linuxmint / linuxmint/mintupdate

Details window uses double spacing of characters (characters seem to have double wide bounding boxes) impairing readability

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BUG
Dominant language
Python
Stars
425
Forks
190
PR merge metrics
No merged PRs in 30d

Description

Describe the bug
A clear and concise description of what the bug is.

Screenshots

Image

Steps to reproduce

  1. Wait for update to be available, or choose some item to remove, and proceed
  2. Click "Details" button once shown
  3. Observe that c h a r a c t e r s a r e d o u b l e - s p a c e d
  4. Once finished, check the log under View => Information and see that characters showing d a t e a n d t i m e are also double-spaced. By marking one character you can see that the extra spacing is caused by wider bounding box, not an added space.

Expected behaviour
Characters should be single-spaced because double-spacing makes them hard to read.

Distribution:
Linux Mint 22.3 Xfce

Software version:
mintupdate 7.1.4

Logs:
2026.09.04@16:25 ++ Launching Update Manager
2026.09.04@16:25 ++ Initial refresh will happen in 0 day(s), 0 hour(s) and 10 minute(s)
2026.09.04@16:25 ++ Inhibited power management
2026.09.04@16:25 ++ Checking for updates
2026.09.04@16:25 ++ System is up to date
2026.09.04@16:25 ++ Refresh finished
2026.09.04@16:25 ++ Resumed power management

vs. screenshot:

Image

Additional context
I thought perhaps it is a font issue, but this does not appear to be the system default monospace font, so I can't seem to be able to change it. The equivalent dialog in Synaptic does not show double spaces, but it uses a different font so perhaps it's unrelated.

Locale:
If the problem is with text not getting displayed correctly, paste the output of the terminal command locale.
LANG=en_CA.UTF-8
LANGUAGE=en_CA:en
LC_CTYPE="en_CA.UTF-8"
LC_NUMERIC="en_CA.UTF-8"
LC_TIME="en_CA.UTF-8"
LC_COLLATE="en_CA.UTF-8"
LC_MONETARY="en_CA.UTF-8"
LC_MESSAGES="en_CA.UTF-8"
LC_PAPER="en_CA.UTF-8"
LC_NAME="en_CA.UTF-8"
LC_ADDRESS="en_CA.UTF-8"
LC_TELEPHONE="en_CA.UTF-8"
LC_MEASUREMENT="en_CA.UTF-8"
LC_IDENTIFICATION="en_CA.UTF-8"
LC_ALL=

Contributor guide

No contributing guide indexed for this repository

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Reproduce the issue by opening the Details window after an update action, then compare its text with the View => Information log on Linux Mint 22.3 Xfce using mintupdate 7.1.4. Trace the UI entry point for the Details dialog and its log display. Done means both views render characters with normal single spacing without impairing readability.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
python
Domain
desktop
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
3/5
Estimated time
1-2 days
Activity status
Active
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
55/100

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