LibreOffice – Why is LibreOffice Slow on Ubuntu 16.04?

libreofficezooming

The Problem
I'm using LibreOffice 5.0.6.3 in Ubuntu 16.04, and the program is considerably slower than in e.g. Windows 8.1 and Debian 8.
This shows up in particular when I change the zoom level in larger documents below 200%.
Above 200% (e.g. from 200% to 220% etc.), zooming in and out happens absolutely smooth — the program needs no time for the change.
But e.g. from 160% to 180%, zooming causes the program to get extremely laggy: Everything freezes, and sometimes also the whole program surface turns grey/black — sometimes for some seconds, sometimes "permanently".
This does not happen when the edited document is relativley small; that is, when there are no objects, images etc. in it, but only text, or when the document is only a few pages long.

Example
I have an extensive document (50+ pages) with many arrows, tables, and also some pictures, and the problems mentioned occur when I open it in Ubuntu 16.04. But they don't occur when I edit the same document in Debian 8 and Windows 8.1.

What I've tried already
I already changed certain properties, since I searched quite a bit for possible solutions.
For example, I turned off Java and Open CL, and provided considerably more memory for LibreOffice.
But all of this improved the situation hardly noticeably — if at all…
…which is not really surprising, since in Windows 8.1 and Debian, LO ran smoothly without making these changes.

Question
Does anyone know whether this is an Ubuntu-specific problem, or simply why that occurs?
Could it have something to do with the fact that I'm not using the pre-installed version from Ubuntu Xenial?
(I switched to the above mentioned version, since 5.1.x seemed to be even more unstable than 5.0.5 already was. (sudden crashes after simple commands))

Best Answer

To avoid slow User Interface update, a workaround is to:

  1. Remove packages: libreoffice-gnome and libreoffice-gtk and libreoffice-gtk3.
  2. Restart (Close and Open) LibreOffice.

After this, LibreOffice User Interface is being updated fast. But, when (main) window is resized, sometimes it becomes messy. So, avoid any unnecessary resizes (resizings), keep (main) window in full size.

It seems to be a GTK port only issue.

Workaround was tested with LibreOffice 5.1.3.2 and Ubuntu 16.04 64 bit. Issue was fixed in LibreOffice 5.1.4.2.

Related Question