Sprayfly

I’m running Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex 8.10 and after installing Adobe Flash and Adobe Air, I noticed that neither would display Chinese characters, instead just displaying those pesky little square boxes (囗囗囗囗）that all users of Chinese Ubuntu dread.

However, there is a fix for the problem - which seems to have something to do with this file:
/etc/fonts/conf.d/49-sansserif.conf

You simply need to change the below code:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd">
<fontconfig>
<!--
If the font still has no generic name, add sans-serif
-->
<match target="pattern">
<test qual="all" name="family" compare="not_eq">
<string>sans-serif</string>
</test>
<test qual="all" name="family" compare="not_eq">
<string>serif</string>
</test>
<test qual="all" name="family" compare="not_eq">
<string>monospace</string>
</test>
<edit name="family" mode="append_last">
<string>sans-serif</string>
</edit>
</match>
</fontconfig>


To the following:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd">
<fontconfig>
<!--
If the font still has no generic name, add sans-serif
-->
<match target="pattern">
<test qual="all" name="family" compare="not_eq">
<string>sans-serif</string>
</test>
<test qual="all" name="family" compare="not_eq">
<string>serif</string>
</test>
<test qual="all" name="family" compare="not_eq">
<string>monospace</string>
</test>
<edit name="family" mode="append_last">
<string>sans</string>
</edit>
</match>
</fontconfig>

Basically, you just change the “sans-serif” on one line to “sans”

Some users have suggested simply deleting the /etc/fonts/conf.d/49-sansserif.conf file (which is not actually a file but rather a symbolic link to /etc/fonts/conf.avail/49-sansserif.conf). This is not recommended as it is irreversible and furthermore for me it broke my logon screen - when I typed in my username and password I could only see some more boxes (even though I was typing in english).

Anyway, hope this is useful to somebody else out there. For more info, check this forum post.