Infrastructure Software

Seems like you you have a combination of problems. I'm not saying that it does or doesn't, but the missing text in the installer window does not necessarily have to be font related, but can also be a problem of the video driver, screen resolution or an issue with 2D/3D hardware acceleration not functioning properly.

1. What version of Ubuntu do you have installed?

2. Where did you attempt to install the guest additions, vm or host system?

I don't see why you would need any video driver, unless you attempt to display x11 app inside the VM guest system, hence using the X11 server inside the guest system. If I remember correctly, you can run the vbox guest additions installer using the -nox11 parameter to skip installing a video driver.

3. How did you invoke the oracle installer exactly.

Are you using PuTTy on Ubuntu, using X11 forwarding? It is certainly possible that Ubuntu does not have some of the Xorg bitmap fonts installed, but as far as I understand, it should not be necessary and scalable outline fonts are preferred.

Perhaps it might be worth trying to change your screen resolution to see if it affects the displaying of text.

By the way, you might want to check the following:

xorg - How do I fix fonts not rendering and missing letters? - Ask Ubuntu

Dude! wrote:
Seems like you you have a combination of problems. I'm not saying that it does or doesn't, but the missing text in the installer window does not necessarily have to be font related, but can also be a problem of the video driver, screen resolution or an issue with 2D/3D hardware acceleration not functioning properly.
1. What version of Ubuntu do you have installed?

Ubuntu 16.04 LTS

2. Where did you attempt to install the guest additions, vm or host system

On the Oracle Linux vm guest.  (wondering why one would vb guest additions on the host?)

I don't see why you would need any video driver, unless you attempt to display x11 app inside the VM guest system, hence using the X11 server inside the guest system. If I remember correctly, you can run the vbox guest additions installer using the -nox11 parameter to skip installing a video driver.

Hmm. well, the x11 app is the Oracle db installer (runInstall)  I'm treating this just like I do all of my Linux vm's on a Windows host, as well as all of my physical Linux servers in my data center.  The x11 app forwards to an x-server running on the host desktop.  With a windows host, that is xming.  Now, on this Ubuntu host, no additional x-server needed as that is part and parcel of runnning a *nix with a GUI desktop.  It's my understanding that the GUI desktop of a linux machine is just x-11 as well.

3. How did you invoke the oracle installer exactly.

Just like any other time ...

[oracle@vblnx6-01 OracleDatabase_112010]$ cd database 
[oracle@vblnx6-01 database]$ ll 
total 36 
drwxr-xr-x. 12 oracle oinstall 4096 Aug 17  2009 doc 
drwxr-xr-x.  4 oracle oinstall 4096 Aug 15  2009 install 
drwxrwxr-x.  2 oracle oinstall 4096 Aug 15  2009 response 
drwxr-xr-x.  2 oracle oinstall 4096 Aug 15  2009 rpm 
-rwxr-xr-x.  1 oracle oinstall 3226 Aug 15  2009 runInstaller 
drwxrwxr-x.  2 oracle oinstall 4096 Aug 15  2009 sshsetup 
drwxr-xr-x. 14 oracle oinstall 4096 Aug 15  2009 stage 
-rw-r--r--.  1 oracle oinstall 5402 Aug 17  2009 welcome.html 
[oracle@vblnx6-01 database]$ ./runInstaller 
Starting Oracle Universal Installer...

Are you using PuTTy on Ubuntu, using X11 forwarding? It is certainly possible that Ubuntu does not have some of the Xorg bitmap fonts installed, but as far as I understand, it should not be necessary and scalable outline fonts are preferred.

Yes, putty on the Ubunto host, with x11 forwarding.  Also, fwiw, tried simply 'ssh -x oracle@myguest'.  Same result.  The GUI installer came up (proving that the x11 forwarding is fundamentally working), but some text in the windows not rendering.

Perhaps it might be worth trying to change your screen resolution to see if it affects the displaying of text.

Will give that a shot, though given my current resolution (which otherwise is ideal) that would not be an ideal solution. 

-- follow up - tried 3 different screen resolutions.  No effect.

OK, I've tried several different screen resolutions, and several desktops, (Cinnamon, gnome, Unity) with no change. So let's go back a step and focus on the issue while installing the guest additions.

Again, the installation of guest additions returned "

vboxadd.sh: Starting the VirtualBox Guest Additions. 

