Hi,
following first this
namely the following
sudo apt-get install t1-xfree86-nonfree ttf-xfree86-nonfree ttf-xfree86-nonfree-syriac xfonts-75dpi xfonts-100dpi xfs xfstt libXft-dev libXext-dev python python-dev gcc g++ make binutils libx11-dev libxpm-dev libxft-dev libxext-dev build-essential
(although most were already installed except t1XXX-nonfree fonts and xfs/xfstt tha I suspect do the trick 
)
and a reboot fixed the issue, even with my original .rootrc (all Gui* and TTF* entries commented out ie defaulted)
Could we then safely assume that the reason is that xfs/xft is not used by default in Kubuntu in favor of xft2 or something equivalent? Dario should know
filimon