Text rendering errors

[aidave]

While typing and scrolling, Abiword will frequently fail to display some lines and words, instead displaying white space.

This is highly frustrating when trying to edit a document, as I have to scroll up and down repeatedly in hopes the display will render properly. This problem is also apparent in Open Office 3, but not with gedit.

I am running Intrepid on a Dell 1420n Nvidia with Compiz.

[Charlie Kravetz (cjkgeek)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this issue and helping to make Ubuntu better. Examining the information you have given us, this does not appear to be a bug report so we are closing it and converting it to a question in the support tracker. We appreciate the difficulties you are facing, but it would make more sense to raise problems you are having in the support tracker at https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu if you are uncertain if they are bugs. For help on reporting bugs, see https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ReportingBugs .

[aidave (aidave)]

How is this not a bug? What a load of BS.

[aidave (aidave)]

It still happens.

[aidave (aidave)]

You can pretend that this isnt a bug, but it is.

[Charlie Kravetz (cjkgeek)]

Thanks for reporting this. Please supply the additional information:
1. The release of Ubuntu you are using, via 'lsb_release -rd'.
2. The version of the package you are using, via 'apt-cache policy packagename' or by checking in Synaptic.
3. If you disable compiz, do you still see this happening?
4. What video card are you using?
5. How much memory does your system have?

[molecule-eye (niburu1)]

I have this problem as well. Also, when I move my cursor somewhere it leaves a thick black mark there and it does not disappear until I scroll off the page. This bug makes AbiWord unusable on my system.

[Charlie Kravetz (cjkgeek)]

Thanks for reporting this. Please supply the additional information:
1. The release of Ubuntu you are using, via 'lsb_release -rd'.
2. The version of the package you are using, via 'apt-cache policy packagename' or by checking in Synaptic.
3. If you disable compiz, do you still see this happening?
4. What video card are you using?
5. How much memory does your system have?

[molecule-eye (niburu1)]

I'm using Jaunty with Intel graphics and 1GB RAM. The problem occurs with both AbiWord version 2.6.4 (in the Jaunty repos) as well as 2.6.8 (in the Debian repos).

When I disable compiz (and use metacity) the black cursor problem goes away, but letters still go invisible, which may be caused by highlighting words or performing other actions. (This is for 2.6.8.)

[aidave (aidave)]

Ok. I am the original reporter / jerk.

I have found the solution to this and it is not AbiWord.

It is Compiz/NVIDIA (not sure which).

Go to Compiz Config Settings Manager, then to Utility -> WorkArounds.

Check "Force Synchornization between X and GLX".

AbiWord should work normally after that. Does for me.

ANGER AND FRUSTRATION GONE!!! :)

[aidave (aidave)]

The problem isnt AbiWord, but something with X/GLX/Compiz/NVIDIA.

[molecule-eye (niburu1)]

That does not suggest the problem is not AbiWord, since the problem still persists for people with other video chipsets.

I would think if no other program has problems interacting with compiz, the bug you initially reported is a bug with AbiWord, not compiz. (Or we could blame both.)

[aidave (aidave)]

Considering this problem also happened with OpenOffice (and also KdeSvn), then I'd wager it isnt a problem directly with AbiWord. However maybe it is a problem with one of the components shared between them.

A GTK/QT/X problem?

As a side note I have had some very minor display glitches in AbiWord since... so maybe this solution isn't a 100% fix.

[jimmy the saint (lowid95)]

I run Debian Squeeze with openbox. no compiz (obviously). I do have an nvidia card in the laptop though. I have this issue as well. It is EXTREMELY irritating. I hate to go the openoffice route, but this is clearly a significant thing. I searched for the bug because more than half of the report I am writing is invisible at any given time. I have to add a space or something, then delete it in order to see any given line. This is serious and needs to be fixed. The low importance is ridiculous. Only someone not experiencing it would label it as such. If their text editor only showed half the lines in their code at a time, they would toss the text editor to the curb. It wouldn't be a "low" importance issue. But hey, what do normal user issues matter right?

[Jamin Thornsberry (jamin.thorns)]

This bug is extremely irritating. It is the sole reason that I use Google Docs instead of Abiword. That thing that puzzles me is that it only happens on Ubuntu with Compiz enabled. No other distro and no other window manager. This should definitely be marked as a higher priority bug.

[David Adam (zanchey)]

I am still seeing what I think is this bug on Ubuntu 9.04 with Abiword 2.6.6-0ubuntu1 and compiz 1:0.8.2-0ubuntu8.1. The problem disappears when compiz is disabled, but reappears with the default settings in Ubuntu. The hardware is Intel Corporation Mobile 915GM/GMS/910GML Express Graphics Controller on a machine with 1.25 GB of RAM.

Almost certainly related - at least to my reading of the bug - is https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=478564 and https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=19353 and http://bugzilla.abisource.com/show_bug.cgi?id=12066

I have included an image of the display corruption that occurs - if this is not what other users are experiencing then I will open a new bug.

[Charlie Kravetz (cjkgeek)]

This report is about seeing white space instead of text. If you are seeing black marks or anything except spaces in abiword, please file a new report since you have a different issue.

David Adam: Thanks for your research. It appears your issue is with the Intel video driver and black marks appearing. Please file a new report for that issue.

[RHTopics (tyrht01)]

A report has already been filed for the Abiword/compiz black marks problem. It is:

    https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/abiword/+bug/333583