal displays like this:
Now I don't want the broken built-in screen still on, so I disable it with the line:
xrandr --output LVDS1 --off
If I open a new terminal now, the text will appear as it does above. But after logging into /dev/tty2 and then coming back to my graphical X session and opening up a new terminal, the text displays like this with the letter-spacing much tighter than before:
Reloading my Xresources file doesn't fix this. But increasing the value of URxvt.letterSpace from -1 to 0 and then reloading does appear to return the letter-spacing to what it was originally, so it seems that somewhere, after logging into /dev/tty, an extra -1 is being added to my letter-spacing.
Why does this happen? Why does going into a /dev/tty decrease the letter-spacing like this?
xorg tty fonts xrandr rxvt
edited Dec 24 '18 at 19:32
ctrl-alt-delor
10.9k41957
asked Mar 29 '17 at 16:30
Mike Pierce
3701314
|
show 2 more comments
I've got a curious hardware situation, and I've run into a curious software quirk. I have a laptop with a broken screen that I have hooked up to an external display. I start up an X session and open a urxvt terminal. With the setting URxvt.letterSpace: -1 in my Xresources file, the text in my terminal displays like this:
Now I don't want the broken built-in screen still on, so I disable it with the line:
xrandr --output LVDS1 --off
If I open a new terminal now, the text will appear as it does above. But after logging into /dev/tty2 and then coming back to my graphical X session and opening up a new terminal, the text displays like this with the letter-spacing much tighter than before:
Reloading my Xresources file doesn't fix this. But increasing the value of URxvt.letterSpace from -1 to 0 and then reloading does appear to return the letter-spacing to what it was originally, so it seems that somewhere, after logging into /dev/tty, an extra -1 is being added to my letter-spacing.
Why does this happen? Why does going into a /dev/tty decrease the letter-spacing like this?
xorg tty fonts xrandr rxvt
edited Dec 24 '18 at 19:32
ctrl-alt-delor
10.9k41957
asked Mar 29 '17 at 16:30
Mike Pierce
3701314
1
Is this reproducible? IsletterSpaceset to -1 every time you switch to/dev/tty2?
– Dmitry Grigoryev
Mar 29 '17 at 17:14
It doesn't seem to happen every time, but I'm not sure what I'm doing in/dev/ttythat triggers it. The only way I've figured out to reset this effect is to restart the computer (maybe just restart the Xsession?). I'll play around and reply if I discover more concrete steps to reproduce this.
– Mike Pierce
Mar 29 '17 at 17:24
And it doesn't appear that the value ofletterSpaceis actually being changed with this happens. The value ofURxvt.letterSpaceis -1 in both of those images in the question. It looks like another -1 is getting added somewhere for some reason.
– Mike Pierce
Mar 29 '17 at 17:24
@DmitryGrigoryev , I've made discovery. I'll add details in the post.
– Mike Pierce
Mar 29 '17 at 17:39
Sounds kind of like display driver weirdness, which acts like deep magic from normal userspace's perspective (my usual fix for problems along these lines is "update kernel and try again"; it sometimes works).
– Tom Hunt
Mar 29 '17 at 20:53
|
show 2 more comments
I've got a curious hardware situation, and I've run into a curious software quirk. I have a laptop with a broken screen that I have hooked up to an external display. I start up an X session and open a urxvt terminal. With the setting URxvt.letterSpace: -1 in my Xresources file, the text in my terminal displays like this:
Now I don't want the broken built-in screen still on, so I disable it with the line:
xrandr --output LVDS1 --off
If I open a new terminal now, the text will appear as it does above. But after logging into /dev/tty2 and then coming back to my graphical X session and opening up a new terminal, the text displays like this with the letter-spacing much tighter than before:
Reloading my Xresources file doesn't fix this. But increasing the value of URxvt.letterSpace from -1 to 0 and then reloading does appear to return the letter-spacing to what it was originally, so it seems that somewhere, after logging into /dev/tty, an extra -1 is being added to my letter-spacing.
