Arch Linux

theNerd247

Member

Registered: 2012-12-26

Posts: 10

Xmonad and Libreoffice flashing popup windows

I've enjoyed using xmonad for years now, and I haven't had much of this issue until recently and the internet doesn't provide much help. I use libreoffice and upon writing in Writer I will use the Spell Checker (or anything that creates a popup window). As soon as the popup window appears the window focus seems to switch back and forth between the main window, and the popup. It generally takes 30+ seconds for the popup to gain focus and even then it'll lose it in 30- seconds. Most of the time Xmonad freezes, my cpu usage increases (confirmed by the extreme increase in fan speed) and then 5 minutes later I'm back  to normal.

I haven't had this issue with GIMP (the only other floating window heavy application I have). Anyone have a clue what the resolution is?

Here are the packages of libreoffice I have installed:

$ pacman -Ss libreoffice | grep installed 
extra/libreoffice-base 4.1.4-3 (libreoffice) [installed]
extra/libreoffice-calc 4.1.4-3 (libreoffice) [installed]
extra/libreoffice-common 4.1.4-3 (libreoffice) [installed]
extra/libreoffice-draw 4.1.4-3 (libreoffice) [installed]
extra/libreoffice-en-US 4.1.4-3 [installed]
extra/libreoffice-gnome 4.1.4-3 (libreoffice) [installed]
extra/libreoffice-impress 4.1.4-3 (libreoffice) [installed]
extra/libreoffice-kde4 4.1.4-3 (libreoffice) [installed]
extra/libreoffice-math 4.1.4-3 (libreoffice) [installed]
extra/libreoffice-postgresql-connector 4.1.4-3 (libreoffice) [installed]
extra/libreoffice-sdk 4.1.4-3 (libreoffice) [installed]
extra/libreoffice-sdk-doc 4.1.4-3 (libreoffice) [installed]
extra/libreoffice-writer 4.1.4-3 (libreoffice) [installed]

and my .xmonad/xmonad.hs:

import XMonad
import XMonad.Hooks.DynamicLog
import XMonad.Hooks.ManageDocks
import XMonad.Util.Run(spawnPipe)
import XMonad.Util.EZConfig(additionalKeys)
import System.IO

main = do
	xmproc <- spawnPipe "/usr/bin/xmobar -o /home/noah/.xmobarcc"
	xmonad $ defaultConfig
		{ manageHook = manageHook defaultConfig <+> manageDocks 
		, layoutHook = avoidStruts $ layoutHook defaultConfig
		, logHook = dynamicLogWithPP xmobarPP
						{ ppOutput = hPutStrLn xmproc
						, ppTitle = xmobarColor "green" "" . shorten 50
						}
		, modMask = mod4Mask
		, terminal = "urxvt"
		} `additionalKeys`
		[ ((mod4Mask, xK_a), spawn "ncmpcpp toggle; amixer set Master toggle")
		, ((mod4Mask .|. shiftMask, xK_a), spawn "ncmpcpp toggle")
		, ((mod4Mask, xK_v), spawn "amixer set Master 5%+")
		, ((mod4Mask .|. shiftMask, xK_v), spawn "amixer set Master 5%-")
		, ((mod4Mask, xK_m), spawn "/home/noah/src/scripts/xmonad/openNCMPCPP")
		, ((mod4Mask .|. shiftMask, xK_m), spawn "/home/noah/src/scripts/xmonad/openMail")
		, ((mod4Mask, xK_c), spawn "dwb")
		, ((mod4Mask .|. shiftMask, xK_h), spawn "urxvt -e sudo \"pm-hibernate\" &")
		, ((mod4Mask, xK_s), spawn "urxvt -e sudo \"pm-suspend\" &")
		]

and my version of xmonad

$ pacman -Qi xmonad
Name           : xmonad
Version        : 0.11-7
Description    : Lightweight X11 tiled window manager written in Haskell
Architecture   : x86_64
URL            : http://xmonad.org/
Licenses       : BSD
Groups         : None
Provides       : None
Depends On     : ghc=7.6.3-1  gmp  haskell-x11=1.6.1.1-3  sh  haskell-mtl=2.1.2-3  haskell-utf8-string=0.3.7-5  haskell-extensible-exceptions=0.1.1.4-5
Optional Deps  : xorg-xmessage: for displaying visual error messages
Required By    : xmonad-contrib
Optional For   : None
Conflicts With : None
Replaces       : None
Installed Size : 7362.00 KiB
Packager       : Balló György <ballogyor+arch@gmail.com>
Build Date     : Thu 05 Sep 2013 12:05:54 PM EDT
Install Date   : Sat 07 Sep 2013 04:05:44 PM EDT
Install Reason : Explicitly installed
Install Script : Yes
Validated By   : Signature

bratmaxe

Member

From: Germany

Registered: 2010-11-07

Posts: 71

Re: Xmonad and Libreoffice flashing popup windows

There is an old bug report with some workarounds here https://code.google.com/p/xmonad/issues/detail?id=200
When I was using xmonad, SAL_USE_VCLPLUGIN=gen fixed it for me, but you lose your gtk-theme in libreoffice.

Last edited by bratmaxe (2014-02-11 08:23:43)

theNerd247

Member

Registered: 2012-12-26

Posts: 10

Re: Xmonad and Libreoffice flashing popup windows

Thanks! That solved the problem. For anyone else looking for a solution to this problem just put:

export SAL_USE_VCLPLUGIN=gen

in your $HOME/.xinitrc or $HOME/.xsession file.

xiliyi

Member

Registered: 2011-05-14

Posts: 58

Re: Xmonad and Libreoffice flashing popup windows

Thank you so much, this has been bugging me for YEARS.

edit: I hope this is not considered necrobumping…

Last edited by xiliyi (2014-07-25 10:39:27)