strange windows like behavior

[linuxmonkey]

Since a couple of days i have seen some very strange behavior on my laptop. Something that happens in windows when you caught a virus. I know the likelihood of a virus in linux are very very slim. But i dont understand what is going on:

1. the digital clock widget on my main bar is not (or only 1 number) shown anymore. I have removed the widget, and added it again. But nothing helps. Sometimes i see one number of the 4, most of the times no numbers at all.

2. i use clementine for music play. I have two outputs (a analog and a hdmi). I use both. But on some songs when i have selected the HDMI output it jumps back to
analog. In clementine i have selected the default output as HDMI. But every time i play certain songs it jumps back to the analog.

3. and today..the tooltips in the KDE menu have turned into a different language. I cant even read the symbols. I can see all the icons, but the text below the icons
is just plain weird. Other tooltips work fine. Just when i click the KDE button.

system: 4.10.0-37-generic #41~16.04.1-Ubuntu SMP Fri Oct 6 22:42:59 UTC 2017 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Install kubutu again?

[sithlord48]

#1 check the format of the clock display from the widgets settings ? that one ive not seen before.
#2 thats weird check system settings -> multimedia -> audio / video devices and be sure that music and video are set to output on the correct device.
#3 sounds like missing locale stuff and or your font not having those simbols in it they are [] box like characters shown?

[linuxmonkey]

thanks for your reply

#1 i changed the format to "show local time zone" and then the clock is displayed good. If i uncheck that box, only 1 number is visible.
#2 yeah if i go to multimedia ->audio and change the output device i get the sound over the hdmi. problem is, i have to do this every time (for some songs). Very very weird. Only some
songs trigger this response (going back to analog). It never switches to hdmi. only from hdmi to analog. annoying error.
#3 that problem miraculous dissappeard totday. Everything is visible again. I did do an apt-get update/upgrade.

So maybe something was missing.

What is also weird. Is that all my font sizes have shrunk incredibly. Every font on the system i mean. So if i open kate i can barely see the text. If i change the default font size...the size in kate is ok..but then the font size in the KDE menu is way to large. I cant seem to be able to find a good setting. Like it was i mean when i just installed the system.

[Snowhog]

When this issue presented, had you done anything with a GUI application launched using sudo, and subsequently made changes, i.e., did you launch Kate or Dolphin using sudo?

[linuxmonkey]

When this issue presented, had you done anything with a GUI application launched using sudo, and subsequently made changes, i.e., did you launch Kate or Dolphin using sudo?

in the past i did open kate using sudo. but i was told that wasnt good practice (if i remember correctly)..have not done in it in a long long time.