Why does this happen? Why does going into a /dev/tty decrease the letter-spacing like this?
xorg tty fonts xrandr rxvt
edited Dec 24 '18 at 19:32
ctrl-alt-delor
10.9k41957
asked Mar 29 '17 at 16:30
Mike Pierce
3701314
I've got a curious hardware situation, and I've run into a curious software quirk. I have a laptop with a broken screen that I have hooked up to an external display. I start up an X session and open a urxvt terminal. With the setting URxvt.letterSpace: -1 in my Xresources file, the text in my terminal displays like this:
Now I don't want the broken built-in screen still on, so I disable it with the line:
xrandr --output LVDS1 --off
If I open a new terminal now, the text will appear as it does above. But after logging into /dev/tty2 and then coming back to my graphical X session and opening up a new terminal, the text displays like this with the letter-spacing much tighter than before:
Reloading my Xresources file doesn't fix this. But increasing the value of URxvt.letterSpace from -1 to 0 and then reloading does appear to return the letter-spacing to what it was originally, so it seems that somewhere, after logging into /dev/tty, an extra -1 is being added to my letter-spacing.
Why does this happen? Why does going into a /dev/tty decrease the letter-spacing like this?
xorg tty fonts xrandr rxvt
xorg tty fonts xrandr rxvt
edited Dec 24 '18 at 19:32
ctrl-alt-delor
10.9k41957
asked Mar 29 '17 at 16:30
Mike Pierce
3701314
edited Dec 24 '18 at 19:32
ctrl-alt-delor
10.9k41957
asked Mar 29 '17 at 16:30
Mike Pierce
3701314
edited Dec 24 '18 at 19:32
ctrl-alt-delor
10.9k41957
edited Dec 24 '18 at 19:32
ctrl-alt-delor
10.9k41957
edited Dec 24 '18 at 19:32
ctrl-alt-delor
10.9k41957
10.9k41957
asked Mar 29 '17 at 16:30
Mike Pierce
3701314
asked Mar 29 '17 at 16:30
Mike Pierce
3701314
asked Mar 29 '17 at 16:30
Mike Pierce
3701314
3701314
1
Is this reproducible? IsletterSpaceset to -1 every time you switch to/dev/tty2?
– Dmitry Grigoryev
Mar 29 '17 at 17:14
It doesn't seem to happen every time, but I'm not sure what I'm doing in/dev/ttythat triggers it. The only way I've figured out to reset this effect is to restart the computer (maybe just restart the Xsession?). I'll play around and reply if I discover more concrete steps to reproduce this.
– Mike Pierce
Mar 29 '17 at 17:24
And it doesn't appear that the value ofletterSpaceis actually being changed with this happens. The value ofURxvt.letterSpaceis -1 in both of those images in the question. It looks like another -1 is getting added somewhere for some reason.
– Mike Pierce
Mar 29 '17 at 17:24
@DmitryGrigoryev , I've made discovery. I'll add details in the post.
– Mike Pierce
Mar 29 '17 at 17:39
Sounds kind of like display driver weirdness, which acts like deep magic from normal userspace's perspective (my usual fix for problems along these lines is "update kernel and try again"; it sometimes works).
– Tom Hunt
Mar 29 '17 at 20:53
|
show 2 more comments
1
Is this reproducible? IsletterSpaceset to -1 every time you switch to/dev/tty2?
– Dmitry Grigoryev
Mar 29 '17 at 17:14
It doesn't seem to happen every time, but I'm not sure what I'm doing in/dev/ttythat triggers it. The only way I've figured out to reset this effect is to restart the computer (maybe just restart the Xsession?). I'll play around and reply if I discover more concrete steps to reproduce this.
– Mike Pierce
Mar 29 '17 at 17:24
And it doesn't appear that the value ofletterSpaceis actually being changed with this happens. The value ofURxvt.letterSpaceis -1 in both of those images in the question. It looks like another -1 is getting added somewhere for some reason.
– Mike Pierce
Mar 29 '17 at 17:24
@DmitryGrigoryev , I've made discovery. I'll add details in the post.
– Mike Pierce
Mar 29 '17 at 17:39
Sounds kind of like display driver weirdness, which acts like deep magic from normal userspace's perspective (my usual fix for problems along these lines is "update kernel and try again"; it sometimes works).
