I had this issue with previous versions of Libre Office and I had hoped that it would be resolved with the new version in my new openSuse 12.2 install. But, the problem persists.
When opening documents with Libre Office (writer, calc, Impress) the window frame is displayed with solid gray contents for 5 seconds and then the document opens and everything works as expected. Opening a second document produces the same results, a gray window for 5 seconds before the document is displayed. The document size does not seem to make much difference and the delay is the same for even empty one page documents.
This happens only with Libre office. Other applications and files open near instantly. As I stated initially, this behavior first started in a previous version of Libre Office, but is continues with the new version as well. This did not occur with the older Open Office, but that had its own issues.
Are others experiencing this issue? A quick search of the forums did not produce any results. Is there a fix? Will openSuse ever include the fix?
I don’t see the “window frame displayed as solid grey” as you do. By the way do you mean the entire screen going grey or just Libre Office? On opening I see the start screen which displays until the application is fully open; this takes about 5 seconds. Could your grey screen be the start screen which, for some reason, is not rendering properly on your system? The time delay is “normal” for Libre Office and indeed is an improvement over the OOO it forked from.
On the other hand it maybe that your libre Office configuration files have become either corrupted or are incompatible with a latter version after openSUSE upgrade. This could be an issue especially if you have a separate /home partition and keep all the hidden config files or your backup keeps them. I’m not sure on the correct procedure if this is the case but probably do a backup of .config/libreoffice (just rename it) in your home directory and then delete the directory ./config/libreoffice. Opening LO should restore everything to defaults (however you will have lost any macros etc that you have set up). If this fails you can at least restore your original .config by deleting the new one and restoring the name of your backup.
yes. on my low power atom LO is a slow pig to open…same was true from
the first day after moving from OpenOffice (which was a somewhat faster
pig)…
however–both do the job i need…and, i like the more free LO than OO,
so i just hum a free song while LO opens…
reality check: just how long does it take to initially load MS-Office
products if/when you dual boot?
and, don’t miss the fact that (because it is SO slow) Windows[tm] (to
make it seem faster than it is) often pops up an apparently complete
application window in front of the user quickly, BUT it is not ready to
be used because the app is still loading…
so, i’d guess your LO is faster from cold start to actual use–and, the
system showing a gray window and not having to render the full (but not ready to use) window actually saves you time…
so smile at your good fortune [high value/low cost], and hum a free tune
for five seconds–life will be more enjoyable . . .
Apart from your tcehnical question, you have some procedural questions, like:
I had hoped that it would be resolved with the new version in my new openSuse 12.2 install.
That will only work if it is different in a new version of LibreOffice. openSUSE does not “make” LibreOffice, it only packkages it (with some cosmetic addaptions) for you in the distro.
And LibreOffice depends of course very much about bugs/questions/feature requests of it’s users to improve their product. Did you report there?
Is there a fix? Will openSuse ever include the fix?
When something is fixed upstream (at LibreOffice in this case) it will come down and in the end automaticaly be in a next verion of openSUSE (or maybe even earlier in Tumbleweed, or a factory repo). It will normaly not be in a patch of the present openSUSE level (the Update repo) as long as it is not about Security.
yes. on my low power atom LO is a slow pig to open…same was true from
the first day after moving from OpenOffice (which was a somewhat faster
pig)…
Mine is a fast machine. My performance issue is specifically with Libre Office.
reality check: just how long does it take to initially load MS-Office
products if/when you dual boot?
Reality check indeed. Office 2010 takes 500 milliseconds to open a small document and allow typing on the same class of hardware. That’s from double click to fully operational, no display tricks. Open Office however, use to use display tricks. Libre Office is just displaying a gray window for 5 seconds. No tricks but painfully slow even if the application is already open, opening another document is a 5 second pause where the window is a solid gray box. See here.
so, i’d guess your LO is faster from cold start to actual use–and, the
system showing a gray window and not having to render the full (but not ready to use) window actually saves you time…
This assumption is completely opposite of my experience.
That will only work if it is different in a new version of LibreOffice. openSUSE does not “make” LibreOffice, it only packkages it (with some cosmetic addaptions) for you in the distro.
I first saw this behavior in the version of Libre Office was installed by an openSuse 11.3 update. ‘Surprise, your Open Office is gone and we replaced it with Libre Office.’ This latest version included with openSuse 12.2 is a different/newer version of Libre Office from the one I first saw this issue in.
I had been under the impression that Novell/ openSuse was a significant contributor to Libre Office and that this was an openSuse custom version. You are stating that this is not the case?
And LibreOffice depends of course very much about bugs/questions/feature requests of it’s users to improve their product. Did you report there?
I have now asked on the Open Document Foundation website. One more registration added to the list.
When something is fixed upstream (at LibreOffice in this case) it will come down and in the end automaticaly be in a next verion of openSUSE (or maybe even earlier in Tumbleweed, or a factory repo). It will normaly not be in a patch of the present openSUSE level (the Update repo) as long as it is not about Security.
