JIRA UI shows unreadable text or nothing on CAPTCHA and some gadgets due to missing fonts
Platform Notice: Data Center Only - This article only applies to Atlassian products on the Data Center platform.
Note that this KB was created for the Data Center version of the product. Data Center KBs for non-Data-Center-specific features may also work for Server versions of the product, however they have not been tested. Support for Server* products ended on February 15th 2024. If you are running a Server product, you can visit the Atlassian Server end of support announcement to review your migration options.
*Except Fisheye and Crucible
Problem
For Linux installations, we’ve noticed some problems when displaying certain system text in the application (CAPTCHA and gadgets). Instead of showing regular alphanumeric letters, the text will appear to be garbled and look like symbols, like in the following example:
In another case, no text is shown on CAPTCHA. It could happen if even the alternative fonts are not installed.
Resolution
You can solve this problem by installing additional fonts.
Install the following packages. The fonts should be enough, but we recommend to also install Ghostscript and Motif.
1 2 3 4 5yum install ghostscript yum install dejavu-fonts-common yum install dejavu-sans-fonts yum install dejavu-sans-mono-fonts yum install motifPackage names and the way of installing them might differ from one Linux distribution to the other. The commands provided here are meant for reference purposes only; if they don't work we recommend reaching out to your Linux distribution support resources.
(Optional) If that doesn’t solve the problem, check if you have installed
lyx-fonts, which might interfere with the fonts that you installed in the previous step. Try deleting this package.If you have started your JIRA instance, restart it.
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