I have a rather large document (270+ pages) that has been years in development. It has tons of footnotes, text boxes, and inserted images, both local images and links. The ODT file is about 94 MB. I have experienced problems for some time, but they are intermittent, come and go, and have mostly been merely an annoyance. However, as the document continues to grow they have become more and more severe. The problem appears in several recent version of LibreOffice, as well as OpenOffice and appears on both Mac and PC. I spent some time with xmllint dissecting the document for errors that might contribute to the issue, finding no problems, no errors. I have also experimented with splitting the document into a master document with various sub-documents, but similar problems still dog my work, and the master/sub document configuration gives me formatting issues that I have not been able to overcome as yet, but that's another discussion. The primary symptom is that writer suddenly becomes unresponsive. This seems to coincide with any operation that might cause a repagination of the entire document. Usually, hitting Tools|Update|Update All will provoke the issue about 90% of the time, but then other times the update occurs without problems. Attempting to export as PDF also often does so. Lately it has been crashing on a file|save operation, which is REALLY annoying. I have left it sitting at times for hours, hoping it might recover, but it does not, the only recovery being to force a close and then reopen and recover the document. Usually this means recent changes are lost, which is very annoying. Occasionally, rather than simply lock up and become totally unresponsive, writer just quits unexpectedly. Again, recent changes are usually lost. A few times I have simply opened the document, and then had to leave my desk for a time. Without my ever touching a keystroke after opening the document, I find it crashed when I return. I believe it will eventually crash if simply left alone. I need help in getting to the bottom of the trouble. There are two aspects. First determine precisely what it is about this document that provokes the misbehavior. Perhaps there are XML errors that I have missed when looking at it with xmllint. Any advice on what to look for, how to use xmllint to best troubleshoot, or recommendation for a better tool is most welcome. I am however inclined to believe it is simply the sheer size of the document, along with the number of insertions. Secondly, even if the problem is due to document errors, clearly LibreOffice is not dealing well with the errors. So if we can better quantify what is going wrong, perhaps specific bug reports can address where Writer is going "off the rails" when faced with a troublesome document. I would like to volunteer my system (via remote access) or my document, or both to anyone from the developer community who is interested in taking a closer look. I could obfuscate the document and post it somewhere, but as I cannot really edit it effectively any more that would be difficult. On the other hand, there is nothing particularly secret about it, so I would trust giving it to a single developer who would promise not to disseminate it. I can place it on Dropbox, or Google Drive and send a link via email to someone interested in troubleshooting. I wouldn't want it widely shared, as I would hope to finish it before letting it out into the wild, but there is nothing that is really secret. I searched the online bug reports, and do not see anything that really seems to be a duplicate. However #56528 does seem somewhat similar, thus might have a common root-cause of the failure. If a developer would like to take a look and try and get to the bottom of the issue, feel free to email wa4otj@yahoo.com. Regards, Nathan I am presently using Version 3.6.3.2 (Build ID: 58f22d5) on an iMac under Snow Leopard (OS X 10.6.8 ) with 4 GB memory. Behavior is not limited to this configuration or version.
Thank you very much for your bug report! In order to reproduce the problem, I would like to test your file. I am not a developer, but an experienced QA volunteer (“bug wrangler”, as we call it); the normal procedure here is that first some QA volunteer tries to reproduce the bug, checks for dependencies, duplicates etc., and then, if successful, forwards the bug report to the responsible developer(s). I am using the same Mac OS X version as you, and a similar machine, so I guess the chances are good that I can catch the problem. So, if you could please send the file via private e-mail to me: <mailto:bugs@eikota.de>, I will keep it confidential and try to reproduce the issue. Thank you very much!
OK, I have received Nathan’s sample file -- thank you! -- and will try to reproduce the bug. (Of course, I have already managed to reproduce it in a special case, but I want to check some other possibilities, to get a more complete image of the problems.) Please be patient, there are many bugs to deal with and I have not got much free time ...
