Bug 132127 - Exposing the Safe Mode dialog's guided actions for use directly in normal mode
Summary: Exposing the Safe Mode dialog's guided actions for use directly in normal mode
Status: RESOLVED NOTABUG
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: LibreOffice (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
5.1 all versions
Hardware: All All
: medium normal
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords: needsDevAdvice, needsUXEval
Depends on:
Blocks: Safe-Mode
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Reported: 2020-04-15 16:17 UTC by Telesto
Modified: 2022-01-13 13:15 UTC (History)
5 users (show)

See Also:
Crash report or crash signature:


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Description Telesto 2020-04-15 16:17:03 UTC
Description:
Is there a technical reason to have the 'recover settings wizard/ safe mode wizard only accessible in safe mode? Our would it principle work in 'normal mode to'? It would make sense to directly access the recovery settings wizard from normal mode. Instead using the u-turn going to safe mode first from Help -> Start in safemode

I'm asking, because there quite some cases (major updates) with unexpected/ explainable crashes; probably caused by a profile corruption. However, LibreOffice is stable enough to go to Help -> Restart in safe mode. So could in theory also open the recovery wizard instead. 

Steps to Reproduce:
-

Actual Results:
Recover settings wizard in normal mode, only safe mode

Expected Results:
Maybe accessible from normal mode? If people can launch LibreOffice & go to the help menu already..


Reproducible: Always


User Profile Reset: No



Additional Info:
-
Comment 1 V Stuart Foote 2020-04-15 16:49:39 UTC
So use case would be the manage user profile (customizations & andd-ons) to quickly allow change to a different profile, or just back to "factory" settings?

For that small subset, profile/and reset defaults, I could see exposing outside the Safe mode dialog--but would it dilute the cohesive nature of the Safe mode?
Comment 2 Heiko Tietze 2020-04-17 14:00:08 UTC
Hard to imagine. Let's say you made the document background black and want to return to factory settings. What should happen? Restart the program, apply immediately, remember the reset until you restart the program? 

Samuel, your input please.
Comment 3 Telesto 2020-04-17 15:14:01 UTC
(In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #2)
> Hard to imagine. Let's say you made the document background black and want
> to return to factory settings. What should happen? Restart the program,
> apply immediately, remember the reset until you restart the program? 
> 
> Samuel, your input please.

A) Hard to imagine? There are quite a lot of bug reports with the advise to reset the user profile. [See bug tracker or ask Xisco] Why should be so cumbersome to go from say Help -> Restart to safe mode (while LibO seeming more or less in a working state. LibO needs to run for Help -> Restart to safe mode anyway)

B) Don't think a reset to factory setting is possible without a restart? And a program without profile seems a bad idea. So reset to factory settings + restart. Similar behavior as when changing in OpenGL mode/ Skia Vulkan etc.
And my vision is to make the (re-designed, bug 120269) settings recovery dialog to be accessible (no need for a new one). [Where I also propagated, a profile reset']. Alternative route: fresh profile, see D

C) And a factory reset is factory reset. Haven't seen a mobile phone with an option to go to factory reset once (to test :-). 

I enter safe-mode (say Windows Safe mode) if LibreOffice doesn't launch or crashes at launch etc. Say the direct shortcut on Windows; the in application reference to safe-mode unconventional, IMHO

D) An option to change to a different profile? Is there a need for it? Maybe? Firefox has a manager too. Could be an alternative route for backup. Create a fresh profile; and leave the old one lingering around. With some migration assistant to 'port' from one profile to another.
I personally don't switch profiles very often; in the sense of heaving multiple configurations by default. Only when regular 'profile' appears to broken somehow.
Comment 4 Heiko Tietze 2020-04-20 12:12:46 UTC
(In reply to Telesto from comment #3)
> There are quite a lot of bug reports with the advise to reset the user profile. 

Which could be one function, Reset (and restart).
 
Let's wait for Samuel's input.
Comment 5 Samuel Mehrbrodt (allotropia) 2020-04-21 09:34:10 UTC
Not much to add here.

By restarting in safe mode, you can already see if your issue was caused by the profile, since a temporary profile is used.

Sometimes LO can't even be started with the broken profile, so having safe mode in a fresh profile makes sense IMO.

This also forces the user to close all open documents before resetting anything.

So I think this is good by design, no need to have this exposed in normal mode (and it's quite easy accessible already).
Comment 6 Heiko Tietze 2022-01-13 13:15:49 UTC
The topic was on the agenda of the design meeting but did not receive further input. And since the idea was rejected I resolve it as WF/NAB.