LibreOffice has serious kerning issues with characters' display of font, bold, italic

[stijn]

Intermittently with the same or different document in LibreOffice Calc, Writer, or Impress text is distorted. The attached file shows an example of the bug that I had in Calc, where the bottom right is the 'normal' text. Three lines, with the bottom one in bold. Depending on the zoom level, the text is distorted in appearance (bold, italic, and/or font).

-I don't have a clear way of reproducing it. The apps normally start out perfectly fine. After a while this can happen, not always.
-It is not always that the 100% zoom level is ok. That can be distorted too.
-This never ever happens in any other program I use.

WORKAROUND: Use the AMD proprietary driver (fglrx).

---
.tmp.unity.support.test.0:

ApportVersion: 2.14.1-0ubuntu3.15
Architecture: amd64
CompizPlugins: [core,composite,opengl,compiztoolbox,decor,vpswitch,snap,mousepoll,resize,place,move,wall,grid,regex,imgpng,session,gnomecompat,animation,fade,staticswitcher,workarounds,scale,expo,ezoom,dbus]
CompositorRunning: compiz
CompositorUnredirectDriverBlacklist: '(nouveau|Intel).*Mesa 8.0'
CompositorUnredirectFSW: true
CurrentDesktop: Unity
DistUpgraded: Fresh install
DistroCodename: trusty
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.04
DistroVariant: ubuntu
DkmsStatus:
 vboxhost, 4.3.30, 3.13.0-61-generic, x86_64: installed
 vboxhost, 4.3.30, 3.13.0-62-generic, x86_64: installed
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
ExtraDebuggingInterest: Yes, if not too technical
GraphicsCard:
 Intel Corporation Haswell-ULT Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:0a16] (rev 09) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
   Subsystem: Lenovo Device [17aa:2216]
InstallationDate: Installed on 2015-02-10 (230 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS "Trusty Tahr" - Release amd64 (20140722.2)
MachineType: LENOVO 20B30064MH
Package: xorg 1:7.7+1ubuntu8.1
PackageArchitecture: amd64
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/vmlinuz-3.13.0-62-generic root=/dev/mapper/ubuntu--vg-root ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.13.0-62.102-generic 3.13.11-ckt24
Tags: trusty ubuntu compiz-0.9
Uname: Linux 3.13.0-62-generic x86_64
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
UserGroups: adm cdrom dip lpadmin plugdev sambashare sudo
_MarkForUpload: True
dmi.bios.date: 02/19/2014
dmi.bios.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.bios.version: GPET54WW (1.54 )
dmi.board.asset.tag: Not Available
dmi.board.name: 20B30064MH
dmi.board.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.board.version: 0B98401 Pro
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: No Asset Information
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.chassis.version: Not Available
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnLENOVO:bvrGPET54WW(1.54):bd02/19/2014:svnLENOVO:pn20B30064MH:pvrThinkPadS5-S540:rvnLENOVO:rn20B30064MH:rvr0B98401Pro:cvnLENOVO:ct10:cvrNotAvailable:
dmi.product.name: 20B30064MH
dmi.product.version: ThinkPad S5-S540
dmi.sys.vendor: LENOVO
version.compiz: compiz 1:0.9.11.3+14.04.20150313-0ubuntu1
version.ia32-libs: ia32-libs N/A
version.libdrm2: libdrm2 2.4.60-2~ubuntu14.04.1
version.libgl1-mesa-dri: libgl1-mesa-dri 10.1.3-0ubuntu0.4
version.libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental: libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental N/A
version.libgl1-mesa-glx: libgl1-mesa-glx 10.1.3-0ubuntu0.4
version.xserver-xorg-core: xserver-xorg-core 2:1.15.1-0ubuntu2.7
version.xserver-xorg-input-evdev: xserver-xorg-input-evdev 1:2.8.2-1ubuntu2
version.xserver-xorg-video-ati: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:7.3.0-1ubuntu3.1
version.xserver-xorg-video-intel: xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.99.910-0ubuntu1.6
version.xserver-xorg-video-nouveau: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau 1:1.0.10-1ubuntu2
xserver.bootTime: Tue Sep 29 07:11:18 2015
xserver.configfile: default
xserver.errors: RADEON(G0): [XvMC] Failed to initialize extension.
xserver.logfile: /var/log/Xorg.0.log
xserver.outputs:
 product id 13549
 vendor AUO
xserver.version: 2:1.15.1-0ubuntu2.7

[penalvch (penalvch)]

stijn, thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. Please execute the following command, as it will automatically gather debugging information, in a terminal:
apport-collect -p xorg 1448937

Please ensure you have the package xdiagnose installed, and that you click the Yes button for attaching additional debugging information.

