Nixpkgs: libreoffice constant high cpu usage.

Created on 23 Mar 2018 · 40Comments · Source: NixOS/nixpkgs

Issue description

libreoffices cpu usage is constantly on 100% (one core).

Steps to reproduce

$ libreoffice
javaldx: Could not find a Java Runtime Environment!
Warning: failed to read path from javaldx

look with a taskmanager at libreoffices cpu usage.

Technical details

libreoffice-5.4.5.1

system: "x86_64-linux"
host os: Linux 4.14.27, NixOS, 18.03pre131327.0e7c9b32817 (Impala)
multi-user?: yes
sandbox: no
version: nix-env (Nix) 2.0
channels(mcd): ""
channels(root): "nixos-18.03pre131327.0e7c9b32817, nixos-1709-17.09.3194.edf1079d43f"
nixpkgs: /nix/var/nix/profiles/per-user/root/channels/nixos/nixpkgs

stale

Source

castilma

👍2

Most helpful comment

Try executing with the environment

~
SAL_USE_VCLPLUGIN=gen
~

this avoids the issue on my system. From what I recall the issue is with the current version of glib.

coreyoconnor on 24 Mar 2018

👍3

All 40 comments

Hm. Setting JAVA_HOME fixes the javaldx problem, but not the CPU consumption itself

7c6f434c on 23 Mar 2018

Try executing with the environment

~
SAL_USE_VCLPLUGIN=gen
~

this avoids the issue on my system. From what I recall the issue is with the current version of glib.

coreyoconnor on 24 Mar 2018

👍3

@coreyoconnor yes, that fixes it.

castilma on 24 Mar 2018

Is it time to create a LibreOffice wrapper then? JAVA_HOME, SAL_USE_VCLPLUGIN, starting DBus if not already running…

7c6f434c on 24 Mar 2018

👍1

I was unaware of "JAVA_HOME". Definitely for that one.

As for SAL_USE_VCLPLUGIN. That may indicate a bug in glib that effects other applications and should be patched in glib. Pulling back up the history of why I did that:

https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/57036
notes the issue started with a recent glib release
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=761102#c53
long discussion. big mess.
arch and fedora appear to be releasing patched glibs?
not resolved in upstream glib?

Not sure what glib is TBH. Is that "gnulib" in nixpkgs?

coreyoconnor on 24 Mar 2018

glib is the basic library for GTK that defines the GTK object system (GTK is written in C but it is very object-oriented), wrappers for things like input-output (I think GIO did not get separated from glib), timers, etc.

If it is unclear what breaks what, we can either take a patch from some distribution that does patch that, or start with a wrapper and then hope next GNOME release ships a better glib

7c6f434c on 24 Mar 2018

Same issue here, the SAL_USE_VCLPLUGIN=gen workaround fixes it too.

Is there a preferred way to go for fixing this, between fixing glib and adding this variable to the environment through a wrapper? Or just waiting for glib / libreoffice to release a fixed version, as it's not a real blocker?

Ekleog on 26 Mar 2018

IMO, given the stance of making it work "as expected" for end users: add to a wrapper now.

coreyoconnor on 26 Mar 2018

I have just pushed a wrapper into master. Any testers? (No LibreOffice rebuild needed, the wrapper is a separate derivation)

7c6f434c on 27 Mar 2018

Can confirm on master there doesn't seem to be the 100% CPU usage issue any longer. Thanks! :grinning:

Ekleog on 28 Mar 2018

This is indeed fixed in master; could this fix be backported to 18.03 ?

symphorien on 9 Apr 2018

OK, picked.

7c6f434c on 9 Apr 2018

The wrapper script seems to have broken something else. When I start soffice I get the following output:

mkdir: cannot create directory ‘/run/user/1000/libreoffice-dbus’: File exists
dbus[16856]: Unknown group "netdev" in message bus configuration file
dbus[16856]: Unknown username "pulse" in message bus configuration file
dbus[16856]: Unknown group "netdev" in message bus configuration file
dbus-daemon[16856]: Failed to drop supplementary groups: Operation not permitted
dbus-daemon[16856]: Failed to start message bus: Failed to set GID to 4: Operation not permitted
I18N: Operating system doesn't support locale ""
I18N: Operating system doesn't support locale "en_US"

It starts and is usable, but the theme is wrong.

libreoffice theming

Cropped. The font is wrong, and the menu colors are wrong too.

My $DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS is set to unix:abstract=/tmp/dbus-Rc0rWjnibW,guid=e445347ae05104306f7ac08e5ac68e7f and $DBUS_SYSTEM_BUS_ADDRESS is unset. It works normally if I run it directly, without the wrapper.

enolan on 15 Apr 2018

👍1

Ah, so a fake system bus is not needed when session bus exists, and is even actively harmful. I think I have pushed a fix to master (only the wrapper is rebuilt) to ignore the idea of system bus completely, could you try it? It works on my no-running-DBus system.

7c6f434c on 15 Apr 2018

e471376982d5c404c0d5fb376f1e48fa4b7859ba didn't solve the font problem for me.

Mounium on 16 Apr 2018

Can confirm, the font problem is the same as of master today @ a5ae3b57314. The DBus error messages are gone though. I looked into it a little more, SAL_USE_VCLPLUGIN is for setting the windowing toolkit to get the theme from. See here. So setting it to gen means no theme, and we shouldn't be surprised the fonts are wrong.

