LO5.1 on Linux - Opening Writer document takes >1hr

users
#1

Hi all, hope you are doing well!

Maybe someone is willing to help me with an issue I am having.

I have this (pretty extensive) LO Writer document. It is ~471 pages and
it contains many tables, pictures, cross references, calculations and
custom document properties. The file size is about 28MB. Allthough it
was slow, editing the document with LO up to 5.0.4 (on both Arch Linux
and Windows) was OK.

Today I got updated to LO 5.1.0.3 through the Arch Linux repositories
and now, i run into the following issue:

Symptoms:
* The document opens in about 1 minute (which is acceptable, considering the size and complexity of the document)
* Initially LO says it is about 1644 pages (though it should be about 471)
* For a few seconds LO Writer seems to be responsive
* Then LO becomes unresponsive (soffice.bin pushing one CPU core to 100%)
* After more than an hour, LO becomes responsive again and the amount of pages is a nice 471 again (which is correct)
* I am then able to edit the document

Technical Info:
* Document size: 27MB
* Document type: ODT
* Document editing history: Built in LO 4.x, only edited with LO versions up to the latest
* LO Version (experiencing the problem): 5.1.0.3
* OS: Arch Linux, 64-bit (latest updates)
* System hardare: Dell XPS15 (9530) laptop with Intel Core i7 CPU and 16GB RAM

Things I've already tried:
* Delete LO configuration (~/.config/libreoffice) -> issue persists
* Save the document with LO5.1 -> Resulting file is only ~22MB (as opposed to the original: 28MB) -> same issue as with the original file
* Disable the use of Java (was enabled by default) -> issue persists
* Open the file in LO 5.1.0.3_X64 (upgrade from 5.0.4)  inside a Windows 10 (64-bit) VM -> issue does not occur
* Uninstall & Reïnstall of LibreOffice 5.1.0.3 -> issue persists
* Reboot my laptop -> issue persists
* Tried another (smaller) document -> No issue
* Had a friend test it on his Debian machine, running LO 5.1 -> has the same issue

So it looks like this issue only occurs with large documents (or just
this one?) on Linux versions of LibreOffice 5.1.

Is anybody able and willing to help me on this?
Due to the size of the file and intellectual property reasons, I did
not add (a link to) the file. I can make the file available upon
request, please let me know.

Thanks in advance!

#2

Hi Patrick

Patrick Dijkgraaf wrote

Is anybody able and willing to help me on this?
Due to the size of the file and intellectual property reasons, I did
not add (a link to) the file. I can make the file available upon
request, please let me know.

You have done some quite extensive testing so it seems to be reasonable to
assume there is a specific problem with LO 5.1.0.3 under Arch Linux.

You could try 5.1.1.1 (aka RC1) which solved some of the problems that
occured under Windows XP with 5.1.0.3. Maybe those fixes also improved LO
under Arch Linux...
http://dev-builds.libreoffice.org/pre-releases/

If that doesn't improve things you should move back to the 5.0 branch
(currently at version 5.0.5) and report the bug at Bugzilla
https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/

Hope this helps...
Pedro

#3

Hi Patrick,

While this does not address your problem directly, I wonder whether it is possible to break your document down into a master document with sub documents:

https://help.libreoffice.org/Writer/Master_Documents_and_Subdocuments

There is also a section devoted to this topic in the writer manual:

http://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/documentation/

Based on the size and complexity of your document, migrating in this direction is initially going to take a bit of time and effort. It won't be easy! But, again, based on what you have told us, management of the existing document is likely to throw up continuous challenges which may be avoidable.

Sorry I can't answer your existing problem but I hope I have provided food for thought.

Cheers

#4

Hi Pedro,
thanks for your suggestion!
Just a slight correction, I believe the issue occurs (with my document)
on any Linux distribution, not just Arch Linux. We tested on Arch
Linux, Debian SID and latest Fedora (manually downloaded LO5.1.0.3
RPM's from LibreOffice.org on Fedora) and all have the issue. Only one
that works is inside my Windows VM...
Just tried 5.1.1.1 on the Debian box but unfortunately, the issue is
still there... :frowning:
Please let me know if you have other suggestions, otherwise I'll
defininately file a bugreport.
Thanks!

#5

Hi Tim,
While it is not a real solution to my problem, this might be something
for me to look into! I didn't know about this feature and it sounds
great!
I do have some concers about cross-references between subdocuments and
table calculations with values from tables in a different subdocument.
But, I'll get myself educated and see if it is a feasable option...! :relaxed:
Thanks!

#6

Hi Patrick

Patrick Dijkgraaf wrote

Just tried 5.1.1.1 on the Debian box but unfortunately, the issue is
still there... :frowning:
Please let me know if you have other suggestions, otherwise I'll
defininately file a bugreport.