Could not find the X.Org or XFree86 Window System, skipping.

But it appears the package installed on the host.

# dpkg -l xorg
Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
| Status=Not/Inst/Conf-files/Unpacked/halF-conf/Half-inst/trig-aWait/Trig-pend
|/ Err?=(none)/Reinst-required (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
||/ Name          Version      Architecture Description
+++-==============-============-============-=================================
ii  xorg          1:7.7+13ubun amd64        X.Org X Window System
#

And on the guest:

[root@vblnx6-01 ~]# yum list installed |grep org
xorg-x11-drv-ati-firmware.noarch   7.5.99-3.el6               @anaconda-OracleLinuxServer-201507280245.x86_64/6.7
xorg-x11-font-utils.x86_64         1:7.2-11.el6               @anaconda-OracleLinuxServer-201507280245.x86_64/6.7
xorg-x11-fonts-Type1.noarch        7.2-11.el6                 @anaconda-OracleLinuxServer-201507280245.x86_64/6.7
xorg-x11-utils.x86_64              7.5-6.el6                  @anaconda-OracleLinuxServer-201507280245.x86_64/6.7
xorg-x11-xauth.x86_64              1:1.0.2-7.1.el6            @anaconda-OracleLinuxServer-201507280245.x86_64/6.7
[root@vblnx6-01 ~]# 

Have you tried installing the guest additions using "-nox11" parameter?

Did you check my 2nd post, which shows a link to the Ubuntu discussion forum, how to disable font aliasing, etc.

I've just completed what should be a definitive test of where the problem lies, but I'm at a loss as to the fix.

Here's the setup . . .

Two physical machines - call them winhost and lnxhost.

winhost running Win7 Home Premium, 64 bit.  This has been my personal  laptop for about 3 years and on which I have created several vm's under VBox.

lnxhost is running Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, 64 bit.  This is my new Linux laptop.

On each physical machine I create identical VM's.  2048 mb ram, 20 gb disk, two NICs.  First NIC is NAT, the second is bridged, on the wifi network.  On each, installed OL 6 and configured eth1 (the bridged adapter) with a fixed IP address.  All options installing the OS were identical, and except for the IP address on eth1, all default options taken.  Even though they are both running OL, let's call the one running on winhost  'winguest' and the one running on lnxhost, 'lnxguest'.

Once both vms were up and running, I established an ssh (putty) session to each, from each of the host desktops.  lnxhost can ssh to both lnxguest and winguest, and winhost can ssh to both lnxguest and winguest.

Results:

On winhost, ssh to winguest and launch runInstaller.  GUI interface is perfectly normal.

On winhost, ssh to lnxguest and launch runInstaller.  GUI interface is perfectly normal.

On lnxhost, ssh to winguest and launch runInstaller.  GUI interface is "broken", as shown in my original post.

On lnxhost, ssh to lnxguest and launch runInstaller.  GUI interface is "broken", as shown in my original post.

From the above I conclude that the problem is not with the guest OS configuration, nor with what OS is hosting the guest.

Since even the "broken" gui is showing the overall window and some text,  I'm strongly leaning toward the idea of some required font package that is missing from lnxhost.

I feel I've also eliminated any VBox issues, which takes it out of the subject of this space, but since I started here ....  I'll be glad to post in some other space, or even an entirely different forum if anyone has good suggestion.   I've previously posted in an Ubuntu forum, and just updated that thread with the same information as in this post, but given past reaction , am not hopeful of getting any help there.

If you're using putty to run the Oracle installer on winguest and lnxguest you are using X11 forwarding. The X server that is used in both cases must therefore run on your host system winhost and lnxhost.

Have you compared the virtual machine settings of lnxguest and winguest? In particular regarding the configuration of display memory and hardware acceleration? Are the settings identical? Have you tried to turn off any 2D/3D support?

If the VM settings are the same, there could still be an issue with the X server or system video driver on lnxhost. Did you try to disable anti-aliasing on the Ubuntu system as outlined earlier?

Have you tried using VNC instead, which you can easily tunnel through SSH?

