fix-freetype-bug.sh

#/bin/bash

# Installs libfreetype6 2.8.0 into affected electron app.
# For more details ee:
#   https://github.com/atom/atom/issues/15737
#   https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/issues/35675

CRT=$(dpkg-query --showformat='${Version}' --show libfreetype6)
CRT=$(echo $CRT | sed -e 's/-.*$//g')

if [ "$CRT" != "2.8.1" ]; then
    echo "libfreetype6 2.8.1 not installed (got $CRT instead), nothing to do."
    exit
fi

CPU=$(uname -p)
ARCH=$(dpkg --print-architecture)
DEB="libfreetype6_2.8-0.2ubuntu2_$ARCH.deb"
URL="http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/f/freetype/$DEB"

copy_freetype () {
    if [ -d "$1" ]; then 
        cp ./usr/lib/$CPU-linux-gnu/libfreetype.so.* $1 
        echo "Copied libfreetype6 2.8.0 to '$1'."
    else
        echo "Skipping '$1', not installed."
    fi
}

# create tmp folder and cd
mkdir -p /tmp/fix-freetype-electron
cd /tmp/fix-freetype-electron > /dev/null

# download freetype 2.8.0 deb
wget -q $URL ./

# unpack deb
dpkg -x libfreetype6_2.8-0.2ubuntu2_amd64.deb .

# atom
copy_freetype /usr/share/atom/

# atom-beta
copy_freetype /usr/share/atom-beta/

# vscode
copy_freetype /usr/share/code/

# vscode-insiders
copy_freetype /usr/share/code-insiders/

# add you own...
if [ "" != "$1" ]; then
    copy_freetype "$1"
fi

# cleanup
cd - > /dev/null
rm -rf /tmp/fix-freetype-electron

echo "---"
echo "All done."

Usage:
chmod +x ./fix-freetype-bug.sh
./fix-freetype-bug.sh # tries to fix atom and vscode
fix-freetype-bug.sh /path/to/other/affected/electron/app # tries to fix atom, vscode and your custom electron app

Thanks for efforts. It's working fine in Lubuntu 18.04

Really nice! Thanks!

Thanks a lot for this! Working fine on Debian Testing XFCE/Openbox

Nice! Thanks, it fixed the problem in Visual Studio Code 1.21.1 on Ubuntu Mate 18.04.

Really nice, working fine on Ubuntu 18.04 with atom.
Thanks a lot!