Ubuntu 20.04 installation gave my terminal all squares with 4 characters in them

Solution 1:

I managed to solve it by going into Preferences > Compatibility and selected Ambiguous-width characters: Wide. It seems it was set to Narrow.

Solution 2:

Prior to the upgrade, I'd selected a custom font in Preferences > [Profile] > Text, and ticked the Custom Font checkbox.

I suspect the upgrade retains the state of the checkbox but doesn't retain the font selected.

Simply selecting a custom font or unchecking the Custom Font checkbox worked for me.