Glitch in LO Base (24.2.5.2) Text box - any solutrion yet?

[rherbert]

I have been working with Mariadb using LO Base . I think it is great. However, I updated my OpenSuse Tumbleweed today with all of my packages. Yes, LO as well. I went into one of my LO Base forms for a database and found several problems with text boxes (which I use to display a history entry).

1. Background colour selection is gone leaving a transparent text box (font colours still work).
2. The text box does not refresh when viewing more then one history entry and overwrites as a result.
3. When vertical scrolling is used, text smears. This occurs with arrowing down in a multiline box as well.

To note, all of these effects are noted with a Memo [MEDIUMTEXT} table data field (entry required, length 16777215). I am not certain if that is relevant.

The glitch literally leaves data (History entries) unreadable. Has this been noticed by anyone else? Is there a work around?

I have attached a screenshot of a form with a couple of text boxes, my LO info and my opensuse info.

Thanks in Advance - Richard

[Villeroy]

LO Base - text in forms display issue

Hi, I updated OS from Kubuntu 22.04 to Kubuntu 24.04 (LO version 24.2.3.2) and now I am having this issue: [1] I have form in LO Base with text fields, when I am browsing records, the text from previous records keeps being displayed and is overlapping with the following records. Looks like only MEMO (longvarchar) fields are affected and TEXT (varchar) does not have this issue.

[rherbert]

Thanks for letting me know this is not limited to my system. I have noticed that text boxes in my forms are affected differently. There are some boxes where font and background have become transparent or changed to the form background colour; other boxes where boxes are affected in edit mode and not in entry mode; and still others where there is overwriting and smearing.

At this time (I do not have many combinations of text boxes):

1. text box with 3-d effect and text[VARCHAR] are off in the form’s edit mode;
2. text box without 3-d effect but with Text[CARCHAR] are affected in both edit and entry mode;
3. Text boxes with Memo[MEDIUMTEXT] is the worst with streaking and overlaping text form different data selection.

Maybe someone can suggest a work around with field types.

I note that for me with my OS and the LO version I am using, formtables are not affected including their text columns, but most of the other text selections when setting datafields for data holding tables show problems of some sort when used in form text boxes.

This seems to be more than a glitch.

[rherbert]

So, is this a bigger problem than a glitch with one type of data field and Text boxes?

[Villeroy]

I don’t understand these issues. However, it seems to be a problem with the interaction between LibreOffice and KDE/Gtk. With Gtk, most of my forms are unusable. Therefore, I start LibreOffice without Gtk support using LibreOffice’s own generic toolkit.

[rherbert]

Thanks Villeroy for answering. I am not a programming whiz. I can get around fairly well with linux, virtual machines, databases, etc… but my programming skill are limited to a bit of html, bit of elisp and less with sql and dos macros. So, I have no idea what KDE/GtK is and how to start LO without Gtk support. (I am aware that I use KDE Plasma).

How do I start LO without GTK support and has this problem been reported as a bug since it is no glitch??

Thanks - Richard

[Villeroy]

Just follow my link.

[rherbert]

Followed your link (thanks), but am not certain what directory to set the konsole in to type in SAL_USE_VCLPLUGIN=gen libreoffice24.2.

[rherbert]

Oh, and if I switch from a KDE desktop to Cinnamon, will that resolve these issues?

[Villeroy]

@rherbert

Followed your link (thanks), but am not certain what directory to set the konsole in to type in SAL_USE_VCLPLUGIN=gen libreoffice24.2.

The directory does not matter. Just start LibreOffice with the prefix SAL_USE_VCLPLUGIN=gen (no spaces in that prefix).
Your LibreOffice command may differ. Just type libreo, hit the tab key and the correct program name should appear. soffice might work as well.

[Villeroy]

@rherbert

Oh, and if I switch from a KDE desktop to Cinnamon, will that resolve these issues?

No, I’m afraid.

[rherbert]

Thanks Villeroy. “SAL_USE_VCLPLUGIN=gen libreoffice” and “SAL_USE_VCLPLUGIN=gen soffice” both work. Where do I head to modify the soffice start script or is that also at a sudo command line in home? (I am used to emacs/spacemacs and going in to modify init, so I am looking for where I go to modify the script.)

[Villeroy]

I don’t know how to do that on a SUSE system.
You need the installation directory, the program directory therein, copy the original file and edit the file named soffice with a text editor and with root privileges.

[rherbert]

Thanks for steering me in a direction.

Thanks…

[robleyd]

Alternatively you could try right clicking on the application launcher in KDE, select Edit Applications and add the SAL_USE_VCLPLUGIN=gen to the command line for LibreOffice. This is from my Slackware 15 / KDE Plasma 5.n

[rherbert]

Thanks @robleyd. This definitely simplifies things.

Awesome !