Driver errors and freezes with videos on LibreOffice Impress

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iijj22gg
Posts: 3
Joined: Tue Jul 27, 2021 9:38 pm

Driver errors and freezes with videos on LibreOffice Impress

Post by iijj22gg »

Hello

I am using LibreOffice 6.4.7.2 on Linux Mint 20.2 64-bit with Cinnamon, and I'm running into a problem.


I'm running into program freezes (usually unrecoverable, which I refer to as crash) associated with videos.

Inserting a video simply doesn't work, I get a garbled mess of frames for the preview and it crashes when I try to play it in any way.
Dragging and dropping the video file does seem to work, but it has it's own problems. It uses a generic thumbnail, and appears in seemingly random positions.
It is very finicky to modify, and I have to use the "more options" tab to modify the numbers or it just reverts to a static value that's seemingly random. Even then, it's finicky, requiring multiple attempts. I have to center it and make it fill the slide or any portion of the side that isn't video will turn grey and remain so even if the slide advances.

When working with these in a presentation, I have to save both before and after I insert and modify the position, or it's a near guaranteed crash. Why it almost never crashes if I save is unknown to me.

Playing the video in the editor is also a crash.

Playing the video while presenting is a different story. While it works fine most of the time when I test it on my computer, it requires a special setup to work when connected to any external display.

Here is where things get really complicated. To get it to work I have to run it with a command preceded by "DRI_PRIME=1" For context, I'm using a dual-GPU muxless laptop from 2014. The GPUs are Intel integrated and an Nvidia GeForce GT 720M. Because of the various issues involved with using Linux on this setup (Nvidia didn't support muxless laptops until 2017), I'm using an open-source alternative called Nouveau. "DRI_PRIME=1" makes the program use the dGPU (the Nvidia card). For some odd reason it just crashes when I try to load the video with the integrated card. Then, I have to make sure the previous time I used Impress I had a successful exit. In other words, if it crashed last time and I terminated it, Impress will always tell me there is recovery data. For whatever reason, this is also a guaranteed crash, so I have to close Impress after I either load or discard the recovery data.

Even after all that, it's still not guaranteed something will go wrong. Examples of freezes include: the slide never changes, the video thumbnail appearing and not disappearing, the video only playing on my PC proceeded by a crash, the video only playing on the external output (and sometimes I'll see it play on my PC a minute later, usually in a new maximized window) proceeded by a crash, and the video playing in a new maximized window.

The behavior is a little off too, the slide takes a little bit to change, then the generic thumbnail flashes before the video plays. The video plays on my PC in a fullscreen window that flickers. If this happens, the slide is easily advanced, and the presentation can proceed as normal. If I advance the slide before the video loads, it freezes but recovers after a minute or so, and if I try to advance slides backwards into a video, it crashes and doesn't advance the slide backwards.



When using the terminal to launch Impress with the dGPU, I noticed errors that only occur if the file I'm loading contains a video that I'm sure have to do with my issue:

Code: Select all

iijj22gg@I-Latitude-E5440:~$ libreoffice --impress ~/Documents/videoExample.odp
DtsGetHWFeatures: Create File Failed
DtsGetHWFeatures: Create File Failed
Running DIL (3.22.0) Version
DtsDeviceOpen: Opening HW in mode 0
DtsDeviceOpen: Create File Failed

(soffice:20010): GStreamer-CRITICAL **: 13:48:57.423: gst_element_make_from_uri: assertion 'gst_uri_is_valid (uri)' failed

** (soffice:20010): WARNING **: 13:48:57.437: Failed to construct frame-grabber pipeline 'no element "PP"'

DtsGetHWFeatures: Create File Failed
Running DIL (3.22.0) Version
DtsDeviceOpen: Opening HW in mode 0
DtsDeviceOpen: Create File Failed
DtsGetHWFeatures: Create File Failed
Running DIL (3.22.0) Version
DtsDeviceOpen: Opening HW in mode 0
DtsDeviceOpen: Create File Failed
DtsGetHWFeatures: Create File Failed
Running DIL (3.22.0) Version
DtsDeviceOpen: Opening HW in mode 0
DtsDeviceOpen: Create File Failed

(soffice:20010): GStreamer-CRITICAL **: 13:48:58.191: gst_element_make_from_uri: assertion 'gst_uri_is_valid (uri)' failed

** (soffice:20010): WARNING **: 13:48:58.205: Failed to construct frame-grabber pipeline 'no element "PP"'
All my drivers are up to date, so that can't be the problem...

Normally nothing is returned to the terminal, but with a video, all this stuff appears. The DTS and DIL related info acts like a broken record, appearing over and over as I interact with Impress.

All the other Impress features I've used work as intended, but the videos...

I'm using Impress all week at a public event, so the sooner I can solve this problem the better. :mrgreen:
LibreOffice 6.4.7.2 on Mint 20.2
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RoryOF
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Joined: Sat Jan 31, 2009 9:30 pm
Location: Ireland

Re: Driver errors and freezes with videos on LibreOffice Imp

Post by RoryOF »

For the few videos I play during a presentation I normally put a hyperlink to the video file on a slide in my presentation and allow the system media player to play the video. I changed from Parole (default video player on Ubuntu; I found Parole unstable) to VLC.

Note: I use OpenOffice, not LibreOffice.
Apache OpenOffice 4.1.15 on Xubuntu 22.04.4 LTS
iijj22gg
Posts: 3
Joined: Tue Jul 27, 2021 9:38 pm

Re: Driver errors and freezes with videos on LibreOffice Imp

Post by iijj22gg »

That sounds like a great idea, but do I have to manually click the hyperlink? I can't seem to figure out how to automate it.
LibreOffice 6.4.7.2 on Mint 20.2
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RoryOF
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Joined: Sat Jan 31, 2009 9:30 pm
Location: Ireland

Re: Driver errors and freezes with videos on LibreOffice Imp

Post by RoryOF »

I can't say - I always click the link, as I may need time for a few words to put the video clip in perspective.
Apache OpenOffice 4.1.15 on Xubuntu 22.04.4 LTS
iijj22gg
Posts: 3
Joined: Tue Jul 27, 2021 9:38 pm

Re: Driver errors and freezes with videos on LibreOffice Imp

Post by iijj22gg »

Hmm... because the host is using a clicker, and I'm not always in front of the computer... Is there some way to trigger a macros on specific slides? I've seen people get it to work for each and every slide, not specific ones. Also I'm using a .sh file to run my video player, because VLC allows me to add a bunch of parameters like fullscreen and quit when done using the terminal.
LibreOffice 6.4.7.2 on Mint 20.2
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