Bug 170549 - Startup time very slow with ubuntu 24.04 LTE and xfce 4.18
Summary: Startup time very slow with ubuntu 24.04 LTE and xfce 4.18
Status: UNCONFIRMED
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: LibreOffice (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
24.2.7.2 release
Hardware: x86-64 (AMD64) All
: medium normal
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2026-01-31 07:14 UTC by schaefi
Modified: 2026-01-31 11:27 UTC (History)
0 users

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Description schaefi 2026-01-31 07:14:35 UTC
I try to run libreoffice on a newly installed, virtualized ubuntu LTS server. Startup of libreoffice is around 60 sec and hence unusable.

The installation using apt install (no snap version) was done on an existing server and on a newly installed server with the same results. All software are latest version. The bug is reproducible.

HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE

lscpu
Architecture:             x86_64
  CPU op-mode(s):         32-bit, 64-bit
  Address sizes:          45 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
  Byte Order:             Little Endian
CPU(s):                   6
  On-line CPU(s) list:    0-5
Vendor ID:                GenuineIntel
  Model name:             Intel(R) Xeon(R) Silver 4210R CPU @ 2.40GHz
    CPU family:           6
    Model:                85
    Thread(s) per core:   1
    Core(s) per socket:   6
    Socket(s):            1
    Stepping:             7

free -h
               total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:           4.8Gi       1.0Gi       1.5Gi        13Mi       2.6Gi       3.8Gi
Swap:          4.0Gi          0B       4.0Gi

lsb_release -a
Description:    Ubuntu 24.04.3 LTS
Release:        24.04

xfce4-session --version
xfce4-session 4.18.3 (Xfce 4.18)

libreoffice --version
LibreOffice 24.2.7.2 420(Build:2)

echo $XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP
XFCE


PROBLEM:

time libreoffice
real    0m59.331s
user    0m1.423s
sys     0m0.501s

time libreoffice --writer
real    1m2.280s
user    0m3.436s
sys     0m0.572s


FURTHER INFORMATION

I am running xfce and libreoffice as a local admin, so access rights problems can be excluded.

The server has been installed from ubuntu-24.04.3-live-server-amd64.iso and xfce and libreoffice have been added with apt install. So this is not a snap problem.

The server is accessed with remmina and xrdp. Other apps work well.


Happy to help you debugging if you let me know how.
Thanks in advance for any help, feedback, etc.! I work with libreoffice for years and greatly appreciate the work of every supporter.
Comment 1 schaefi 2026-01-31 11:27:30 UTC
I did further debugging:

1. I startet libreoffice without graphics:
time libreoffice --headless --convert-to pdf /dev/null
Error: source file could not be loaded
real    0m0.509s
user    0m0.470s
sys     0m0.116s

This shows that the bug must be a graphical problem

2. I changed the color depth of xrdp
sudo vi /etc/xrdp/xrdp.ini
...
#max_bpp=32
max_bpp=16
...
sudo systemctl restart xrdp

This brought no significant changes.

3. I changed settings of the xfce-session
sudo vi ~/.profile
...
export SAL_USE_VCLPLUGIN=gtk3
export XMODIFIERS=@im=none
export GTK_IM_MODULE=xim
export QT_IM_MODULE=xim
...
restart xfce-session

This brought no significant changes.


4. I disabled xfce compositor:
Settings \dann Window Manager Tweaks \dann Compositor \dann uncheck Enable display compositing
- disable Enable display compositing

This brought no significant changes.

5. I did:
export SAL_USE_VCLPLUGIN=gen

This brought decisive change:
time libreoffice --writer --nologo
real	0m7.620s
user	0m1.385s
sys	0m0.251s

There seems to be a heavy GTK3/X11 overhead (in contrast to the light weight generic VCL plugin. Switching to the VCL plugin is the solution! 

Yet the solution seems to be rather a temporary bugfix. I think the GTK3/X11 problem should be investigated further and root cause as this is a standard installation which many user rely on.

I hope nevertheless that this description helps others to debug and fix/circumvent the problem.