The major change from 5.0 to 5.1 is the default usage of OpenGL for all
graphic operations. Maybe OpenGL is slowing down your system (on both my
Windows machines all OpenGL does is make everything blurry and slow). But
remember this is a .0 version so it is expected to be buggy (no matter what
the TDF marketeers say)

Go to menu Tools > Options, on the left panel choose LibreOffice > View and
uncheck the box "Use OpenGL for all rendering (on restart)". Close the
Options dialog and Exit LibreOffice.

Restart LibreOffice and reopen your document.

If this solves your problem you should still report a bug. It is not
expected to need 1 hour to open a document...

Cheers,
Pedro

#7

Hi Pedro,
Had a look at that setting. These are the default settings on my system:
- Use Hardware acceleration: Enabled
- Use Anti-aliasing: Enabled
- Use OpenGL for all rendering: Disabled
- Force OpenGL even if blacklisted: Disabled
- Current GL Status: Disabled
Unfortunately, enabling both OpenGL settings (and restarting LO) did not resolve my problem.
Thanks anyway for the suggestion!
I'm currently trying to isolate what triggers this issue, It could be somthing specific I use in my document (the large amount of tables, arge amount of custom document properties, etc.).
I'll report back if I find anything!

#8

Really like to hear your feed back on this.

I am having trouble with master document constructions and no one on this list could help. An assumption: Not many on this list work with large and complex documents and experiences are probably appreciated.

http://listarchives.libreoffice.org/global/users/msg46555.html describes my problem.

Follow ups:
http://listarchives.libreoffice.org/global/users/msg46652.html
http://listarchives.libreoffice.org/global/users/msg46659.html
http://listarchives.libreoffice.org/global/users/msg46666.html
http://listarchives.libreoffice.org/global/users/msg46671.html

Long story short: If you run into trouble, the first follow up contains a procedure to solve re-paginating:

* Open document
* Update index
* Update selection for every satellite/sub document (using navigator)
* Update index again

The last follow up is a suggestion not to wrap, i.e. select picture/object > RMB > Wrap > No Wrap.

Hoping memory is serving well, I tested a 500 page document without any errors and came to the conclusion that if you insert pictures/objects as character, LO renders it straight away.

But... If you don't like to spoil empty paper then RMB wrapping objects is a must, leaving one with the need to update selections manually as described above.

Why this long text? It sounds familiar (900+ pages boiling down to 400+ pages), so it might be a related problem and that makes curious.

If you search the net you will find a few more unsolved cases where large documents contain empty parts (like 900+ minus 400+ pages = ~500 initial white space).

One last thing, you probably want to share one template for both the master and all satellite documents. You may like "Template Changer 1.2.7" by André Schnabel, works fine on 5.0.2.2. See http://bugs.documentfoundation.org/attachment.cgi?id=103039, a pity it is not a standard functionality in LO.

#9

Hi Wiebe,
I will share my experience with this.
However, my spare time is somewhat limited. So it might take some
before I get around to it.

#10

Try disabling hardware acceleration (always one of the first things I
try)...

#11

Hi!
Thanks for your suggestion. Tried it, but unfortunately it did not
resolve the issue.
I will report back when I know more about the cause...

#12

as told by others, I am using LibreOffice 5.1 on linux ubuntu, centrino laptop... I don't have slow downs (but with smaller documents and and ssd drive). I guess it can be a matter of hdd or document size.

Paolo Debortoli

#13

Hi all,
sorry for resurrecting this discussion, but I just wanted to let you
know that as of LO 5.1.4, my issue is resolved!
My large document now opens in 1 minute instead of an hour! :relaxed:

#14

Hi :slight_smile:
Ahh, the magic of updates!

I'm glad it got resolved!

I haven't read what got tried but it seemed like you did all the right
things worth trying. Often problems are due to settings in the "User
Profile" or more likely Extensions in there. Renaming the "User Profile"
often fixes a wide variety of "strange things that 'shouldn't' happen".

Very early on just after LibreOffice forked from OpenOffice.org i found
that sometimes i needed to create a new document and then copy the contents
of the old one with as little formatting as possible, and then reapply the
formatting. At the time i was only just beginning to become aware of the
advantages of styles rather than direct formatting, and i was having to do
much the same thing with old MS documents too anyway. It's been quite a
few years since i last had to do that but i keep it in mind if i ever run
into problems with a one-off document.

With very large or heavy documents i often find it's one or 2 of the
graphics (usually a photo) that are ridiculously large. Getting the image
out of the document and then using an image editor such as Gimp to resize
the image down to about double the size i really need in the document
usually makes it drastically lighter and the whole document much lighter
without any noticeable difference on-screen or in print.

Anyway, it seems like you have probably done or thought about all of this
already.
Congrats and regards from
Tom :slight_smile: