Bug 169368 - Calc Page Style Header dialog: left, center and right areas become non-editable when SAL_USE_VCLPLUGIN=gtk3
Summary: Calc Page Style Header dialog: left, center and right areas become non-editab...
Status: UNCONFIRMED
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Calc (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
25.8.2.2 release
Hardware: x86-64 (AMD64) Linux (All)
: medium normal
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2025-11-10 12:22 UTC by Michael Peter
Modified: 2026-01-22 07:13 UTC (History)
3 users (show)

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Crash report or crash signature:


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Description Michael Peter 2025-11-10 12:22:15 UTC
Description:
Calc Page Style Header dialog: left, center and right areas become non-editable when SAL_USE_VCLPLUGIN=gtk3


Steps to Reproduce:
1. Start LO with default GTK3 VCL on Linux Mint / Ubuntu
2. New Calc file
3. Format → Page Style → Header → Edit...
4. Check "Same content on left and right pages"
→ Result: the left and center areas in the "Header (Right)" page are greyed and text cannot be entered
→ With VCL=gen or VCL=kf5, all 3 areas are editable


Actual Results:
This makes it impossible to edit headers normally under the default GTK3 environment.

Tested versions:
- 24.2.x (Mint 21.3)
- 24.8.x (Mint 22.2)
- 25.8.2.2 PPA
→ all affected with GTK3 backend


Expected Results:
All header areas should be editable under GTK3 the same way as GEN or KF5.


Reproducible: Always


User Profile Reset: Yes

Additional Info:
Workaround:
Start Calc with:
SAL_USE_VCLPLUGIN=gen libreoffice --calc
or install libreoffice-kf5 and start with:
SAL_USE_VCLPLUGIN=kf5 libreoffice --calc

This is reproducible on a clean user profile ~/.config/libreoffice.
Comment 1 BogdanB 2025-11-10 16:26:27 UTC
Everything fine with
Version: 26.2.0.0.alpha0+ (X86_64) / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: fede6f817fefd6528a25c1f0f69e06aebe07d9d5
CPU threads: 16; OS: Linux 6.14; UI render: default; VCL: gtk3
Locale: en-US (en_US.UTF-8); UI: en-US
Calc: threaded

Aslo in
Version: 25.8.3.1 (X86_64)
Build ID: 52ad9dd1c984050a9fb6932dbfb16e86a49e9758
CPU threads: 16; OS: Linux 6.14; UI render: default; VCL: gtk3
Locale: en-US (en_US.UTF-8); UI: en-US
Calc: threaded
Comment 2 Michael Peter 2025-11-10 16:40:54 UTC
I confirm this is reproducible on Ubuntu 24.04 base (Linux Mint 22.2) with GTK 3.24.41.

System:
libgtk-3-0t64 3.24.41-4ubuntu1.3

Steps to reproduce:
1) New Calc file
2) Format → Page Style → Header
3) Tick: “Same content on left and right pages”
4) Click “Edit…”
→ left and center areas are greyed and cannot be edited

Only happens with VCL=gtk3.
With VCL=gen or VCL=kf5 all 3 areas are editable.

Reproducible with a clean LO profile (rm -rf ~/.config/libreoffice).
Please retest with the “Same content on left and right pages” checkbox active.
Comment 3 Julien Nabet 2025-11-10 20:38:37 UTC
On pc Debian x86-64 with master sources updated today + gtk3 rendering, I don't reproduce this.

BTW, "Header (Right)" appears only if "Same content on left and right pages" is unchecked.
Anyway, I tried:
- "Same content on left and right pages" checked => left, center and right areas are editable
- "Same content on left and right pages" unchecked
 => left, center and right areas are editable for "Header (Right)"
 => left, center and right areas are editable for "Header (Left)"
Comment 4 Michael Peter 2025-11-12 07:22:56 UTC
Further testing across different Mint setups shows this issue only occurs
when LibreOffice runs with the GTK3 VCL backend inside a Plasma (KDE) session.

Matrix of results:

- Mint 21.3 Cinnamon (GTK3 3.24.33, X11) → OK
- Mint 21.3 Plasma (GTK3 3.24.33, X11) → greyed header zones
- Mint 22.2 Plasma (GTK3 3.24.41, X11) → greyed header zones
- Mint 22.2 Plasma (KF5 Qt6 backend) → OK

So it seems related to GTK3 + Plasma theme integration (possibly Breeze-GTK),
not to the KF5/GTK3 backend itself.
Comment 5 Buovjaga 2026-01-22 07:13:16 UTC
(In reply to Michael Peter from comment #0)
> → Result: the left and center areas in the "Header (Right)" page are greyed
> and text cannot be entered

There *is* a difference, but not as described above. "Header (Right)" is not greyed out in gtk3, but "Header (first)" is. With kf6 we can edit "(first)" as well, but is this intentional?