Good to know that there is no chance for this issue to be fixed until the next agonizing “upgrade”(read replacement) of openSuse.
I have no idea. This is the openSUSE forum where openSUSE users try to help other openSUSE users. My guess is that it does not matter for us and for the packagers of an openSUSE version if Novell supports LO or not. The next version of LO (if not obviously cripled) will be in the next version of openSUSE.
I think you misunderstood me. It will not be officialy in 12.2. But I allready pointed to Tumbleweed and/or Factory. Like Martin suggests, there are repos with other indications like Unstable and Stable. Just make your choice.
>> reality check: just how long does it take to initially load MS-Office
>> products if/when you dual boot?
>
> Reality check indeed. Office 2010 takes 500 milliseconds to open a
> small document and allow typing on the same class of hardware. That’s
> from double click to fully operational, no display tricks.
Office can also employ tricks; some tools are preloaded on session login, so that they start
faster later. I have seen that trick with openoffice, too.
> Open Office
> however, use to use display tricks. Libre Office is just displaying a
> gray window for 5 seconds. No tricks but painfully slow even if the
> application is already open, opening another document is a 5 second
> pause where the window is a solid gray box. ‘See here’
> (http://imgur.com/dvvZL).
On my machine there is no such grey window as you describe; instead I see a small progress
window, and then the fully functional writer. From click on start menu to first letter typed I
counted to five.
I’m using version 3.5 build 403 in oS 12.1
Ah, yes, Novell is a contributor to LO. Before the OO-LO split, they also had a version named
“GO”, available for Linux and Windows, with important differences with upstream OO.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 12.1 x86_64 “Asparagus” at Telcontar)
The sneaky starts up 10 times faster trick. I didn’t see that one coming.
On my machine there is no such grey window as you describe; instead I see a small progress
window, and then the fully functional writer. From click on start menu to first letter typed I
counted to five.
I’m using version 3.5 build 403 in oS 12.1
So, although the display is a little different it is taking approximately five seconds for you also.
> So, although the display is a little different it is taking
> approximately five seconds for you also.
Oh, yes, definitely.
Start up speed has never been one of *office advantages. It wasn’t when I used staroffice at
the beginning and it wasn’t when it changed into openoffice. Then it took about half a minute
to start… but at least it was workable after that “delay”.
But Firefox was a beast starting: the first time I tried it took half an hour to start! (no
kidding), so I went back to netscape…
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 12.1 x86_64 “Asparagus” at Telcontar)
On start-up time: faster I’ve seen is 4 secs for a blank document (writer) at first run. subsequent runs (possibly depending on the “remain in memory” setting) are practically instantaneous, just like MS office.
I’m wondering what the problem is with a 5second start? Is it such a problem in the grand scheme of things and how much work can you actually achieve in 5 secs? Libre office is a full office suite and I belive the coders are making great strides in improving the code so that things will run faster. They have inherited the software from others and are not responsible for this issue but things will get streamlined and hopefully their hard work will bear fruit for all of us. Remember this is open source and we can all get involved to make things better
On another note, if speed is important perhaps have a look at abiword or Calligra (quite an extensive office suite for kde). Of course on a funnier note you could master vi
On 2012-09-24 00:56, Penguinclaw wrote:
>
> I’m wondering what the problem is with a 5second start? Is it such a
> problem in the grand scheme of things and how much work can you actually
> achieve in 5 secs? Libre office is a full office suite and I belive the
> coders are making great strides in improving the code so that things
> will run faster. They have inherited the software from others and are
> not responsible for this issue but things will get streamlined and
> hopefully their hard work will bear fruit for all of us. Remember this
> is open source and we can all get involved to make things better
I very much doubt it will be faster soon. I have been waiting for 10 years already.
I don’t need it faster, but I’m against giving false hopes either.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 12.1 x86_64 “Asparagus” at Telcontar)
Ah, yes, Novell is a contributor to LO. Before the OO-LO split, they also had a version named
“GO”, available for Linux and Windows, with important differences with upstream OO.
Of course, you can always do what I did - banish LO from my system and download and install Open Office. Works fine.
On 2012-09-29 04:26, robertsmits wrote:
> Of course, you can always do what I did - banish LO from my system and
> download and install Open Office. Works fine.
What for?
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 12.1 x86_64 “Asparagus” at Telcontar)
I have the same problem, but the waiting time for me is about 80 seconds, which disrupts my workflow. Once it is started, it works reasonably fast.
Other software starts instantaneous, thanks to my SSD. My system boots in about 10 seconds.
The window frame is displayed immediately, but it just stays grey. Other windows / window manager continue to work fine (machine remains responsive). I am also on 12.2, but I already had this problem on 12.1. I did a fresh install, but kept the home directory. However, deleting ~/.libreoffice had not helped back with 12.1.
