First steps to take before submitting a bug

    From The Document Foundation Wiki
    < QA
    Other languages:

    The very first step: reproduce bug using latest fresh/still version

    The two latest major releases, LibreOffice Fresh and LibreOffice Still ( LibreOffice 24.2.1 / LibreOffice 7.6.5 ) are both regularly updated with bug fixes. If your version is not the latest Fresh or Still release, the bug you are about to report might already be fixed. First update your LibreOffice installation, then check if the issue still persists.

    You can also install a new version without disrupting the existing installation as described here: Installing in parallel.

    NOTE: If the issue didn't go away, use the original version number in the bug report's Version field, which is for the earliest affected version.

    Corrupted user profile

    Symptoms:

    • Almost any kind of unusual behavior (especially if LibreOffice has been upgraded several times).

    Steps to take:

    1. Locate your user profile.
    2. Rename or delete user profile.

    For details see User profile location and Resolving corruption in the user profile (backing up the existing profile is highly advised).

    NOTE: Corruption in the profile is notoriously hard to catch. Unless you are encountering this issue regularly, or you have specific steps to reproduce the issue, it isn't worth submitting a bug report. However, if you are uncertain, don't hesitate to submit one.

    Issues related to slideshows (OpenGL)

    Symptoms (only on some slide transitions):

    • Graphical glitches.
    • Crash.

    Steps to take:

    1. Check you've got last stable driver for your graphic card since it includes OpenGL part.
    2. Restart LibreOffice.

    If the issue is not gone and you are using Windows, locate <user profile>\cache\opengl_device.log and attach it to the bug report. The development team will propose a change in a file named opengl_denylist_windows.xml located under share\opengl in LibreOffice's installation directory.

    Add your observations to the bug report.

    Computation-related issues in Calc ( OpenCL )

    Symptoms:

    • Incorrect formula results.
    • Crash during calculation.

    Steps to take:

    1. Uncheck Tools ▸ Options... ▸ LibreOffice ▸ OpenCL ▸ Allow use of OpenCL.
    2. Restart LibreOffice, check if issue still occurs.
    3. If it does, uncheck Tools ▸ Options... ▸ LibreOffice ▸ OpenCL ▸ Allow use of Software Interpreter (even when OpenCL is not available).
    4. Restart LibreOffice, check if issue still occurs.

    If the issue is gone after step 2, locate <user profile>/cache/opencl_devices.log and opencl_profile.xml, and attach them to the bug report (these files are created since version 5.1.4). This will help the development team assess whether the issue could be with the OpenCL implementation in your system, or within LibreOffice.

    Add your observations to the bug report.

    NOTE: If the number of data cells used in formulas is small, OpenCL is not used even if enabled (OpenCL is used to speed up calculation on large datasets, and is usually not efficient on small amount of data). The lower limit is 100 by default, and can be adjusted in Tools ▸ Options... ▸ LibreOffice Calc ▸ Formula by selecting Custom (use OpenCL, conversion of text to numbers, and more), clicking Details, and adjusting Minimum data size for OpenCL use.

    Graphics-related issues ( Skia )

    Symptoms:

    • Graphical glitches.
    • Crash.

    Check if the following string appears in Help ▸ About LibreOffice: "UI Render: Skia/Vulkan".

    If there is other or even "UI Render: Skia/Raster" instead, it usually means the symptoms aren't caused by Skia, and the rest isn't applicable.

    Steps to take:

    1. Check you've got last stable driver for your graphic card since it includes Skia part.
    2. You can also force the use of Skia/Raster with one of the following options:
    • On Windows, turn "Force Skia software rendering" on in Tools ▸ Options ▸ LibreOffice ▸ View
    • On Linux/MacOS: before launching LibreOffice from console, export the variable export SAL_SKIA=raster
    • On any environment: in Tools ▸ Options ▸ LibreOffice ▸ Advanced ▸ Open Expert Configuration, set ForceSkiaRaster to true

    However, there are known cases when using Skia/Raster still crashes LibreOffice when starting, and in those cases (when you will not be even able to look at Help ▸ About LibreOffice) you would need to try these manual steps.

    1. Locate your user profile (see details above).
    2. Open registrymodifications.xcu in a plain text editor, and search for UseSkia text string there.
      1. If found, replace true with false in that line.
      2. If not found, add this line to the file before the final </oor:items>:
       <item oor:path="/org.openoffice.Office.Common/VCL"><prop oor:name="UseSkia" oor:op="fuse"><value>false</value></prop></item>
    

    If the issue is gone, locate <user profile>/cache/skia.log, and attach it to the bug report. This will help the development team assess whether the issue could be with the Skia/Vulkan implementation in your system, or within LibreOffice.

    Since version 7.6 (see tdf#155070), the Skia log can also be copied from Tools ▸ Options... ▸ LibreOffice ▸ View.

    Fonts issues

    Symptoms:

    • Graphical glitches.
    • Crash.

    Some types of fonts or some old versions of a font are not well managed by LibreOffice and can cause these symptoms.

    Steps to take:

    1. Close LibreOffice.
    2. Disable the fonts which have been installed after OS install.
    3. Restart LibreOffice and try to reproduce the problem.

    If the issue is gone, try to find the font which caused the problem and check if there's a more recent version to install. Once it's done, if the problem can still be reproduced and if the font is the cause, indicate it (with version) on the bugtracker.

    Rendering issues specific to Linux

    Symptoms:

    • Graphical glitches.
    • Crash.

    Sometimes gtk3 or kf5/qt VCL backends trigger bugs.

    Steps to take:

    1. Close LibreOffice.
    2. Launch LibreOffice from a terminal/console with
      SAL_USE_VCLPLUGIN=gen libreoffice
    3. Try to reproduce the problem.

    If the issue is gone, it means it's related to the rendering you use by default (gtk3 if Gnome, kf5 for qt/Plasma for example).

    Submitting a bug

    If you were unsuccessful with the suggested support descriptions above, you can submitting your problem as an bug.

    Bugzilla Mainpage

    How to Report Bugs in LibreOffice