I am having this exact problem. I compiled my project for an embedded arm device, linux desktop, and windows desktop. The windows and linux hosts display the characters correctly, where the embedded device just shows nothing.

I'm using the Noto fonts https://www.google.com/get/noto/#sans-hans and am positive it is being used on the linux desktop, since if I don't copy the font into the same directory as the application, it just shows blocks. When the font is in the directory, it shows everything properly.

I tried the same thing with the embedded build, and nothing shows up. The font being loaded, since if it's not in the directory, it complains that it can't load it. Is there some extra switch or rendering tool/application that embedded linux needs? I've tried with both 'linuxfb' and 'egl' platforms with no success.

Thanks in advance for any help.