Bug 144813 - Tabbed UI (drop down box) and sidebar options - rapid blinking/flashing when GTK_IM_MODULE=xim
Summary: Tabbed UI (drop down box) and sidebar options - rapid blinking/flashing when ...
Status: NEW
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: UI (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
7.2.1.2 release
Hardware: All Linux (All)
: medium normal
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
: 151686 154134 (view as bug list)
Depends on:
Blocks: Sidebar Notebookbar-Tabbed
  Show dependency treegraph
 
Reported: 2021-09-29 18:04 UTC by Chris D
Modified: 2023-03-12 06:42 UTC (History)
6 users (show)

See Also:
Crash report or crash signature:


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Description Chris D 2021-09-29 18:04:16 UTC
Description:
Libre Office writer.
Within ribbon tabs: 
[Home] Font and sizes 
[Layout] Formatting
The drop down boxes exhibit continuous rapid blinking/flashing, which get worse when the cursor is moved across the ribbon. Also, this same problem becomes manifest when any of the Sidebar options are selected.

In addition, [Layout] Formatting, border appears to be missing for lower two boxes, I.e. shows a dashed line instead - ribbon may have to be widened slightly to show this lower border.

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Open LO Writer
2. Initiate ribbon interface
3. Select either [Home] or [Layout]tab
4. Scan cursor anywhere across the ribbon
5. Click on sidebar settings and select any of the 8 available options

Actual Results:
When [Home] or [Layout] tab selected drop down boxes exhibit continuous rapid blinking/flashing.

When any of the Sidebar options are selected (upon opening), the whole of the opened panel blinks/flashes in unison with the above drop down boxes.

Expected Results:
Stable drop down boxes and sidebar options - no blinking/flashing.


Reproducible: Always


User Profile Reset: Yes


OpenGL enabled: Yes

Additional Info:
Version: 7.2.1.2 / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: 20(Build:2)
CPU threads: 4; OS: Linux 5.4; UI render: default; VCL: gtk3
Locale: en-GB (en_GB.UTF-8); UI: en-GB
Ubuntu package version: 1:7.2.1-0ubuntu0.18.04.1~lo1
Calc: threaded
Comment 1 Xisco Faulí 2021-11-08 15:25:28 UTC
Thank you for reporting the bug. To be certain the reported issue is not related to corruption in the user profile, could you please reset your Libreoffice profile ( https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/UserProfile ) and re-test?

I have set the bug's status to 'NEEDINFO'. Please change it back to 'UNCONFIRMED' if the issue is still present
Comment 2 Chris D 2021-11-08 16:26:49 UTC
Profile reset - issue continues.

Additional information
Whilst performing a test in safe mode, it seems that the issue is not only confined to ribbon mode, but in standard mode as well.
Comment 3 Roland Baudin 2022-02-09 08:44:27 UTC
I have the same problem: I use the standard UI on Linux (LO 7.3, Ubuntu 20.04) and the sidebar flickers when the mouse pointer is over it.

Very annoying...

Version: 7.3.0.3 / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: 30(Build:3)
CPU threads: 96; OS: Linux 5.13; UI render: default; VCL: gtk3
Locale: fr-CH (fr_FR.UTF-8); UI: fr-FR
Ubuntu package version: 1:7.3.0~rc3-0ubuntu0.20.04.1~lo1
Comment 4 Roland Baudin 2022-02-12 09:48:01 UTC
A precision: this only occurs when the sidebar is deployed.
Comment 5 Buovjaga 2022-12-09 14:02:04 UTC
New per comment 3.

I don't see this myself, however. Would be good to hear, if you still see this in 7.4.

If you do see it in 7.4, you could also try launching from the command line with

SAL_USE_VCLPLUGIN=gen libreoffice

and see, if that makes a difference.

Are you using Wayland or X11?

Arch Linux 64-bit, X11
Version: 7.6.0.0.alpha0+ (X86_64) / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: de3f13e2175564316eb5a62dee65e9ff8f31b460
CPU threads: 8; OS: Linux 6.0; UI render: default; VCL: gtk3
Locale: fi-FI (fi_FI.UTF-8); UI: en-US
Calc: threaded Jumbo
Built on 9 December 2022
Comment 6 Roland Baudin 2022-12-19 14:31:28 UTC
Hi,

I did some tests with LibreOffice 7.4.2.3 in Ubuntu 22.04.

I have three different linux boxes (with same system and LO versions), all with various nvidia graphic boards. They all behave the same.

To me the flickering, blinking, flashing bug appears only in the sidebar.

Here are the test results:

nouveau driver + xorg => no bug
nouveau driver + wayland => no bug

nvidia driver + xorg => bug
nvidia driver + xorg + SAL_USE_VCLPLUGIN=gen => no bug
nvidia driver + wayland => no bug 

The profile was reset for each test.
Comment 7 Buovjaga 2022-12-19 14:39:46 UTC
Chris: do you have an Nvidia graphics card?
Comment 8 Roland Baudin 2022-12-19 19:28:41 UTC
Hi again,

after googling more seriously, I came to this post:
 
https://askubuntu.com/questions/1388589/libreoffice-7-2-5-2-ubuntu-20-04-1-lts-flickering-menus-and-right-panel/1434282#1434282

that gave the solution for me.