Dude! wrote:
If you're using putty to run the Oracle installer on winguest and lnxguest you are using X11 forwarding. The X server that is used in both cases must therefore run on your host system winhost and lnxhost.
The x-server on winhost is xming.  On lnxhost it is whatever is native to that linux installation.  It is my understanding that the graphical desktop on a linux box is itself x-11, so if the host is running at run level 5, not 'extras' (like xming) are needed.
Have you compared the virtual machine settings of lnxguest and winguest? In particular regarding the configuration of display memory and hardware acceleration? Are the settings identical? Have you tried to turn off any 2D/3D support?
The only difference in display settings is that winhost defaulted to video memory of 12 mb, while lnxhost defaulted to 16 mb.  I didn't catch that difference when creating them, but rather doubt that it would affect this.  I'm willing to be proven wrong.
Also worth mentioning is that the versions of VBox itself is not the same.  On winhost it is 5.0.30 r112061, while on lnxhost it is 5.1.10 r112026.  When checking for updates, they both report they are the latest.
As for 2d/3d acceleration, they are both off by default, but I've tried it both ways and no impact. 
If the VM settings are the same, there could still be an issue with the X server or sstem video driver on lnxhost. Did you try to disable anti-aliasing on the Ubuntu system as outlined earlier?
I have not yet, that will be my next line of attack.  I wanted to make sure that everything else was eliminated first, particularly to get this side-by-side test where I could the same machine (not just a supposedly "identical" machine) from either host.
Have you tried using VNC instead, which you can easily tunnel through SSH?
I have not.  It's been years since I last used VNC (very early in my linux learning).  At this point it's not just a matter of finding a way to get OUI to display correctly, but satisfying my curiosity about why this method is not working -- when it very well should.

Update.

1) I tried to follow the discussion linked to the Ubuntu forum (askubuntu.com).  Was not able to get the 'ubuntu-tweak' package.  Posted my own question at that site and got a suggestion to download the MS TrueType fonts.  Took a bit of work there, but finally got them installed.  And that did not fix the issue.

2) As another experiment, I created a vm running Win7.  When I used that vm as my desktop to run the oracle installer on the linux vm, the interface rendered properly.  I did this both from the direct vbox console to the Windows vm, and using Remmina as a remote desktop from the Ubuntu host to the Windows vm.  I'm not sure what this proves, if anything, but find it interesting.

I still suspect a problem with font rendering and anti-aliasing on your Linux Ubuntu host, which might be a combination of problems involving the X server / GUI platform and video driver on the Ubuntu side.

Was not able to get the 'ubuntu-tweak' package.

Have you seen How can I install Ubuntu tweak on Ubuntu 16.04 - Ask Ubuntu

Sadly, pretty much very OS vendor has gone mad during the last few years - changes for the sake of changes without paying any respect to software quality and usability. 30 years ago it was challenge to draw anything nice using a pixel matrix, now we end up having the same result in higher resolutions.

Have you tried rebuilding the fonts cache on Ubuntu? Can you try a older version of Ubuntu on your Laptop, like Ubuntu 14.

Dude! wrote:
I still suspect a problem with font rendering and anti-aliasing on your Linux Ubuntu host, which might be a combination of problems involving the X server / GUI platform and video driver on the Ubuntu side.
Was not able to get the 'ubuntu-tweak' package.
Have you seen How can I install Ubuntu tweak on Ubuntu 16.04 - Ask Ubuntu
Sadly, pretty much very OS vendor has gone mad during the last few years - changes for the sake of changes without paying any respect to software quality and usability. 30 years ago it was challenge to draw anything nice using a pixel matrix, now we end up having the same result in higher resolutions.
Have you tried rebuilding the fonts cache on Ubuntu? Can you try a older version of Ubuntu on your Laptop, like Ubuntu 14.

I had not seen that link.  Will follow up the next chance I get .. may be a few days.

I'll also research how to rebuild the fonts cache.

Trying an older version is really not an option.  At least not on this machine.  It's a purpose-built Ubuntu machine (System76) and I'd be loathe to install something else.  One of the reasons I went that way - as opposed to buying a cheap Windows machine for the purpose of installing Ubuntu myself - was to have some assurance that the hardware and driver combinations were correct.  I do have an old 'throw-away' Toshiba laptop that I used for my initial evaluations and testing of Ubuntu (as well as some other Linux products) but it didn't support virutalization, so was unable to test Vbox on that.

