Switch default monospace font from JetBrains Mono to AdwaitaMono Nerd Font

[Copilot]

Drops our custom monospace font diff from upstream GNOME by replacing JetBrains Mono with the nerd-fonts-patched build of GNOME's own Adwaita Mono, preserving Nerd Font icon support in terminals.

Changes

• Containerfile: Add xz to the Alpine build deps; download and extract AdwaitaMono.tar.xz from nerd-fonts v3.4.0 into usr/share/fonts/AdwaitaMono/ in the shared system layer
• zz0-bluefin-modifications.gschema.override: Swap monospace-font-name:

  -monospace-font-name="JetBrains Mono 16"
  +monospace-font-name="AdwaitaMono Nerd Font Mono 13"

  Uses the Mono (single-width) variant; size 13 is closer to GNOME defaults than the previous 16.

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[ehsanullahjan]

bluefin currently includes adwaita-fonts-all and jetbrains-mono-fonts-all. these normal fonts are then patched by nerd-fonts from che/nerd-fonts.

unfortunately, che/nerdfonts have not yet updated their package for adwaita mono. i just left them a comment requesting an update for the font (a config change and then a rebuild).

ideally, you'd want to follow the same approach (install normal font, patch with nerd-fonts). however, the fact that adwaita mono is not yet patched, a direct download from the nerd fonts website is a fine stop gap.

once this is merged in common, are you planning to remove the corresponding code from bluefin?

[castrojo]

There's got to be an official way to get this font from GNOME itself?

[ehsanullahjan]

gnome already provides adwaita fonts by default. the mono font even comes with nerd font icons built-in. except, the git branch icon doesn't render correctly.

we could just remove adwaita and jetbrains fonts from packages.sh to align with upstream. plus, maybe the git branch icon getting chopped should be a bug report to gnome?

see the stock silverblue 43 image below for reference:

[castrojo]

SGTM, is there a fallback? I know in the past this would break people's terminals font until they fixed it.

[ehsanullahjan]

wdym by fallback font? the bundled adwaita mono works fine except the git symbol as far as i know.

rn we're explicitly installing adwaita-fonts-all which is unnecessary as upstream already bundles it. if we move to adwaita, the git symbol will be broken for starship. this will break ux for users since we ship starship by default. so, this doesn't look like a good option until either upstream fixes the font or we replace it with its patched version from https://www.nerdfonts.com/.

in order to not degrade the ux, here's what i suggest:

• open a bug with upstream to fix adwaita mono
• don't explicitly install adwaita-fonts-all (provided by upstream already)
• continue shipping jetbrains font
• continue shipping che/nerd-fonts (necessary for nerd symbols)
• reduce mono font size to a more reasonable value (e.g., 11, 12, or 13 instead of 16) [upstream's default mono size is 11]

once upstream fixes their font, we can back out jetbrains and set adwaita mono as the default font for new installations. also not that upstream ships a number of monospace fonts like noto sans mono, liberation mono, dejavu sans mono, etc. we could also pick one of them as the default instead of shipping jetbrains font, if desired.

[ehsanullahjan]

Opened issue upstream: https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/adwaita-fonts/-/work_items/27.

[ehsanullahjan]

upstream has closed the ticket - they won't provide a fix. so, @castrojo, your call as to how you'd like this tackled. we could just keep jetbrains mono as the default monospace font, but maybe reduce size to 11, 12 or 13. alternatively, we could just go with upstream adwaita mono as the default, and potentially remove jetbrains mono, if desired.

i've used both the upstream adwaita mono and nf adwaitamono nerd font extensively. the only difference i've ever noticed is in rendering of the starship prompt (the > symbol) and the git branch symbol. the images below show both versions.

upstream adwaita mono font:

nf adwaitamono nerd font:

the two symbols noted render slightly differently but i'm not quite sure if anything is broken. i think we can 100% go with the upstream font, no issue.

let me know what you think.

[pfanzola]

• reduce mono font size to a more reasonable value (e.g., 11, 12, or 13 instead of 16) [upstream's default mono size is 11]

could be also useful to reduce the size of "Interface" font since in upstream it's 11.

default parameters

[castrojo]

Thanks for all the work! Let's fix the font size to be normal. This is an artifact of when it was a personal image of mine and I roll with large fonts. The new font slider thing in GNOME is awesome so we can just ship stock.

Let's keep Jetbrains Mono for now it's got the full nerd coverage and it's still an awesome font.

[ehsanullahjan]

ok, i'm going to create a pull request with the following config shortly:

font-name="Adwaita Sans 11"
document-font-name="Adwaita Sans 12"
monospace-font-name="JetBrains Mono 11"

[hanthor]

Manually verified: download URL returns 200, and AdwaitaMono Nerd Font Mono is the correct font family name inside the tarball. CI build passes. LGTM — ready to merge once promoted from draft.

[hanthor]

Switching to AdwaitaMono Nerd Font stays close to upstream GNOME while preserving Nerd Font terminal icons. CI passes, already approved. Approved.

[hanthor]

Switching to AdwaitaMono Nerd Font stays close to upstream GNOME while preserving Nerd Font terminal icons. CI passes, already approved. Approved.

[castrojo]

🤖 Copilot Test Report

Branch: copilot/drop-font-diff-and-update-to-adwaita | ⚠️ 121 commits behind main | Tested: 2026-05-30T04:50Z

Test Results

Test	Result
just check (syntax validation)	✅ PASS
Branch freshness	⚠️ 121 commits behind main

Note

This is the oldest open PR in the queue. The font override change has since been merged separately (see #348 which is at HEAD and also carries lgtm). Reviewers should confirm whether this PR is still needed or if #348 supersedes it entirely.

⚠️ Action Required

Rebase onto main before merge, and confirm there's no duplicate work with #348.

[castrojo]

Closing — superseded by #348 which drops the same monospace font override and is already at HEAD. The actual change here is identical; this branch is 121 commits behind main and has a merge conflict.