Invalid characters in alert on startup

[dahaupt]

Your Environment

• Version used: 7.13.2 (snap)
• Operating System and version: Ubuntu 23.04
• Desktop Environment: GNOME 44.0, Wayland

Can you reproduce this reliably?

Yes, on every startup.

[github-actions[bot]]

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[johannesjo]

I am not able to reproduce this. Maybe anybody knows how to?

[dahaupt]

I was able to get rid of the alert message by manually editing my JSON data.

1. Changed globalConfig.sync.syncProvider to null (previously set to GoogleDrive)
2. Removed globalConfig.sync.googleDriveSync

The alert was working fine since upgrading Ubuntu to 23.04.

[johannesjo]

Glad that it works for you! Thanks for reporting back. Likely the problem will reappear with other native dialogs though I'd assume :/

[github-actions[bot]]

This issue has not received any updates in 90 days. Please comment, if this still relevant!

[KatrinIhler]

I've been seeing invalid characters as well for a while now, in my case if the local data conflicts with the remote. Luckily, by now I know which option does what, even without letters. ;)

I'm running a Ubuntu 23.10 with Gnome 45 and Wayland, currently on SP 7.16.0 installed with snap. If I remember correctly, my Fedora is not experiencing those issues.

Edit: Also happened when reproducing #2940:

See that issue for further information on my system.

[KatrinIhler]

Would be grateful if we could reopen this. :)

[github-actions[bot]]

This issue has not received any updates in 90 days. Please comment, if this still relevant!

[KatrinIhler]

Just saw this issue last week :sweat_smile: Only occurs on my Ubuntu, not on my Fedora. If you need more information, I will gladly provide it.

[johannesjo]

Does executing

sudo rm /var/cache/fontconfig/*
rm ~/.cache/fontconfig/*
fc-cache -r

help?

(https://github.com/electron-userland/electron-builder/issues/5217)

Also the logs from executing superproductivity from the command line would be helpful!

[KatrinIhler]

That unfortunately didn't help. Will provide logs when I can.

[johannesjo]

Could you maybe do another test for me? If you open up the console (Ctrl+Shift+i) and then type alert("something") and then press enter, how will the characters appear inside the dialog that opens? And what happens if you repeat the same steps for confirm("something")?

[dahaupt]

I have not noticed this issue again after upgrading Ubuntu to 24.04 LTS.

[mvalim]

I can confirm that with alert('ok') and confirm('ok') the alert dialog show wrong characters.

I'm using Manjaro Linux, and installed the app via snapcraft, found this link searching for related problems with electron https://github.com/electron-userland/electron-builder/issues/5217 don't know if the comments in there can be usefull

[mvalim]

Maybe the easiest way to solve this problem is by using an alternative alerts library. I've noticed in your package.json that you import the angular material library, maybe using the angular material dialog component would be a good alternative https://material.angular.io/components/dialog/examples.

I have experience with angular and if you want, when I have some spare time, I can make a pull request changing the places where confirmation and alerts are shown to use the material dialog component.

[johannesjo]

@mvalim the behavior of alert and confirm is different since they (1) pause the execution of all code (which is kind of what we want for some of these dialogs and (2) they can appear beyond the bounds of the application. So simply replacing them won't work :)

[mvalim]

After using the app a bit more, I noticed that just replacing would not work in some cases. I hope you find a solution soon, I will fork the project and will do some research and tests, if I find something useful that could help solve the problem I'll tell you

[johannesjo]

Thank @mvalim ! Much appreciated! I hope you find something!

[justAnotherAnotherUser]

Does executing

sudo rm /var/cache/fontconfig/*
rm ~/.cache/fontconfig/*
fc-cache -r

help?

(electron-userland/electron-builder#5217)

Also the logs from executing superproductivity from the command line would be helpful!

i am here to report that executing these commands seemed to have worked for me