furrywolf Author

Level 1

4 points

Fonts on Startup and login screen - question marks

After boot/re-boot all fonts on the login screens are replaced with the question mark-in-square character.

My user folder is hosted on a second SSD, not the startup SSD.

This issue is not present on the lock screen.

The issue clears up in safe mode.

Lock Screen

I have done the steps here: MacBook - characters in login screen replaced by question marks - Ask Different

Validated all of the fonts
I have a lot of duplicate fonts and one font that has a bad 'kern' table structure and contents.
Cleared the font caches while logged in to my user account:

atsutil databases -removeUser

sudoatsutil databases -remove

atsutil server -shutdown

atsutil server -ping

I haven't removed duplicate fonts yet, but many of them have been disabled.

I'm not sure it matters, I have encrypted drives.

Hardware Overview:

Model Name: MacBook Pro

Model Identifier: MacBookPro8,1

Processor Name: Intel Core i7

Processor Speed: 2.7 GHz

Number of Processors: 1

Total Number of Cores: 2

L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB

L3 Cache: 4 MB

Memory: 16 GB

Boot ROM Version: MBP81.0050.B00

SMC Version (system): 1.68f96

System Version: macOS 10.13.6 (17G65)

Kernel Version: Darwin 17.7.0

Boot Volume: Macintosh

Boot Mode: Normal

Computer Name: **************

User Name: ****************

Secure Virtual Memory: Enabled

System Integrity Protection: Disabled

Time since boot: 4:10

MacBook Pro, macOS High Sierra (10.13.6), 16GB RAM, 2x2TB SSD

Posted on Jul 26, 2018 11:00 AM

Top-ranking reply

Kurt Lang

Level 9

68,520 points

Posted on Jul 27, 2018 6:49 PM

It's likely one of those duplicate fonts is conflicting with a system font.

Open Font Book. From the menu bar, run the option, Restore Standard Fonts. This will move all third party fonts out of the three Fonts folders (System, Library, User) into a new folder next to each of the Fonts folders.

Restart in Safe Mode. Then restart normally.

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17 replies

Kurt Lang

Level 9

68,520 points

Aug 21, 2018 1:17 PM in response to furrywolf

Sophos has intercepted a Trojan lately (Windows) but what I pay for it in overhead when a scan starts up hardly seems worth it.

Exactly. The only use AV software has on a Mac is to let you know if you've gotten Windows malware as an email attachment, or download. Such malware can't do anything to a Mac. So you are again protecting yourself against nothing. Its only use is that you would know not to forward that email or software to a Windows user. But email is more than easy enough to control yourself. If it has an attachment you don't recognize, don't forward it.

The NVIDIA drivers are installed for an eGPU (Apple recently stopped supporting NVIDIA eGPUs and I use CUDA in a couple of cases)

I have the Mac Edition EVGA (Nvidia) GTX680 in my 2010 Mac Pro. Mac apps will always first prefer to use Metal, which isn't a big deal since that is also video hardware acceleration. But I see what you mean. Premiere Pro automatically detected and uses Metal. While the card I have installed also supports CUDA, without the drivers for it, InDesign doesn't detect hardware acceleration, and the check box to turn it on is grayed out.

furrywolf Author

Level 1

4 points

Aug 28, 2018 8:34 PM in response to Kurt Lang

The NVIDIA issue is with eGPUs. Internal PCI cards still work fine.

- the mac finally started slogging down and with too many permutations of what to remove and keep, I ended up doing a clean install and I’m using my TM backups to make a reckoning of what apps, etc that I had installed that weren’t hacks or unsigned kexts, etc. it will take a while to get everything back to normal, but there is too much detriuous from previous apps that are long since deleted and other data that I just need to clean it all out.

with that said, I need to sweep out my Library folders of preferences, application Support, etc from apps, drivers, and other stuff that no longer needs to be on here and needs to be safely removed. Does anyone have suggestions - I can also just do a search on the community. I definitely want an app that has been seriously vette. I don’t want to take any chances at all after having wiped and reinstalled everything.

thanks you guys for helping out.

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Fonts on Startup and login screen - question marks