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GNUser

Member

Registered: 2017-03-16

Posts: 570  

Re: A Libreoffice Writer ODT that Crashes the Devuan Desktop

This sorry tale continues.
...
I can't take much more of this.

Hi alexkemp. We are a GNU/Linux-only household and I homeschool my 6 kids. We used to run Libreoffice on the classroom computer but over the years we've corrupted several documents through seemingly innocent document formatting. LO is a complex beast and seems to house some gremlins.

I finally gave up on Libreoffice and installed Abiword (for word processing) and Gnumeric (for spreadsheets) over a year ago. We never had any problems after that, despite heavy use. If you are fed up with LO and would like to try a less complex solution, Abiword and Gnumeric are both excellent.

Last edited by GNUser (2024-11-12 19:55:44)

alexkemp

Member

Registered: 2018-05-14

Posts: 357  

Re: A Libreoffice Writer ODT that Crashes the Devuan Desktop

4_paragraph-fix.odt was a dead end. So I began again with 1_Programming-In-Python3.odt:

1. Opened 1_Programming-In-Python3.odt in AppImage 7.2.3.2
   (normal load, NOT 30%)

2. Used existing lines in Title page (currently styled as Direct Paragraph) to create styles Subtitle 1, (2, 3)
   (using f11 | Styles actions | New Style from Selection); thus no line on Title page now has Direct formatting

3. Shift+Ctrl+S (save-as) to 2_paragraph-fixes.odt

4. Changed Text Body style to "Below paragraph: 0.50 cm" + single line spacing
   (this matches the original pdf closely)

5. Changed default list + indent to Text Body Indent

My intention at this stage was to discover what it was that was freezing LO solid (and once froze the entire system solid). I *did* find it (a bug in 7.2.3.2, so not the original issue). First, a quick word about 'Direct Paragraph' style + Text-Boxes (TB) in H1, 2, 3 & 4 paragraphs:

The Direct Paragraph Style is the base style for all other paragraph styles. Thus, modifying that Style will affect every other paragraph in the entire document, which may (or may not) be what you want. I was also informed that using it directly as a Style throughout a document increases the processing load due to lack of caching.

Each Heading in the pdf contains a stylistic |||| for H1 headers, ||| for H2 headers, and so on. I used a TB to create these. I was advised to use a Frame instead. So what's the issue here?

TB can NOT be assigned a Style, whereas Frames CAN be assigned a Style. We are going to discover a very weird bug with these TB when we reach H2 edits. Frames also have a bad bug associated with them, but that is for later.

The next stage in these edits is to swap out each header TB for a Frame:

1. Each H1 TB was swapped out for a Frame
   (no problems)

2. Each H2 TB was swapped out for a Frame
   (I did it Chapter-by-Chapter; no problems until I reached Chapter 15)

3. The "Dialog-Style Programs" (p568) + "Main-Window-Style Programs" (p574) (ODT, not PDF) each have a TB that has a daeafb Colour applied to the Area (I do not recall applying them)

4. Changing the TB Area from Colour to None then showed the following option within menu:Edit: "Undo: Sort Shapes"

5. Attempting to Save the change produced the following Error (below), which then prevented any attempt to save the document

6. The identical change to the identical document under 7.4.7.2 showed zero problems

Write Error

Error in writing sub-document content.xml

Wot a blooming nightmare.

The changes made to this point DID allow 'normal' 7.4.7.2 to open document with ordinary load after some short moments processing. Battered & bruised I continue.

alexkemp

Member

Registered: 2018-05-14

Posts: 357  

Re: A Libreoffice Writer ODT that Crashes the Devuan Desktop

Interim update:

Synopsis:

The ODT load on a 600 page document has become so high as to freeze LibreOffice and, on a couple of occasions, also freeze Devuan solid.

$ lscpu | fgrep 'Model name'
Model name:                           AMD A8-7410 APU with AMD Radeon R5 Graphics

Work is in process to reduce that load.

The following has been completed:

1. All Direct Paragraph Style have been changed for other styles (mostly Text Body)
   [note: in 24.8 “Text Body” has been renamed to “Body Text”]

2. Each Heading x style (levels 1, 2, 3 + 4) contains a Text-Box (TB) at the far-right as an extra visual clue. Each TB has been swapped out for a Frame
   [styles: H1Frame, H2Frame, H3Frame + H4Frame]

The following is still in process:

• DrawObjects are being swapped out for PNG images

• Several hundred Direct Formats with a FreeMono font are being swapped out with a self-created “Console” Character Style
  [the original PDF described this style as “Lightface”]

Bug-Traces

Just like slugs, Bugs leave sure-fire notice of their existence.

1. On document load the page count (Status Bar at bottom left) would vary wildly from moment-to-moment

2. The DrawObjects would move location, often across pages as well as within them, and that could also be within the page header or footer. From observation I believe that it may be this latter that caused the freeze-ups.

3. (added 20 Nov) Images + Tables would also move location through the text from their original place.

4. (added 20 Nov) In the Navigator (F5) Tables, Images, DrawObjects, etc.would be listed out-of-order from their position in the text-flow

Under 7.4.7.2 it currently takes 14 seconds after document load for the system load to fall from 30% to a trivial level. Before the changes above it *never* fell below 30%.

(added 20 Nov): After vast amounts of work to create "Proper" styling, a freshly-loaded document takes 10 seconds before the load falls below 30% (an extra 4 seconds saved on earlier work)

Last edited by alexkemp (Yesterday 12:34:12)

fanderal

Member

Registered: 2017-01-14

Posts: 80  

Re: A Libreoffice Writer ODT that Crashes the Devuan Desktop

Wondering if the problem could be hardware related. Running these in teminals for real-time info while working on/saving the file might show something.

$ top, tap '1', tap 't' twice
$ watch sensors or $ watch inxi -s
$ watch free -m
$ watch df -h /dev/sdax