# Gibberish on the status bar/splash screen? **URL:** \ **Category:** Emacs\ **Tags:** emacs\ **Created:** [January 24, 2025, 1:51am UTC](https://forum.systemcrafters.net/t/gibberish-on-the-status-bar-splash-screen/1343 "2025-01-24T01:51:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![vashinator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/7bcc69/32.png) [@vashinator](https://forum.systemcrafters.net/u/vashinator)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2025, 1:51am UTC](https://forum.systemcrafters.net/t/gibberish-on-the-status-bar-splash-screen/1343/1 "2025-01-24T01:51:35Z")
I am trying to go through some of the basics of emacs and using the crafted emacs setup. I’m just trying to get started with it. For some reason, I’m getting the below in the status bar/minibuffer. ![image](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/uploads/systemcrafters/optimized/1X/432fd0a08472b004ac0d978520f149f90f6d51f4_2_690x55.png) I was getting more on the screen but I set the default font to FiraCode Regular and that fixed the main area of the splash screen. I’ve done a bit of digging but not finding what I need. I suspect I’m just not using the correct phrase. ---
**Author:** ![BigEatie](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/user_avatar/forum.systemcrafters.net/bigeatie/32/247_2.png) [@BigEatie](https://forum.systemcrafters.net/u/BigEatie)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2025, 7:49am UTC](https://forum.systemcrafters.net/t/gibberish-on-the-status-bar-splash-screen/1343/2 "2025-01-24T07:49:03Z")
See if installing all-the-icons.el or nerd-fonts.el helps. If i recall correctly, i think just downloading the latter fixed the issue for me. ---
**Author:** ![ashraz](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/user_avatar/forum.systemcrafters.net/ashraz/32/509_2.png) [@ashraz](https://forum.systemcrafters.net/u/ashraz)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2025, 11:33am UTC](https://forum.systemcrafters.net/t/gibberish-on-the-status-bar-splash-screen/1343/3 "2025-01-24T11:33:56Z")
> [@vashinator](#): > > I am trying to go through some of the basics of emacs and using the crafted emacs setup. I’m just trying to get started with it. Could you please share the configuration that returns exactly that issue? Also, on which platform are you? ---
**Author:** ![vashinator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/7bcc69/32.png) [@vashinator](https://forum.systemcrafters.net/u/vashinator)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2025, 12:05pm UTC](https://forum.systemcrafters.net/t/gibberish-on-the-status-bar-splash-screen/1343/4 "2025-01-24T12:05:07Z")
I’m on Arch Linux. If I run `emacs -q` I end up with even more random symbols in the text in the window instead of just the minibuffer or status line. To add, this was present even when I started with a completely vanilla emacs with no config file. So I guess I’ve helped it a bit with the config so far. I tried `M-x package-install nerd-fonts` per the initial message. That didn’t seem to make a difference. I then tried to add this: `(set-frame-font "Fira Code 14" nil t)` This improved things some, but still have something wrong: ![image](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/uploads/systemcrafters/original/1X/9109f67fbe187db5b4d7e3f5b9a7a567f72a141e.png) Beyond the line mentioned above, my init.el is just the starting point of the crafted-emacs config. It hasn’t really done anything beyond set a custom.el and setup some packages to install. So I think you want the custom.el. Here that is: ```auto (custom-set-variables ;; custom-set-variables was added by Custom. ;; If you edit it by hand, you could mess it up, so be careful. ;; Your init file should contain only one such instance. ;; If there is more than one, they won't work right. '(completion-category-overrides '((file (styles partial-completion)))) '(completion-styles '(orderless basic)) '(corfu-auto t) '(corfu-auto-prefix 2) '(corfu-cycle t) '(load-prefer-newer t t) '(marginalia-annotators '(marginalia-annotators-heavy marginalia-annotators-light nil) t) '(package-archive-priorities '(("gnu" . 99) ("nongnu" . 80) ("stable" . 70) ("melpa" . 