I indeed had the GTK_IM_MODULE=xim environment variable set and deleting the .xinputrc file and rebooting finally fixed this annoying issue!

This .xinputrc was on all my profiles, that's why I had the problem everywhere.
Comment 9 Roland Baudin 2022-12-19 19:33:59 UTC
And this issue showed me that it is not only necessary to test with a fresh LibreOffice profile, but also with a fresh user profile.

A good lesson...
Comment 10 Buovjaga 2022-12-20 07:48:44 UTC
Nice work, Roland! Let's put this to needinfo pending Chris checking the same.
Comment 11 Buovjaga 2022-12-21 16:47:28 UTC
*** Bug 151686 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 12 Buovjaga 2022-12-21 16:49:39 UTC
Chris can check the value with

printenv GTK_IM_MODULE

This has a nice way to find out which files set environment variables:
https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/154971
Comment 13 Buovjaga 2022-12-21 17:53:52 UTC
*** Bug 151686 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 14 Chris D 2022-12-21 18:53:43 UTC

(In reply to Roland Baudin from comment #8)
> Hi again,
> 
> after googling more seriously, I came to this post:
>  
> https://askubuntu.com/questions/1388589/libreoffice-7-2-5-2-ubuntu-20-04-1-
> lts-flickering-menus-and-right-panel/1434282#1434282
> 
> that gave the solution for me.
> 
> I indeed had the GTK_IM_MODULE=xim environment variable set and deleting the
> .xinputrc file and rebooting finally fixed this annoying issue!
> 
> This .xinputrc was on all my profiles, that's why I had the problem
> everywhere.

Hi Roland, 

Apologies for the delay in response. Would like to check this out - but am having difficulty locating .xinputrc on my system. In addition, the askubuntu article doesn't appear to give any indication on where to typically find the .xinputrc file. 

Could you please advise as to where it typically lives?
Comment 15 QA Administrators 2022-12-22 03:36:25 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete)
Comment 16 Buovjaga 2022-12-22 07:22:07 UTC
Chris: see my comment 12 for how to discover more.
Comment 17 Roland Baudin 2022-12-22 13:36:11 UTC
(In reply to Chris D from comment #14)
> 
> (In reply to Roland Baudin from comment #8)
> > Hi again,
> > 
> > after googling more seriously, I came to this post:
> >  
> > https://askubuntu.com/questions/1388589/libreoffice-7-2-5-2-ubuntu-20-04-1-
> > lts-flickering-menus-and-right-panel/1434282#1434282
> > 
> > that gave the solution for me.
> > 
> > I indeed had the GTK_IM_MODULE=xim environment variable set and deleting the
> > .xinputrc file and rebooting finally fixed this annoying issue!
> > 
> > This .xinputrc was on all my profiles, that's why I had the problem
> > everywhere.
> 
> Hi Roland, 
> 
> Apologies for the delay in response. Would like to check this out - but am
> having difficulty locating .xinputrc on my system. In addition, the
> askubuntu article doesn't appear to give any indication on where to
> typically find the .xinputrc file. 
> 
> Could you please advise as to where it typically lives?

This file is at the root of your home directory, like .bashrc.

To see if it exists, type in a terminal:

ls -la ~/.xinputrc
Comment 18 S.Andreason 2022-12-22 16:44:27 UTC
(In reply to Roland Baudin from comment #17)
> To see if it exists, type in a terminal:
> 
> ls -la ~/.xinputrc

Hi, In my case, the .xinputrc file did not exist. From my reported https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=151686#c6
$ echo "$GTK_IM_MODULE"
xim

shows it is getting set somewhere.
$ find /etc -type f -exec grep -Fw GTK_IM_MODULE {} +
/etc/X11/Xsession.d/70im-config_launch:   [ -z "$GTK_IM_MODULE" ] && \
/etc/X11/Xsession.d/70im-config_launch:    export GTK_IM_MODULE

referenced, but not set here.
Still can't find where getting set, but found a solution, at least short term:
$ export SAL_USE_VCLPLUGIN=gen
$ LibreOffice-7.3.3.2.basic.help-x86_64.AppImage

now the scrollbars (most visible change) and menu fonts are different, looks like openoffice-3 from years ago.

Today I created the ~/.xinputrc file with the line:
GTK_IM_MODULE=ibus

and started LibreOffice without the export above, 
the flickering is gone, but the slowdown is still there.
Comment 19 Roland Baudin 2023-01-08 16:41:13 UTC
I suggest you create a new user and check if the GTK_IM_MODULE variable is set for this new user. This could help you to find if the variable is set at system level or at user level.
Comment 20 Jewgeni 2023-03-12 06:42:17 UTC
*** Bug 154134 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***