An empty bar appeared above the toolbar after upgrade to version 5.2 (Unity7/gtk2)

[Alexey Kulik]

After upgrade of LibreOffice to version 5.2, an empty bar appeared between the toolbar and the window header. The empty bar contains only the button Close Document.
If a new instance of LO window is opened from an existing LO window via Window -> New Window, the empty bar is absent in the new window and the UI looks correctly.

Version: 5.2.0.4
Build ID: 1:5.2.0~rc4-0ubuntu1~xenial2
installed from ppa:libreoffice/ppa

Ubuntu 16.04 LTS amd64 Unity7

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Alexey Kulik (doctor-rover)]

After update to version 1:5.2.1~rc2-0ubuntu1~xenial0, the empty bar still appears.

[Björn Michaelsen (bjoern-michaelsen)]

Can confirm this with backport 1:5.2.1~rc2-0ubuntu1~xenial0 and gtk2 backend.

Workaround: Use gtk3 backend, installing libreoffice-gtk3 should be enough (Please report back if that doesnt suffice, libreoffice should prefer gtk3 over gtk2 if both are installed).

In case, gtk3 is installed but is ignored (which it shouldnt, please report), forcing LibreOffice to gtk3 with:

 SAL_USE_VCLPLUGIN=gtk3 libreoffice

would be a workaround.

[Björn Michaelsen (bjoern-michaelsen)]

NOT reproducable on a fresh default yakkety install from 2016-09-19 daily ISO (which defaults to gtk3).
Reproducable on there only when doing an explicit:

 sudo apt install libreoffice-gtk2
 sudo apt remove libreoffice-gtk3 # also removes libreoffice-gnome

which should be a weird cornercase. => priority medium, libreoffice-gtk2 is fading away anyway (on Ubuntu and upstream).

Still need to reconfirm that a Xenial=>Yakkety upgrade always installs -gtk3.

[Björn Michaelsen (bjoern-michaelsen)]

Also not reproducible when updating from a prestine Xenial to Yakkety, the update installs libreoffice-gtk3 (as it should).

Reproducible only after and explicit (and not recommended) "sudo apt install libreoffice-gtk2 && sudo apt remove libreoffice-gtk3" then.

So this doesnt happen in default installs, only with ppa builds or when explicitly removing libreoffice-gtk3.

[Alexey Kulik (doctor-rover)]

@Björn Michaelsen, thank you for the information.

I confirm that the issue is not reproduced with gtk3 backend.

I also confirm that installing libreoffice-gtk3 is indeed enough, no need to use start option SAL_USE_VCLPLUGIN=gtk3.

But unfortunately, there is a number of gtk3-related issues. For example:
Bug #1562513 (Toolbar has a dark background in GTK3 in Ubuntu)
Bug #1527053 (Tab names unreadable in GTK3 in Ubuntu)
Thus, LO with gtk3 backend looks ugly now and, to some extent, unusable. At least in 16.04.

I agree that fixing the bug for almost obsolete backend is not that important. It's better to address to the gtk3 issues.

[Germoluso (aewyre)]

The 5.2.2.2 update fixed it for me (14.04 Intel 64).

[Alexey Kulik (doctor-rover)]

Also fixed for me after update. Thanks.
Version: 5.2.2.2
Build ID: 1:5.2.2-0ubuntu1~xenial0
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS amd64 Unity7

[Björn Michaelsen (bjoern-michaelsen)]

Closing as per comment 7 and comment 8.