– Tom Hunt
Mar 29 '17 at 20:53
1
1
Is this reproducible? Is
letterSpace set to -1 every time you switch to /dev/tty2?– Dmitry Grigoryev
Mar 29 '17 at 17:14
Is this reproducible? Is
letterSpace set to -1 every time you switch to /dev/tty2?– Dmitry Grigoryev
Mar 29 '17 at 17:14
It doesn't seem to happen every time, but I'm not sure what I'm doing in
/dev/tty that triggers it. The only way I've figured out to reset this effect is to restart the computer (maybe just restart the Xsession?). I'll play around and reply if I discover more concrete steps to reproduce this.– Mike Pierce
Mar 29 '17 at 17:24
It doesn't seem to happen every time, but I'm not sure what I'm doing in
/dev/tty that triggers it. The only way I've figured out to reset this effect is to restart the computer (maybe just restart the Xsession?). I'll play around and reply if I discover more concrete steps to reproduce this.– Mike Pierce
Mar 29 '17 at 17:24
And it doesn't appear that the value of
letterSpace is actually being changed with this happens. The value of URxvt.letterSpace is -1 in both of those images in the question. It looks like another -1 is getting added somewhere for some reason.– Mike Pierce
Mar 29 '17 at 17:24
And it doesn't appear that the value of
letterSpace is actually being changed with this happens. The value of URxvt.letterSpace is -1 in both of those images in the question. It looks like another -1 is getting added somewhere for some reason.– Mike Pierce
Mar 29 '17 at 17:24
@DmitryGrigoryev , I've made discovery. I'll add details in the post.
– Mike Pierce
Mar 29 '17 at 17:39
@DmitryGrigoryev , I've made discovery. I'll add details in the post.
– Mike Pierce
Mar 29 '17 at 17:39
Sounds kind of like display driver weirdness, which acts like deep magic from normal userspace's perspective (my usual fix for problems along these lines is "update kernel and try again"; it sometimes works).
– Tom Hunt
Mar 29 '17 at 20:53
Sounds kind of like display driver weirdness, which acts like deep magic from normal userspace's perspective (my usual fix for problems along these lines is "update kernel and try again"; it sometimes works).
– Tom Hunt
Mar 29 '17 at 20:53
|
show 2 more comments
0
active
oldest
votes
Your Answer
StackExchange.ready(function() {
var channelOptions = {
tags: "".split(" "),
id: "106"
};
initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);
StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function() {
// Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled) {
StackExchange.using("snippets", function() {
createEditor();
});
}
else {
createEditor();
}
});
function createEditor() {
StackExchange.prepareEditor({
heartbeatType: 'answer',
autoActivateHeartbeat: false,
convertImagesToLinks: false,
noModals: true,
showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
reputationToPostImages: null,
bindNavPrevention: true,
postfix: "",
imageUploader: {
brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"u003ecc by-sa 3.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
allowUrls: true
},
onDemand: true,
discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
});
}
});
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2funix.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f354623%2fwhy-does-my-terminal-letter-spacing-decrease-when-i-disable-a-display-return-fro%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
0
active
oldest
votes
0
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
Thanks for contributing an answer to Unix & Linux Stack Exchange!
- Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!
But avoid …
- Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.
- Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.
To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.
Some of your past answers have not been well-received, and you're in danger of being blocked from answering.
Please pay close attention to the following guidance:
- Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!
But avoid …
- Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.
- Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.
To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2funix.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f354623%2fwhy-does-my-terminal-letter-spacing-decrease-when-i-disable-a-display-return-fro%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
1
Is this reproducible? Is
letterSpaceset to -1 every time you switch to/dev/tty2?– Dmitry Grigoryev
Mar 29 '17 at 17:14
It doesn't seem to happen every time, but I'm not sure what I'm doing in
/dev/ttythat triggers it. The only way I've figured out to reset this effect is to restart the computer (maybe just restart the Xsession?). I'll play around and reply if I discover more concrete steps to reproduce this.– Mike Pierce
Mar 29 '17 at 17:24
And it doesn't appear that the value of
letterSpaceis actually being changed with this happens. The value ofURxvt.letterSpaceis -1 in both of those images in the question. It looks like another -1 is getting added somewhere for some reason.– Mike Pierce
Mar 29 '17 at 17:24
@DmitryGrigoryev , I've made discovery. I'll add details in the post.
– Mike Pierce
Mar 29 '17 at 17:39
Sounds kind of like display driver weirdness, which acts like deep magic from normal userspace's perspective (my usual fix for problems along these lines is "update kernel and try again"; it sometimes works).
– Tom Hunt
Mar 29 '17 at 20:53