( Sorry for the long delay! However, reproducing issues which make it necessary to let an application run for hours (repeatedly!) in the foreground to see if it will finally crash, or finally recover from the apparent freeze, is not what I can do by the way in gaps of my daytime occupations ;-) ) Again: thank you very much for your bug report! At least one problem with the file in question seems nearly 100% REPRODUCIBLE for me (tested with LibreOffice 3.6.3.2 on Mac OS X 10.6.8, Intel): > The primary symptom is that writer suddenly becomes unresponsive. > This seems to coincide with any operation that might cause a repagination > of the entire document. Usually, hitting Tools|Update|Update All will > provoke the issue about 90% of the time [...] Steps to reproduce: 0) Reset your LibreOffice user profile (to preclude any influence of local settings) 1) Start LibreOffice. 2) Open the file. 3) Without waiting too long, select “Tools > Update > Update All” from the menu bar. 4) Let LibreOffice work; it seems frozen, but I wanted to test if it would finally recover from this state. I haven’t done exact time measurements, but on my MacBook Pro 2010 with 2.53 GHz Intel Core i5, 4 GB RAM and SSD hard drive this will take about 45 min. -> Finally, LibreOffice crashes. I will attach the log file created by Mac OS X for the crash. It is of impressive simplicity: Thread 0 crashed with EXC_BAD_ACCESS (SIGSEGV), and the stack trace for Thread 0 just reads: 0 libswlo.dylib 0x211b7e60 SwTxtFrm::HideAndShowObjects() + 608 1 libswlo.dylib 0x211b7e78 SwTxtFrm::HideAndShowObjects() + 632 ................ the last line repeated 510 times ................ This crash is already reproducible by the steps given above with LibreOffice 3.3.0, and also with every version I have tested (3.4.0, 3.5.0, 3.6.0.4). So this problem was probably inherited from OpenOffice.org. It is still present in the current daily build: LOdev 4.0.0.0.alpha0+ (Build ID: ed8067; pull time: 2012-11-15 03:54:19). I hope that further research will help to isolate what exactly causes so much work for LibreOffice that it finally crashes ;-) But for now: at least this apparent freeze and final crash are really almost 100% reproducible.
I have a complex document that for some reason has started to do exactly this also. Performing an update on the page formatting will cause it to crash every time. If a manual update isn't performed then at some point it seems like it will do it on its own and crash after a period of time trying to update.
If the displaying of comments is turned off in options it seems to function normally (at least so far). Also a slight delay in the display of characters when typing seems to be gone also. It would seem that when the comments are being displayed extra work is being done which shouldn't be happening.
Perhaps I'm missing something, but I have no comments in my Document, and under the view menu, "Comments" is grayed out. Is there somewhere else you are saying to turn off comments?
Oh, I see, under Preferences|View there is a comments checkbox.... I guess that is what you mean. That is unchecked also...
When I just unchecked Comments under the View menu I still experienced problems. But I haven't experienced any problems yet when I unchecked the comments box in Tools - Options - LibreOffice Writer - View.
A bit of clarification: The Mac and PC versions have the option in very different places. Took me a bit of poking around to find it. But once I found it, and turned it off, and double checked, the answer is nope, it still fails even with the comments disabled. It does seem to have a bit of an impact, whihc I presume is due to a shift in workload. But it still dies.
From your first message I do notice there are some differences between our documents. My document runs about 3000 pages but is only about 2.5MB in size. Yours is 94MB with about 270 pages. Yours also has text boxes and images which mine doesn't have. I would try turning off some of the other display options and see if that makes a change when a page formatting update is done. My document isn't using any of those other items so that may be why mine works when I turn off the commenting. It may be you can turn them off, do an update, then turn them back on again. Of course in my experience with the comments, if that works it will need to be done again the next time the document is opened. But it may give an indication where the problem is and a temporary work around until it's fixed.