I am attempting to install Oracle 12c onto OpenSUSE - no VMs involved - and I'm running into the same missing text issue. My install window looks identical to the screenshot posted by the original poster. I've run ssh -X oracle@localhost before running ./runInstall, and I've confirmed that xclock is working. Well, that's where I'm at currently.

MarkPW wrote:
I am attempting to install Oracle 12c onto OpenSUSE - no VMs involved - and I'm running into the same missing text issue. My install window looks identical to the screenshot posted by the original poster. I've run ssh -X oracle@localhost before running ./runInstall, and I've confirmed that xclock is working. Well, that's where I'm at currently.

Interesting.

I haven't looked at it in a while, but am planning on comparing the java installations on my problem machine vs. the one that is working correctly.

My current work-around is that I have installed Win7 in a VM, and use that when I need to run OUI on one of my Linux vm's.

I'm beginning to think this is something that should be raised with Oracle.  I think I'll start poking around on MOS.

Maybe I'll try your workaround - thanks for mentioning it. Hope you find something!

I managed to get it working by ssh -X'ing from my Mac and running runInstall.

Hello,

I had the same issue, local machine Linux Mint, remote Oracle Linux Server, not virtualised.

I did the following:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:no1wantdthisname/ppa

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get upgrade

After this I got the normal install window, with all fonts showing correctly.

25955801-4cd3-46c3-b8e9-3436abb85f60 wrote:
Hello,
I had the same issue, local machine Linux Mint, remote Oracle Linux Server, not virtualised.
I did the following:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:no1wantdthisname/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
After this I got the normal install window, with all fonts showing correctly.

I'm still on the low end of the learning curve for Ubuntu (Debian based).  Could you explain the significance of those commands?  Adding a repository named "no1wantdthisname" sets of alarm bells for me.

That literally just adds a repository and that's it. No packages are installed or anything. It's functionally nothing.

That being said, I have reproduced this error using both SSH -Y and SSH -X from a Ubuntu 16.04 box to a Fedora 25 box. Font rendering issue does not occur in 12C but does in 11G.

Hello,

I had a similar problem and I found solution.

I have Arch Linux with Intel Skylake GPU and I installer does not show fonts, its look same like your screenshot.
So, I use X11 forwarde from OEL to my Arch Linux Desktop.

My problem was in GPU driver. Intel driver have some accelmethods like : XAA/EXA/UXA/SNA ...

So, I switch my X11 settings to SNA and now all looks ok. My settings :

Section "Device"

   Identifier  "Intel"

   Driver      "intel"

   Option      "AccelMethod"  "sna"

   Option      "TearFree"    "true"

   Option      "DRI"    "3"

EndSection

So, "Dude!" have right, your problem is not in fonts, but in GPU driver / 2D acceleration.

Max

user7727296 wrote:
Hello,
I had a similar problem and I found solution.
I have Arch Linux with Intel Skylake GPU and I installer does not show fonts, its look same like your screenshot.
So, I use X11 forwarde from OEL to my Arch Linux Desktop.
My problem was in GPU driver. Intel driver have some accelmethods like : XAA/EXA/UXA/SNA ...
So, I switch my X11 settings to SNA and now all looks ok. My settings :
Section "Device"
 Identifier "Intel"
 Driver "intel"
 Option "AccelMethod" "sna"
 Option "TearFree" "true" 
 Option "DRI" "3" 
EndSection
So, "Dude!" have right, your problem is not in fonts, but in GPU driver / 2D acceleration.
Max

Sounds promising.  Is this done on the host or the guest?  (I'd guess the host, but what do I know?  I'm out of my depth on this subject).  And what file are those configs in? 

Probably related:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/linuxmint/+bug/1261352

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1468232

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/intel_graphics#Font_and_screen_corruption_in_GTK.2B_applications_.28missing_glyphs_…

In spite of all the help (most appreciated) I was never able to solve this.  However, today I started to install Oracle 12.2 .... and it did not exhibit this problem.  Just to make sure I wasn't going mad, I backed out and started the OUI for 12.1, and it DID exhibit the problem.  "Veddy Intelesting!"

Worth noting, the Oracle 12.1 OUI utilizes an older version of Java than the Oracle 12.2 OUI.

Wesley D-Oracle wrote:
Worth noting, the Oracle 12.1 OUI utilizes an older version of Java than the Oracle 12.2 OUI.

So does this shed any more light on how I might fix the problem for the older OUI?