When reporting bugs in the future please use apport by using 'ubuntu-bug' and the name of the package affected. You can learn more about this functionality at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ReportingBugs.

[stijn (stijncornelissen)]

apport information

[stijn (stijncornelissen)]

apport information

[stijn (stijncornelissen)]

apport information

[stijn (stijncornelissen)]

apport information

[stijn (stijncornelissen)]

apport information

[stijn (stijncornelissen)]

apport information

[stijn (stijncornelissen)]

apport information

[stijn (stijncornelissen)]

apport information

[stijn (stijncornelissen)]

apport information

[stijn (stijncornelissen)]

apport information

[stijn (stijncornelissen)]

apport information

[stijn (stijncornelissen)]

apport information

[stijn (stijncornelissen)]

apport information

[stijn (stijncornelissen)]

apport information

[stijn (stijncornelissen)]

apport information

[stijn (stijncornelissen)]

apport information

[stijn (stijncornelissen)]

apport information

[stijn (stijncornelissen)]

apport information

[stijn (stijncornelissen)]

apport information

[stijn (stijncornelissen)]

apport information

[stijn (stijncornelissen)]

apport information

[stijn (stijncornelissen)]

apport information

[stijn (stijncornelissen)]

apport information

[stijn (stijncornelissen)]

apport information

[stijn (stijncornelissen)]

apport information

[stijn (stijncornelissen)]

Hi Cristopher, I've included the info as you asked. I see now that all kinds of .txt files were uploaded to this thread. Is that the right way to do it?

[stijn (stijncornelissen)]

Hi Chris,

I am interested to see if the bios update could solve the kerning issues.

However, I have unfortunately not succeeded updating the bios. I have read the three suggested modes of doing so on the wiki, but am unable to perform any of them. The first: I can't get the .iso on an USB drive. Not through Ubuntu (Startup Disk Creator) nor Windows (Rufus). In Windows it says the .iso is unbootable. The second: I can't run the Windows .exe, since I don't have a dual boot system. The third: further information on the ThinkVantage option is not available on the wiki page.

I understand that you are not here to solve my bios update issues, but should you have a suggestion, let me know.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for xorg (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

[stijn (stijncornelissen)]

I saw that this bug expired because of inactivity. Indeed I have not checked it for a while. I do however have an update, if that might be relevant:

I managed to install the new bios. It did not solve my issue, from time to time I still have the weird font display problems I described. The output of the command Cristopher specified on 29-09-2015 is:

GPET65WW (1.65 )
06/26/2015

In addition: I have also upgraded to Ubuntu 15.10. That did not change anything either.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

stijn, does this issue have any dependency on a particular document?

[stijn (stijncornelissen)]

Hi Chris, no it does not. It can happen with any document in Impress or Writer. I must say I have not seen it in Calc recently, although I did before. It can be old, big, rich, often-saved documents, but also a fresh document I just started typing in.

Unfortunately, I don't have a clear way of reproducing it. It usually happens only after I have been working with the LO-apps for a while (say 10 - 30 mins), not often directly from the start of using them. Risk factors seem to include having multiple LO-files open, especially between different apps.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

stijn, to see if this is already resolved in Ubuntu, could you please test http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/current/ and advise to the results?

[stijn (stijncornelissen)]

Okay, I will try. Is is possible to run LibreOffice in an LiveCD-environment? I have not used the LiveCD before much.

[stijn (stijncornelissen)]

Chris, I have tried using the LiveCD. I do not really know what to conclude from the results though

[stijn (stijncornelissen)]

[Continuation of previous post, I can't seem to edit]

Two things:

1. The graphical output of LO was nearly faultless. Errors I normally have in displayed properties like bold / italic / font were not there. However I did experience a full loss of display of some characters at a certain high zoom level. See the attachment of previous post. In both cases, there needs to be a "j" in the void after the "i" characters. Other zoom levels did display the "j". (The problem was not limited to j's; other characters also disappeared sometimes.) So my experience was not without display problems, but different ones than I have on my regular system.