I have tried many variations, turning off features, changing this and that, without impacting the issue. I am still able to edit the document, and add new material, but I am no longer able to produce a PDF or update the indices. At first, it would only crash occasionally on updates, then it became common, but persistence would allow me to do a good update. Now I am increasingly stuck. Writer is becoming unusable for me. My partners in the project are pressuring me to produce a publishable eBook soon, or at least an updated PDF. I am increasingly feeling in a quandary as to what to do. Perhaps I shall have to try to move to Word, or other system. I shudder at the thought of the re-working that might require. Is there anything else I can do to help get to the bottom of the problem? I really need to get beyond this issue... Thanks, Nathan
Have you tried version 3.4.6 with the display options off? I haven't actually tried seeing what happens in later versions with my document and this error because of another bug which is preventing me from upgrading. Another thing I've found that worked until I closed the document and re-opened it was to create a new document and insert the old one using the File command from the insert menu.
I am using the latest. Display options do not really affect it much. I will try the "Insert" method. ---------- 8< ---------- I use my ham call, WA4OTJ as my email ID on many different email providers. In the event that Yahoo Email is unavailable I can be reached as wa4otj@gmail.com or wa4otj@hotmail.com ________________________________ From: "bugzilla-daemon@freedesktop.org" <bugzilla-daemon@freedesktop.org> To: wa4otj@yahoo.com Sent: Wednesday, January 2, 2013 1:16 AM Subject: [Bug 56963] FILEOPEN, EDITING: Stability degrades with large document Comment # 12 on bug 56963 from David Have you tried version 3.4.6 with the display options off? I haven't actually tried seeing what happens in later versions with my document and this error because of another bug which is preventing me from upgrading. Another thing I've found that worked until I closed the document and re-opened it was to create a new document and insert the old one using the File command from the insert menu. ________________________________ You are receiving this mail because: * You reported the bug.
I really suggest going back to a pre-3.5.0 version and trying it without the display options.
wa4otj: Could you attach the file or put it available somewhere so more people may test it? Roman gave interesting info (I think about SwTxtFrm::HideAndShowObjects) but it could be interesting to retrieve backtraces at random. Moreover, devs would be able to know if a patch would solve or not the problem by trying to reproduce.
Thanks for your interest. I placed an obfuscated version of the large file on my Dropbox. You can retrieve it here: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/11336636/Gregory%20Family%20Origins%20-%20Submission.odt I also have another file, a chapter excerpted from the larger file. There are two versions of it, one that triggers the problem, or at least a somewhat similar mis-behavior, and one that does not, yet nothing appears much different between them. They are at: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/11336636/Gregory%20Family%20Origins12y.odt https://dl.dropbox.com/u/11336636/Gregory%20Family%20Origins12z.odt I am not sure they are exactly the same problem, but may be related. In any case, the fact that one file provokes problems, and the other does not is very interesting... Good luck
(This is an automated message.) LibreOffice development currently prioritizes bugs with the so called MAB (most annoying bugs) -- as this bug has not run through that process (including writing a short rationale for this bug being a candidate and other who are watching the tracker bug silently approving that rationale etc.) its priority is set to high. Note this is effectively no change in the urgency assigned to this bug, as we are currently not making a difference between high and highest and severity is untouched. You can find out more about MABs and how the process works by contacting libreoffice qa on irc: http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=libreoffice-qa The QA wiki page also gives you hints on how to get in contact with the team (if IRC fails you, your next best choice is the mailing list): https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/QA
I have experimenting problems with a file I've created with OpenOffice. 100 pages, images, incrusted calc, frames with tables in it... So, quite complicated file. It opens with no problem on OpenOffice 3 on Windows. When I try to open the same file in LibreOffice 4.2.2 it frozes. Log http://bit.ly/1pLAcSK
Guys, 1 problem = 1 bug. Indeed, it's very difficult to deal with a bugtracker and except you all have got a big file and have some stability problem, we can't guess if it's the same problem. wa4otj: do you still have the problem with last stable LO version (4.3.2) + brand new LO profile (you can rename yours, see https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/UserProfile)? If it's the case, please make it available somewhere (sorry for the time you had done it, see comment 16, I must have missed it). For others: give a try to what I indicated to wa4otj and if you still got have a problem, please submit a new bugtracker by following this link: https://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/bug/
