Question: Unicode Malayalam fonts are not working properly after the version 10.04 LTS. Characters that should combine do not join each other.

Examples: വ്റ, ശ്രീ, ഗ്ര

I am using Ubuntu 14.04 LTS now

Answer: 
Install the package `ttf-malayalam-fonts` (`fonts-mlym` on 16.04+), if you haven't already done so. Then create the file `~/.config/fontconfig/conf.d/10-prefer-malayalam.conf` with the following contents:

```
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd">
<fontconfig>
        <alias>
                <family>serif</family>
                <prefer>
                        <family>Lohit Malayalam</family>
                </prefer>
        </alias>
        <alias>
                <family>sans-serif</family>
                <prefer>
                        <family>Lohit Malayalam</family>
                </prefer>
        </alias>
        <alias>
                <family>monospace</family>
                <prefer>
                        <family>Lohit Malayalam</family>
                </prefer>
        </alias>
</fontconfig>

```
Try this (Install Malayalam fonts in Ubuntu):

```
sudo apt-get install fonts-smc fonts-samyak-mlym fonts-mlym fonts-lohit-mlym

```

or check these pages out:
<https://smc.org.in/fonts/>

<https://www.google.com/get/noto/#sans-mlym>

<https://launchpad.net/~smcproject/+archive/ubuntu/repo>