Have you tried using a different kernel for your virtual machine, e.g. tried the RHCK kernel in Oracle Linux? Also, VirtualBox 5.1.8 is quite old and there have numerous bug fixes since. I think the current release is 5.1.26.

Dude! wrote:
Have you tried using a different kernel for your virtual machine, e.g. tried the RHCK kernel in Oracle Linux? Also, VirtualBox 5.1.8 is quite old and there have numerous bug fixes since. I think the current release is 5.1.26.

I've not tried the RH kernel.  Will do.

As for version of VBox, I'll have to check again.  This thread is also quite old now, and I may have upgraded Vbox since.  Also, I remember have a problem rather recently with a new version of Vbox, but don't recall the details.

OEL with Oracle (for example : 192.168.1.1) = Physical server only with console, no GUI

ArchLinux (for example : 192.168.20.10) = Physical PC - my  Desktop

On Arch Linux I allow remote connect from OEL (xorg must run with parameter "-listen tcp") :
xhost +192.168.1.1

On OEL I run  Installer with X forwarde, so like this :
export DISPLAY=192.168.20.10:0.0
./runInstaller

Now on my desktop I see Oracle installer (GUI is forwarded to my desktop).
If is problem with installer rendering, then is problem on PC where is GUI rendered. In my case on Arch Linux Desktop.

If you have OEL in virtualbox and host is Ubuntu then you don't need installed GUI in virtualbox, just use x-forwarde to physical pc just like me.

If you this do and still you have problem, then you have problem with 2D rendering on Ubuntu and you must change settings like me. So, change GPU driver, or change accel method (if you have intel GPU).

Another solution is install oracle with response file, not with GUI.
Or you can install Oracle with blind with broken GUI (If you know the installer or you can drag the mouse to view the broken/secret text).

Max

Hello,

Looks like it's anti-aliasing problem with java.

Anyway, setting

_JAVA_OPTIONS='-Dawt.useSystemAAFontSettings=lcd'

before running installer fix the problem on my env

user12016154 wrote:
Hello,
Looks like it's anti-aliasing problem with java.
Anyway, setting
_JAVA_OPTIONS='-Dawt.useSystemAAFontSettings=lcd'
before running installer fix the problem on my env

Thanks.  I'll give it a try.

I don't recall if I mentioned it before, but I have also observed what appears to be the same fundamental issue on a web page or two (not related to Oracle), and more recently what looks like could be the same in another app.  I use the DownThemAll plugin with Firefox.  When downloading a file, it gives me a window to select the destination directory, with a field pre-loaded with the last directory that was used.  Next to that field there is supposed to be a folder icon, to open a navigation dialog to pick a different directory.  That icon doesn't show, but I've discovered that if I hover the mouse over that area, it activates.  Again, I don't know if it is related or not, but seems mighty suspicious and possibly another clue.

user12016154 wrote:
Hello,
Looks like it's anti-aliasing problem with java.
Anyway, setting
_JAVA_OPTIONS='-Dawt.useSystemAAFontSettings=lcd'
before running installer fix the problem on my env

No joy.

In my Ubuntu terminal session, I did the following:

export _JAVA_OPTIONS='-Dawt.useSystemAAFontSettings=lcd'

ssh -X oracle@mysever

Then in the resulting ssh session, executed runInstaller and problem was same as before.  So within the ssh session itself I again issued "export _JAVA_OPTIONS='-Dawt.useSystemAAFontSettings=lcd' " and repeated runInstaller.  Still the problem persists.

I have a test system that exhibits this same behavior, performing the following order resulted in the OUI properly displaying the text for me:

1 - ssh -X <oracle user>@<oracle server>

2 - export _JAVA_OPTIONS='-Dawt.useSystemAAFontSettings=lcd'

3 - Launched OUI, which you will see in the console: "Picked up _JAVA_OPTIONS: -Dawt.useSystemAAFontSettings=lcd".

--

Exporting this variable on your workstation is not the correct location.  It needs to be executed on the system were OUI is running, as it modifies the Java Settings used by the OUI, which uses the Java that is local on the system where OUI/DBCA/DBUA,NETCA, etc is being run on.

Perhaps related:

hey this works !!

so far the best solution found

Fernando Madrigal Hidalgo wrote:
hey this works !!
so far the best solution found 

what works?

I started this thread 3 years ago ...