(In reply to Julien Nabet from comment #19) > Guys, 1 problem = 1 bug. Indeed, it's very difficult to deal with a > bugtracker and except you all have got a big file and have some stability > problem, we can't guess if it's the same problem. > > wa4otj: do you still have the problem with last stable LO version (4.3.2) + > brand new LO profile (you can rename yours, see > https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/UserProfile)? If it's the case, please > make it available somewhere (sorry for the time you had done it, see comment > 16, I must have missed it). > > For others: give a try to what I indicated to wa4otj and if you still got > have a problem, please submit a new bugtracker by following this link: > https://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/bug/ I am sorry to say, the last version 4.3.1.2 pretty well completely broke my ability to use LO to edit the file, as well as my faith and trust in the software. The formatting went completely nuts, LO crashed and lost about 50 pages of prose, and about 30 pictures, and would go bonkers every time I tried to touch the file. Thanks goodness I had plenty of good backups. The 164 MB file dropped to 72 MB after being opened with LO. I abandoned LO and moved completely over to cousin OO where I have been getting good results. I have not tried 4.3.2. LO 4.3.1.2 did seem to work well for some smaller documents I tried it on, but it has troubles with the big one. In addition to the issues with stability and the formatting problems, the loss of the navigation buttons on the lower right side was the final straw. With a document of this size, I NEED those buttons to effectively move around the file. Moving them to the search bar was incredibly stupid. The document is nearly 400 pages now. OO is quite stable except for occasionally doing strange things when creating the PDF file, usually inserting undesired white space. At this moment I have no plans to return to LO for the time being, at least as long as the navigation buttons remain useless and OO continues to work for me. That might change at some point, but my interest is in working on my research project, not debugging software. If you would like to experiment on your own with the ODT file, contact me privately and I will share. I do not have time right now to reinstall LO and try to reproduce the problems. Pretty much all of the problems center around images inserted into the pages. Any image, or combination of images that covers more than about 50% of a page are trouble.
Following some emails between wa4otj and me, I put this one to NEW for the moment.
Created attachment 107898 [details] console bt On pc Debian x86-64 with master sources updated today, I had a crash by doing this: make debugrun run --writer open file scroll down about 20/30 pages until crash
Created attachment 107900 [details] Valgrind trace
wa4otj: perhaps just a message in a bottle: http://nabble.documentfoundation.org/Dev-f1639786.html
** Please read this message in its entirety before responding ** To make sure we're focusing on the bugs that affect our users today, LibreOffice QA is asking bug reporters and confirmers to retest open, confirmed bugs which have not been touched for over a year. There have been thousands of bug fixes and commits since anyone checked on this bug report. During that time, it's possible that the bug has been fixed, or the details of the problem have changed. We'd really appreciate your help in getting confirmation that the bug is still present. If you have time, please do the following: Test to see if the bug is still present on a currently supported version of LibreOffice (5.0.4 or later) https://www.libreoffice.org/download/ If the bug is present, please leave a comment that includes the version of LibreOffice and your operating system, and any changes you see in the bug behavior the bug is NOT present, please set the bug's Status field to RESOLVED-WORKSFORME and leave a short comment that includes your version of LibreOffice and Operating System Please DO NOT Update the version field Reply via email (please reply directly on the bug tracker) Set the bug's Status field to RESOLVED - FIXED (this status has a particular meaning that is not appropriate in this case) If you want to do more to help you can test to see if your issue is a REGRESSION. To do so: 1. Download and install oldest version of LibreOffice (usually 3.3 unless your bug pertains to a feature added after 3.3) http://downloadarchive.documentfoundation.org/libreoffice/old/ 2. Test your bug 3. Leave a comment with your results. 4a. If the bug was present with 3.3 - set version to "inherited from OOo"; 4b. If the bug was not present in 3.3 - add "regression" to keyword Feel free to come ask questions or to say hello in our QA chat: http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=libreoffice-qa Thank you for your help! -- The LibreOffice QA Team This NEW Message was generated on: 2015-12-20
The test files are no longer publicly available.
