Bug 135645 - LO corrupts bitmaps and crashes in X11 with 16 bit color (TrueColor)
Summary: LO corrupts bitmaps and crashes in X11 with 16 bit color (TrueColor)
Status: NEW
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: LibreOffice (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
6.4.0.1 rc
Hardware: x86-64 (AMD64) Linux (All)
: medium normal
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks: Crash
  Show dependency treegraph
 
Reported: 2020-08-11 19:37 UTC by crxssi
Modified: 2022-10-13 18:17 UTC (History)
4 users (show)

See Also:
Crash report or crash signature:


Attachments
Corruption of UI bitmaps in 16 bit color (86.38 KB, image/png)
2020-08-11 19:39 UTC, crxssi
Details

Note You need to log in before you can comment on or make changes to this bug.
Description crxssi 2020-08-11 19:37:00 UTC
Description:
Under Linux/X11 (tested in CentOS 8) when using a 16 bit color Xserver (also called TrueColor):  All versions NEWER than 6.3.6(.2) show UI bitmap corruption and then will crash when any document creation operation is performed.

This is a problem for my environment because we use lots of thin clients and 24 bit color creates 33% more network activity than 16 bit color.  Have no problems with any other programs in 16 bit color (including latest Firefox and recent GIMP).

Steps to Reproduce:
Install LO version newer than 6.3, set display to 16 bit color, launch LO.

Actual Results:
bitmap corruption/crash

Expected Results:
no corruption/crashes


Reproducible: Always


User Profile Reset: Yes



Additional Info:
Can't paste help-> about.  Any menu selections cause LO to crash.

Crash report uploaded
crashreport.libreoffice.org/stats/crash_details/88876691-8c91-4d6a-a34f-27e12da2cf5a
Comment 1 crxssi 2020-08-11 19:39:08 UTC
Created attachment 164178 [details]
Corruption of UI bitmaps in 16 bit color
Comment 2 Xisco Faulí 2020-08-12 09:43:42 UTC
Thank you for reporting the bug.
Could you please try to reproduce it with the latest version of LibreOffice from https://www.libreoffice.org/download/libreoffice-fresh/ ?
I have set the bug's status to 'NEEDINFO'. Please change it back to 'UNCONFIRMED' if the bug is still present in the latest version.
Comment 3 crxssi 2020-08-12 11:17:29 UTC
Yes, it affects every version, starting with 6.4.0 and including 7.0.0.  In 7.0.0 it is so bad that it crashes immediately after the initial windows are drawn.
Comment 4 crxssi 2020-08-12 21:38:52 UTC
Sorry, I should clarify that because we are using thin clients, I am NOT using the console (a locally-connected Xserver).  LO is running on a server and displaying, through X11, on remote 16-bit-display machines.  Anyone can simulate this by using ssh.  I will follow up with some additional testing, soon, to try and see if it can be narrowed down any more.
Comment 5 crxssi 2020-08-14 00:41:27 UTC
OK, I have key information after hours of trying things.  The problem only exists if you are using the "generic" VCL (LibreOffice's built-in theme/UI) with 16 bit color with LO > 6.3.  Using the generic VCL occurs if you don't install the gnome-integration package (which is an optional package), OR if you use

 export SAL_USE_VCLPLUGIN="gen"

before launching LO to force the generic VCL.  This is probably why I have not seen any other reports of this issue- it is rare, but will bite certain users (and my users fall in that category).  You might ask "why not just use gtk3 VCL?"  Well, we can, but it is MUCH slower running remotely/thin client with scrolling, menus, and selecting text, and certain other operations.  For example, selecting text is at least 500% slower, and very noticeable/annoying, even at 100Mb/s.


So, to replicate this problem:

1) Install/prep LibreOffice 6.4.0 or newer.
2) Change your Xserver to 16 bit TrueColor.
3) Launch LO with
   export SAL_USE_VCLPLUGIN="gen" ; $INSTALLPATH/program/soffice

-OR-

3) Remove the LO gnome-integration package and launch LO.
Comment 6 tmacalp 2020-09-02 13:46:42 UTC
I testing this using LO 7.0.0.3 under Linux Mint 19.3, while forcing 16 bit color and specify generic vcl, but I can't even get to the main menu.  LO crashes on launch, shows a Document Recovery dialog with no documents in it, and a Crash Report dialog.

As soon as I close the Document Recovery dialog, the program crashes again, showing the same two dialogs.  It'll do this over and over forever, unless the application is manually killed.  Also, the Document Recovery dialog has focus, with no way to actually interact with the Crash Recovery dialog to send a crash report.

I haven't reported any bugs in a while, so I will only confirm.  But according to the old bug prioritization flowchart, a crash on startup that affects a clean install would suggest an importance of at least medium critical, since it might not affect that many users?
Comment 7 crxssi 2022-03-19 02:08:16 UTC
It has been 1.5 years since I reported this.  I am just posting to let anyone reading know it is still a big issue for us and it is keeping us trapped on older versions.  Thanks
Comment 8 Julien Nabet 2022-10-13 18:17:24 UTC
(In reply to tmacalp from comment #6)
> ...
> I haven't reported any bugs in a while, so I will only confirm.  But
> according to the old bug prioritization flowchart, a crash on startup that
> affects a clean install would suggest an importance of at least medium
> critical, since it might not affect that many users?

IMHO letting the priority/importance as it is is ok since it's a corner case 16 bit depth color.

I searched a bit how to have 16 bit color but /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/ is empty for me (I'm on pc Debian testing x86-64 updated today). So I wouldn't like to copy paste a manual config found on the net which may damage my monitor.