0))) '(package-selected-packages '(all-the-icons-nerd-fonts nerd-icons vertico orderless marginalia embark-consult embark corfu-terminal corfu consult cape)) '(vertico-cycle t)) (custom-set-faces ;; custom-set-faces was added by Custom. ;; If you edit it by hand, you could mess it up, so be careful. ;; Your init file should contain only one such instance. ;; If there is more than one, they won't work right. '(default ((t (:family "Fira Code" :foundry "CTDB" :slant normal :weight regular :height 142 :width normal)))) '(variable-pitch ((t (:family "FiraCode"))))) ``` Edit: I forgot to mention, when checking this I spotted the Fira Code vs `FiraCode` and tried changing that to have a space, this didn’t make a difference so I changed it back because emacs created this file due to the start of the init.el. Edit 2: I think I may have gotten this resolved. I found another example where this was but in the window so I could put the point on it and ran `M-x customize-face` it was inheriting from slant-face I believe and that was set to font family `monospace`. I’m a bit unsure why it was set that way. I was able to enter Fira Code and apply and (then save) and now I see the correct text. Also updated the theme. Can’t add another image in the same post. If someone has some info on how I could confirm this and make sure there are no other odd faces set like that, please let me know. ---
**Author:** ![ashraz](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/user_avatar/forum.systemcrafters.net/ashraz/32/509_2.png) [@ashraz](https://forum.systemcrafters.net/u/ashraz)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2025, 2:34pm UTC](https://forum.systemcrafters.net/t/gibberish-on-the-status-bar-splash-screen/1343/5 "2025-01-24T14:34:01Z")
> [@vashinator](#): > > I’m on Arch Linux Hm, I’m kinda able to reproduce this within `podman run --privileged -it archlinux:latest` for `emacs -nw`: ![Screenshot of emacs -nw showing broken links](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/uploads/systemcrafters/original/1X/11fc9ae02b3ed46b8ae756eddff442aec76ef961.png) It seems like the `help-key-binding` face is broken there. Check `M-x describe-face RET help-key-binding`. If its `sample` text (compare `M-x describe-face RET default RET`) has the same issue, then check what font it uses. You might be missing one. But I’m not able to reproduce this issue with a graphical interface: ```sh xhost +local: podman run --pid=host -e DISPLAY=$DISPLAY -v /tmp/.X11-unix:/tmp/.X11-unix:ro -it --privileged archlinux:latest ``` However, the latter one might be due to my remote X connection and client-side rendering, so disregard that. The Arch Linux wiki has two troubleshooting entries that might apply here: - [Problems displaying characters in X Windows](https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Emacs#Problems_displaying_characters_in_X_Windows) - [Weird escaped\_numbers (utf-8) displaying in emacs terminal](https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Emacs#Weird_escaped_numbers_(utf-8)_displaying_in_emacs_terminal) The latter sounds especially related to your issue, but again, I was not able to reproduce this within a podman container (and I don’t have time to whip out a complete VM at the moment). * * * > I found another example where this was but in the window so I could put the point on it and ran `M-x customize-face` it was inheriting from slant-face I believe and that was set to font family `monospace`. That sounds like an incomplete font-config. See [Fonts - ArchWiki](https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Fonts#Font_alias) and [Font configuration - ArchWiki](https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Font_configuration). At least on other Linux system I’m aware of, setting `monospace` will use the system-wide default font. Check `fc-match monospace`. If it returns nothing, then set a system-wide default for monospaced text. Here’s my result on Tumbleweed: ```sh for kind in monospace slant italic bold; do fc-match $kind; done ``` ```auto SourceCodePro-Regular.otf: "Source Code Pro" "Regular" Roboto-Regular.ttf: "Roboto" "Regular" Roboto-Regular.ttf: "Roboto" "Regular" Roboto-Regular.ttf: "Roboto" "Regular" ``` ---
**Author:** ![vashinator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/7bcc69/32.png) [@vashinator](https://forum.systemcrafters.net/u/vashinator)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2025, 4:10pm UTC](https://forum.systemcrafters.net/t/gibberish-on-the-status-bar-splash-screen/1343/6 "2025-01-24T16:10:54Z")
Thank you! I’ll try to work through these and confirm and mark this as the solution if it’s correct. I strongly suspect this is the right answer!