Empty boxes are Wingdings, not a corrupt download.

The diagnosis in one minute

If WPS will not start at all, you have a package or library problem — will not open and the Linux handbook. If the file opens, you can read sentences, and only bullets, stars, checkboxes, or heading metrics look wrong, you have fonts. Windows documents assume Microsoft faces. A clean Ubuntu image has Liberation and Noto. Substitution shifts titles. Symbol fonts become tofu. That is expected. It is not proof the RPM is malware and it is not proof Kingsoft shipped a broken binary.

Prefer the current Deb or RPM from wps.com/office/linux. Community PPAs from 2021 kept people alive and left unsigned leftovers. This site does not host packages.

Legal ways to get the faces

On Debian and Ubuntu, ttf-mscorefonts-installer is the package many labs already know. It downloads Microsoft core fonts and asks you to accept a EULA. That is the supported-looking path for Arial, Times New Roman, Courier New, and related faces. Calibri is not always in that classic bundle; some campuses add a separate licensed copy, Carlito (metric-compatible with Calibri), or Caladea for Cambria. Wingdings and Symbol are the usual checkbox killers. If your distro’s package set does not include them legally, switch the slide master to a Unicode symbol font you do have, or export PDF from Windows.

Never paste a “Windows fonts pack.zip” from an advertising site into ~/.fonts. That is how you get a second problem. If you dual-boot and own a Windows license, copying fonts you are licensed to use from the Windows partition is a common personal-machine approach — still your license, still not something we can bless for a lab image. Follow your institution.

Install, cache, restart

Use your package manager. On Ubuntu, that is typically apt after you enable the multiverse component that carries mscorefonts — your distro’s current docs win over a copied command from 2018. Accept the EULA in the text UI if it appears; people think the install hung when it is waiting for Yes. Then update the font cache (fc-cache -fv is the usual volunteer advice) and fully quit WPS. A file picker restart is not enough. Reopen the PPTX. Check the master, not only slide 1.

Fedora and other RPM systems have their own packages or the same license problem. The idea is identical: install faces you are allowed to have, refresh cache, restart. Flatpak builds may not see host fonts until you grant filesystem access; that is a sandbox issue, not a corrupt download.

Stop “fixing” the file on the wrong machine

Opening a Windows PPTX on Linux to change one date can still shift every footer. If the talk is graded on layout, change the date on Windows or freeze PDF for the audience and keep the PPTX only for the presenter. Format compatibility and Word to PDF apply harder on Linux because the font gap is wider. HiDPI and Wayland can also mis-paint the ribbon; try an X11 session before you reinstall the suite.

MIME types: after fonts look right, decide whether WPS or LibreOffice owns DOCX. Living with both is healthy. Students submitting files that “looked fine at home” is how labs write policies. See file associations for the Windows version of that fight.

Fedora, Flatpak, deepin, and the dual-boot machine

Fedora and other RPM desktops do not always ship ttf-mscorefonts-installer under that Debian name. Search your repo for mscorefonts, liberation, google-crosextra-carlito, or the current metric-compatible packages your legal team already approved. The EULA click is the point: you are accepting Microsoft’s core fonts terms, not installing a pirate ZIP. If the package is absent, Carlito plus Liberation is a decent everyday substitute for Calibri and Times-like text. Symbol-heavy decks may still need a Windows-side PDF freeze.

Flatpak or Snap WPS — when you use those channels at all — may not see fonts you installed only on the host until you grant filesystem access to /usr/share/fonts and ~/.local/share/fonts. That looks identical to “WPS is broken” and is a sandbox permission. Prefer Kingsoft’s Deb/RPM from the official Linux page unless you have a reason to containerize. deepin users sometimes find the suite feels at home; that shared vendor history is not a font certificate. You still install faces.

Dual-boot is the tempting shortcut: copy C:\Windows\Fonts into your Linux home fonts directory because you own the Windows license on that machine. That can be legitimate for personal use and still the wrong move on a lab image you will clone to 30 students. Follow the institution. Never copy fonts you do not license. After any copy, fc-cache and a full WPS quit remain mandatory. If bullets still fail, the file is using a face you did not copy — Wingdings 2, a designer display font, or an embedded subset that did not embed. Export PDF from Windows.

Wayland versus X11 still produces paint quirks that people mis-file as font bugs. If the ribbon is blank but exported PDF looks correct, you have a window-system issue. Try X11. If the PDF also has tofu, you still have fonts. Related: Linux handbook.

Numbered font steps

1. Open the file. If body text is readable and only symbols or heading metrics failed, continue here. Do not re-download a random package.
2. Confirm WPS itself came from Kingsoft’s Linux page.
3. Install a legal core-fonts package (often ttf-mscorefonts-installer on Ubuntu) and/or metric-compatible families (Carlito, etc.). Accept the EULA.
4. Refresh the font cache. Log out if faces do not list in WPS’s font box.
5. Quit WPS completely. Reopen the DOCX or PPTX. Inspect symbol bullets and the slide master.
6. If layout must match Windows exactly, export PDF from the Windows machine or after fonts are known-good. Do not keep editing the live PPTX as a date-stamp tool.

Related: Linux, compatibility, troubleshooting, download.