Changing version back to the earliest version affected.
** Please read this message in its entirety before responding ** To make sure we're focusing on the bugs that affect our users today, LibreOffice QA is asking bug reporters and confirmers to retest open, confirmed bugs which have not been touched for over a year. There have been thousands of bug fixes and commits since anyone checked on this bug report. During that time, it's possible that the bug has been fixed, or the details of the problem have changed. We'd really appreciate your help in getting confirmation that the bug is still present. If you have time, please do the following: Test to see if the bug is still present with the latest version of LibreOffice from https://www.libreoffice.org/download/ If the bug is present, please leave a comment that includes the information from Help - About LibreOffice. If the bug is NOT present, please set the bug's Status field to RESOLVED-WORKSFORME and leave a comment that includes the information from Help - About LibreOffice. Please DO NOT Update the version field Reply via email (please reply directly on the bug tracker) Set the bug's Status field to RESOLVED - FIXED (this status has a particular meaning that is not appropriate in this case) If you want to do more to help you can test to see if your issue is a REGRESSION. To do so: 1. Download and install oldest version of LibreOffice (usually 3.3 unless your bug pertains to a feature added after 3.3) from http://downloadarchive.documentfoundation.org/libreoffice/old/ 2. Test your bug 3. Leave a comment with your results. 4a. If the bug was present with 3.3 - set version to 'inherited from OOo'; 4b. If the bug was not present in 3.3 - add 'regression' to keyword Feel free to come ask questions or to say hello in our QA chat: https://kiwiirc.com/nextclient/irc.freenode.net/#libreoffice-qa Thank you for helping us make LibreOffice even better for everyone! Warm Regards, QA Team MassPing-UntouchedBug
Setting to NEEDINFO The test files are no longer publicly available.
Dear wa4otj, This bug has been in NEEDINFO status with no change for at least 6 months. Please provide the requested information as soon as possible and mark the bug as UNCONFIRMED. Due to regular bug tracker maintenance, if the bug is still in NEEDINFO status with no change in 30 days the QA team will close the bug as INSUFFICIENTDATA due to lack of needed information. For more information about our NEEDINFO policy please read the wiki located here: https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/QA/Bugzilla/Fields/Status/NEEDINFO If you have already provided the requested information, please mark the bug as UNCONFIRMED so that the QA team knows that the bug is ready to be confirmed. Thank you for helping us make LibreOffice even better for everyone! Warm Regards, QA Team MassPing-NeedInfo-Ping
This bug was opened in 2014. 2014 was a long time ago. I provided extensive information, including multiple sample files to illustrate the problem at that time, but no resolution was forthcoming. Because of this issue and the lack of resolution, I no longer use LibreOffice for serious work, which I consider a shame. Microsoft Word won that battle, to my chagrin. I did, just now, open the current incarnation* of the document, which is now well over 600 pages, in LibreOffice as a test. It did not become unresponsive during the few minutes I tested with it, but I did not spend a lot of time. Time to move on, and spend the effort on solving today's problems. Let's mark it as solved and close the issue. Warm regards, Nathan * Yes, this project is something I am still working on, albeit slowly. I began the genealogical research project in 1997, and still hope to complete and publish it. ;)
I understand your reaction, I also think LO isn't ready for big (600 pages is rather big) documents above all if you add some specific layout. Let's rather put INSUFFICIENTDATA since data are no more available according to comment 29. Of course don't hesitate to reopen this tracker if you change your mind and in this case, please provide required information.