Bug 151686 - rapid flickering and alternating see through layers
Summary: rapid flickering and alternating see through layers
Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 144813
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Calc (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
7.3.1.3 release
Hardware: x86-64 (AMD64) Linux (All)
: medium normal
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2022-10-21 16:42 UTC by S.Andreason
Modified: 2022-12-21 17:53 UTC (History)
1 user (show)

See Also:
Crash report or crash signature:


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Description S.Andreason 2022-10-21 16:42:19 UTC
Description:
The screen rapidly flickers to solid grey/white at the home screen showing previous documents, or when the right sidebar is visible the flickering is between the sidebar and the spreadsheet behind it.
When holding the mouse still, it stops, but moving the mouse activates the flickering.

Steps to Reproduce:
1.From debian-9_x64 start LibreOffice-7.3.1-x86_64.AppImage. Move the mouse around the screen (inside LibO window) and see no problem.
2.Open a spreadsheet document.
3.Show the styles bar on the right, move the mouse up and down the bar. The top layer flickers, showing the spreadsheet layer rapidly back and forth.
4.Close the document, then move the mouse all over the previous documents, and up and down the left side buttons. The entire LibO window flickers to a grey/white layer. 
The flickering speed is too fast to count, 10-30 times per second.

Actual Results:
Screen is stable immediately after starting program. But after opening a document the window flickers.
Also dragging other windows around, over LibO window, flickers.
The more Previous documents are on the home screen, the longer the flickering happens, up to 1 whole second, then it goes quiet for a second, then repeats.

Expected Results:
The movement of the mouse should not cause the screen to flicker.
This started with 7.3 because 7.2.5 was fine, and did not flicker.


Reproducible: Always


User Profile Reset: Yes

Additional Info:
Version: 7.3.1.3 / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: a69ca51ded25f3eefd52d7bf9a5fad8c90b87951
CPU threads: 4; OS: Linux 4.9; UI render: default; VCL: gtk3
Locale: en-US (en_US.utf8); UI: en-US
Calc: threaded

Started with a fresh profile.
Comment 1 S.Andreason 2022-10-21 17:01:30 UTC
Providing a screen recording video of this happening. The frame rate is not high enough to show what the eyes see, but it is adequate to demonstrate.
https://www.seahorsecorral.org/videos/tests/LibO-flicker-20221021.mp4
Comment 2 Buovjaga 2022-12-20 07:52:18 UTC
See bug 144813 comment 8. Do you have GTK_IM_MODULE=xim environment variable set in your .xinputrc file? https://askubuntu.com/questions/1388589/libreoffice-7-2-5-2-ubuntu-20-04-1-lts-flickering-menus-and-right-panel/1434282#1434282
Comment 3 S.Andreason 2022-12-21 15:22:28 UTC
(In reply to Buovjaga from comment #2)
> See bug 144813 comment 8. Do you have GTK_IM_MODULE=xim environment variable
> set in your .xinputrc file?

No, I do not have a .xinputrc file. I do have /etc/X11/xinit/xinputrc from 2014 but it has only one line, and it's not about GTK.
However upon searching my home directory, I can find a file with that string in it:
.xsession-errors
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting GTK_IM_MODULE=xim

Yes that bug report is very similar to mine, but I am not running on Nvidia hardware, and not just the sidebar.
Comment 4 Buovjaga 2022-12-21 15:30:06 UTC
If you say in a terminal

echo "$GTK_IM_MODULE"

and it does not print xim, then I guess it is not the issue.
Comment 5 S.Andreason 2022-12-21 16:29:35 UTC
(In reply to Buovjaga from comment #4)
> If you say in a terminal

$ echo "$GTK_IM_MODULE"
xim

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.

The rapid flickering is gone. I'll call that a win.
Comment 6 Buovjaga 2022-12-21 16:47:28 UTC
(In reply to S.Andreason from comment #5)
> (In reply to Buovjaga from comment #4)
> > If you say in a terminal
> 
> $ echo "$GTK_IM_MODULE"
> xim

Bingo! I found a way to find out where that is set:
https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/154971

So this should give you a nice info dump where you can discover the file it lurks in:

PS4='+$BASH_SOURCE> ' BASH_XTRACEFD=7 bash -xl 7>&2

Somewhere in that output you should see

export GTK_IM_MODULE=xim

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 144813 ***
Comment 7 S.Andreason 2022-12-21 17:25:44 UTC
I tried that, but don't see those keywords in the 153K of text it dumped.

Another good thing came of this, not only is the theme visually different, but the lag between keyboard and input/handling is back to normal, meaning instead of 500ms late, it is back to right away.

Don't know if this would be another bug report :) but before today's "fix" if I switch windows, by hotkey or mouse, and start typing too fast, the input will appear in the document I left, instead of the document that is active.
Comment 8 Buovjaga 2022-12-21 17:53:52 UTC

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 144813 ***