I'm not seeing high CPU usage when running LibreOffice, regardless of if I use the wrapper or not. GLib was upgraded from 2.54.3 to 2.56.0 in 0973618e4ec61578de2eaf5531d4be661e4fa20a, which wasn't in the version of nixpkgs @castilma was using when reporting this. So it's possible the original issue is fixed now and we can drop the wrapper. I never saw the problem in the first place though.

enolan on 18 Apr 2018

@castilma is the CPU problem still there without the wrapper?

@enolan I would keep the wrapper because of Java (and in rare circumstances DBus) but drop SAL_USE_VCLPLUGIN if it is not needed anymore.

7c6f434c on 18 Apr 2018

how do I install the unwrapped version?
I have the wrapped /nix/store/gps4y0fnlsl8lshps3zpiy976147v4ph-libreoffice-5.4.5.1/bin/libreoffice in my profile. and this file calls /nix/store/1nv742r3m75iljjpbd1mvrmzh6fj14mj-libreoffice-5.4.5.1/bin/libreoffice. invoking the second one directly still shows the problem.

castilma on 19 Apr 2018

Well, if this is a new enough version, that means that your system still
needs the wrapper.

You could install by using
nix-env -iA libreoffice.libreoffice
which should give you the same executable as you have launched after
inspecting the wrapper script.

7c6f434c on 19 Apr 2018

It seems to me like it would be best to revert the wrapper; the cure for the high CPU usage issue seems far worse than the disease. The interface is quite unusable due to the theme issues introduced by the wrapper.

bgamari on 30 Apr 2018

👍1

@bgamari if you use the unwrapped libreoffice.libreoffice version, does the original issue even happen for you?

7c6f434c on 1 May 2018

@7c6f434c I can't get Writer over 1% no matter what, in Calc I can go as "high" as 5% by dragging a semi-difficult formula to the thousands, but it sits at 1% at idle as well, so nothing I would even remotely call a bug.

I also think the wrapper should be reverted as soon as possible because without installing libreoffice.libreoffice this package is unusable and it's difficult to find this issue with keywords like "no theme libreoffice" to solve the problem.

Mounium on 1 May 2018

… so that means that we have two types of setups, one where LibreOffice is unusable _without_ wraper and one where it is unusable _with_ wrapper? @castilma anything you can guess about your DE etc.?

7c6f434c on 1 May 2018

Also, @castilma could you try running LibreOffice (unwrapped) in a more or less minimal environment, maybe nix-shell --pure? Is the problem still there?

7c6f434c on 1 May 2018

guess about my DE? well, I guess it's xfce.

libreoffice after nix-shell --pure -p libreoffice.libreoffice still has the problem.

 - system: `"x86_64-linux"`
 - host os: `Linux 4.14.37, NixOS, 18.03.132192.ce0d9d638de (Impala)`
 - multi-user?: `yes`
 - sandbox: `no`
 - version: `nix-env (Nix) 2.0.1`
 - channels(mcd): `""`
 - channels(root): `"nixos-18.03.132192.ce0d9d638de"`
 - nixpkgs: `/nix/var/nix/profiles/per-user/root/channels/nixos/nixpkgs`

Heres my system configuration.
configuration.nix.gz

castilma on 1 May 2018

Well, I wondered if you could guess what else about your environment could be relevant.

Hopefully the wrapper can be adjusted to make sure it only sets the nuclear options in the case where it is needed.

(Maybe I can reproduce it in a VM…)

7c6f434c on 1 May 2018

Doesn't seem to happen in a VM built from that configuration…

7c6f434c on 2 May 2018

I have also observed the high CPU usage. I've not looked into it as I generally avoid using Libreoffice when possible.

However, in general I would prefer a warm lap but usable Libreoffice than a cool lap but unreadable interface. :)

bgamari on 2 May 2018

What separately annoys me is that the problem seems non-trivial to reproduce…

7c6f434c on 2 May 2018

FWIW I also had the 100% CPU problem. However now I can no longer reproduce it using either libreoffice.libreoffice or libreoffice-fresh.libreoffice.

gebner on 2 May 2018

(in the meantime, I commented out the toolkit override in the wrapper, but preserved the DBus fallback)

7c6f434c on 3 May 2018

Is anybody still seeing this?

peterhoeg on 6 Jul 2018

I'm still seeing this, on current 18.03. The SAL_USE_VCLPLUGIN workaround worked well.

hlandau on 4 Sep 2018

I'm also still seeing this on current 18.03. However, the SAL_USE_VCLPLUGIN workaround doesn't work for me as it messes up the fonts.

wizeman on 21 Sep 2018

Does setting SAL_USE_VCLPLUGIN to gtk or kde give you both fonts and normal CPU usage? If it doesn't help, could you try to set OOO_FORCE_DESKTOP to none but SAL_USE_VCLPLUGIN to gtk or something like that.

7c6f434c on 21 Sep 2018

On my system, SAL_USE_VCLPLUGIN=kde seems to do nothing (it behaves the same as not setting SAL_USE_VCLPLUGIN).
SAL_USE_VCLPLUGIN=gtk changes to a different and usable theme, but the 100% CPU usage remains.
SAL_USE_VCLPLUGIN=gen changes to a different but unusable/ugly theme. The 100% CPU usage disappears.
OOO_FORCE_DESKTOP=none, with or without setting SAL_USE_VCLPLUGIN apparently has no effect either on the theme or on the CPU usage.

BTW, this issue is 100% reproducible for me. The 100% CPU usage begins immediately after starting libreoffice.

wizeman on 21 Sep 2018

Hm. OK, thanks. Interesting. I still have no idea how to fix/work-around this issue…

7c6f434c on 21 Sep 2018

Let's see if #68414 fixes it.

peterhoeg on 10 Sep 2019

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