2. I can not be really sure of the results as I have no set way of reproducing the problem on my regular system. In my test with the LiveCD I opened a lot of different LO documents in different apps as I know that to be a risk factor. However, I only tried this for about 10 minutes, which could be to little.

So I am not sure whether my bug will be solved automatically in upcoming Ubuntu installs. I leave it to you whether you still see this as a bug that needs attention or that you find it to vague to act upon. If you need anything from me, let me know.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

stijn, let an apples-to-apples comparison be made. Hence, could you please attach one document that had the kerning issue in Trusty?

Then, if you boot into the daily environment does it still have the kerning issue?

[stijn (stijncornelissen)]

Unfortunately, that's exactly the issue: the display / kerning problems are not connected to a specific document. It can happen to any LO-document, but it does not always happen. So I can not do an apple-apple test in that way.

That's the annoying part of the whole thing: it happens often enough to make it annoying, but not in a reproducible enough way to test /solve it.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

stijn, ok. Is there a document that this happens with intermittently that can be attached?

[stijn (stijncornelissen)]

Hi Chris, in my experience it can literally happen to any document I use in LO. So even a new document I just started with only default formatting. So if there's any consistency in it, then it probably has to do with my system configuration or the way my system creates document and then interacts with my graphics driver.

So I attached an example .odp-slide that I use regularly to maybe give you a clue. Any suggestion / help is welcome. Again: I do realise that this is becoming quite a particular bug (hard to reproduce, potentially related to my system configuration). So I understand if you want to give up on it at any point.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

stijn, given this issue is only happens in LIbreOffice, let this be pursued first.

Hence, the issue you are reporting is an upstream one. It would be nice if somebody having it could send the bug to the developers of the software by following the instructions verbatim at http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/BugReport . If you have done so, please tell us the number of the upstream bug (or the link), so we can add a bugwatch that will inform us about the status. Thanks in advance.

Helpful bug reporting tips:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ReportingBugs

[stijn (stijncornelissen)]

Hi Chris, thanks for the info. I already posted the bug at the Document Foundation earlier, so I think already took those steps. I'll explain what happened.

-Feb 2015: I posted the bug on DF.org here: https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=89558
-Feb 2015: My bug was merged by a DF.org user with another one, here: https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=88991
-Apr 2015: I had some new experiences with the bug, a.o. that it did not occur with the proprietary graphics driver. So I decided to post the bug with the developers of the open source driver as well. This is the bug topic you and I are discussing in now.
-Apr - Oct 2015: I kept adding some info to the DF.org bug when I found it. I got no more replies on DF.org. The bug has not been assigned to a developer there.

So I am unsure whether I can do more than that for fixing it upstream. If you have a suggestion, let me know.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

stijn, thanks for that. Provided the upstream situation, one would want to take it with a grain of salt due to not all kerning issues have the same root cause, and the information provided to justify the duplicate status was "it looks like a duplicate".

Despite this, it wouldn't hurt to check in with the radeon mailing list to root cause this from a driver issue via http://lists.x.org/mailman/listinfo/xorg-driver-ati .

[stijn (stijncornelissen)]

Hi Chris, I agree that I do not think my bug is a duplicate of the other kerning issue. I mentioned that already in the bug in my contributions of 2015-02-27 and 2015-04-23. Unfortunately, there is no action on the duplicate bug either, so the route through the Document Foundations seems to have come to a haly completely.

Regarding your radeon mailing list suggestion: I don't understand completely. Do you mean I should sent a mail there describing my problem to that mailing list? So that they are informed as well?

[penalvch (penalvch)]

stijn:
>"Hi Chris, I agree that I do not think my bug is a duplicate of the other kerning issue. I mentioned that already in the bug in my contributions of 2015-02-27 and 2015-04-23. Unfortunately, there is no action on the duplicate bug either, so the route through the Document Foundations seems to have come to a haly completely."

To clarify, I didn't say it was or wasn't a duplicate from my perspective. What I did say is that technical evidence wasn't provided to indicate it is clearly a duplicate.

>"Regarding your radeon mailing list suggestion: I don't understand completely. Do you mean I should sent a mail there describing my problem to that mailing list? So that they are informed as well?"

Given the issue isn't reproducible when using fglrx, it is correlated to a driver (i.e. radeon) dependent issue. Hence, sending an e-mail to the list would engage the radeon developers, and may open up a deeper root cause analysis.

[stijn (stijncornelissen)]

I have posted to the mailing list. If anything develops I will post it here.