Depending upon the document, sometime you need ms-fonts (arial etc). You can "ln" or copy the fonts from your windows installation.

I installed arial and the font specified in the document to both /usr/share/fonts and the user's /.fonts and ran fc-cache and the fonts are listed as choices in abiword's drop-down menu but slitaz abiword still does not display the content.

Slitaz wine wordviewer shows the content even before I did that even though wine does not have those fonts.

Bump for problem at least a year without a fix.

Others have had this problem.

"Since we're complaining about abiword again, I'll mention again that Abiword in 4.x has always tended to not display half the text in a document (at least .doc, I'm not sure about other formats)."

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?p=301106

"I once tried sending an officemate who uses Word an Abiword in .doc format. But when I tried to re-open the file I ended up having a blank file."

http://www.olpcnews.com/software/applications/abiword_xo_text_editor.html

I cannot find any mention of the fix.

I was hoping that the expert slitaz users could tell what the difference was between the slitaz abiwords that work and the slitaz abiwords that do not work.

Thank you.

This is certainly not new. I have had similar issues with Slitaz 2 over a year ago and finally uninstalled abiword. And yes the files worked just fine in OOO or even Abiword in Ubuntu or MS Word in Windows.

I have seen the same, and of course the whole idea of having a small distrib is to be able to have a small environment. Therefore, it is a little bit frustrating to have to download OO for editing word files :(

I have been unable to install an ooo that works for a year (see my previous post on snow) and, although another user did some helpful experiments, I have not received an answer as to what the slitaz system requirements are for installing ooo (an answer from slitaz for its method, not from ooo).

I agree with christophe that, even if I could install ooo, it is strange and frustrating to think that ooo is the smallest doc editor for "tiny" slitaz.


The joke about windows was that it was like your car periodically freezing and shutting down while driving and you consider that normal.

The slitaz versions would be-

You have to install a 500mb ooo/java suite on your 30mb os to edit a doc file and you consider that normal.

You have to install a 20gb windows os to change your screen brightness on your 30mb os and you consider that normal.

You can't print anything and you consider that normal.

You can't connect to the internet by common softmodems and you consider that normal.

http://forum.slitaz.org/index.php/discussion/43/winmodem-softmodem-linmodem-hda-on-sound-card-alsa-how-to/


I say "you consider that normal" because it seems that there could be a large number of people with a problem but most move along without mentioning it (one post could represent thousands of problems) and because often there seems to be years of little interest in resolving lacks of basic functionality (many thanks to hardworking jozee and some other forum users).

Slitaz developers might be tempted to think that abiword is not their problem but many potential slitaz users will be unhappy to learn that the advertized "30mb" is actually 600mb if they want to type a doc.

Some people report slitaz abiwords that work so apparently a solution is sitting there, waiting to be used in all slitaz.

I still think slitaz is one of the most promising os and could be great if it filled longstanding holes in basic functions while keeping the os tiny.

Thank you.

Maybe because --disable-OpenXML is disabled in abiword receipt. I will try to improve the receipt then you can test.

i will be happy to test anything you provide.

just to practice with tazwok i'm trying to build abiword:
the receipt lacks automake, autoconf and zlib-dev as build-depends.
if i add this row in the configure section of the receipt

--disable-OpenXML \

i get following message:

configure: WARNING: unrecognized options: --disable-OpenXML

Where do i check optional features of abiword to pass correctly the --disable- parameter?
I've googled but did not find so much.

http://www.abisource.com/wiki/Compiling_AbiWord

lists the options but not the features. It does say the format is correct, though; perhaps all lower-case (--disable-openxml) or --enable-openxml=no would work.

Can download and try new abiword 2.8.4 and abiword-plugins from http://people.slitaz.org/~jozee/packages/ ? It opens .docx successfully on my computer

@ernia: --disable-OpenXML was part of abiword-plugins for 2.6 series. Now with 2.8, the compilation is different :
http://hg.slitaz.org/wok/rev/48b8bbe9b689
http://hg.slitaz.org/wok/rev/5efebb22f7bb

Edit : new 2.8 series comes with nice integrated collaboration support: online web service called http://abicollab.net/ (haven't tested yet)

I want to make sure people realize that the "blank page" problem is with *.rtf and *.doc and not limited or even necessarily related to *.docx or xml.

Have you tested the new abiword??

I have not tested yet but I wanted to clarify the problem. I will test as soon as possible (maybe tonight) and report.

Thank you.

thanks jooze, it seems to work now, tested with doc and rtf. it's really fast too.
i think that the package should depends on librsvg , i got this error on first run

tux@slitaz:~$ abiword 
abiword: error while loading shared libraries: librsvg-2.so.2: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

now i must learn how to sync my local wok with the mirror one :-)

ernia: thanks, fixed: http://hg.slitaz.org/wok/rev/30388a1be632

update your cooking wok : hg pull && hg update

i'm trying to build abiword, i think that probably librsvg-dev should be in BUILD_DEPENDS, i got this error while building it

checking for DEPS... configure: error: Package requirements (
  fribidi >= 0.10.4
  glib-2.0 >= 2.6.0 gthread-2.0 >= 2.6.0 gobject-2.0 >= 2.6.0
  libgsf-1 >= 1.12
  wv-1.0 >= 1.2.0
  enchant >= 1.2.0 gio-2.0 
  cairo-pdf cairo-ps pangocairo
  gtk+-2.0 >= 2.12.0 gtk+-unix-print-2.0 librsvg-2.0 >= 2.16.0
) were not met:

No package 'librsvg-2.0' found

error disappear installing librsvg-dev
i have issues in the end, lot of missing file while creating the tazpkg, i'll investigate tomorrow.
Thanks jozee for your work

I tested the new version (2.8)
I hit the same librsvg issue (solved by installing it)
It still does not work however

The test is very simple:
open a file, type "test", save it as test.doc as a word file, close it, reopen it, it looks empty :(
Result is the same if saved as an rtf file (no surprise here, obviously)

If solved as an abw file, it works and can be reopened with the same content.

one more comment
The icon in the taskbar for abiword it not the abiword icon. Can this be solved ?
thanks

Report for new abiword-

rtf failed
doc failed
docx worked

I recharged and upgraded all and --forced installed both of jozee's files before the test.

It is nice to have docx but doc is more important.

Thank you.

did you download abiword packages from here:
http://people.slitaz.org/~jozee/packages/
as jozee said?
it works on my pc with both of Christophe tests.

i built it, the problem was that the build of the main program fails if there is no /usr/lib/libxcb-render-util.la , installing xcb-util-dev solved the problem, so maybe it should be included in BUILD_DEPENDS.
now i must find out how to get it in italian.

PS my build works too with both doc and rtf

Edit: i've found out that abiword has non-standard locale files and got it in italian editing the receipt.

so i could localize myself the whole distro i think...

ernia: yes, its easy to localize the whole distro; most of it is automated. There are only few receipts (like Abiword) that has hardcoded locale packaging. Maybe interested in this thread on the mailing list: http://listengine.tuxfamily.org/lists.tuxfamily.org/slitaz/2010/04/msg00007.html . Italian support is welcome.

slicel: Abiword is now built with every plugin enabled, so all support must work (unless this is an upstream bug). We are in process of upgrading cooking buildchain tools and the important packages. So, don't worry. Hopefully, doc and rtf support will work for you too.

Christophe: your test works on my computer too.

Edit: ernia: if you want to contribute some pkgs (or flavor), you may like to go through some recent threads in mailing list archives : http://listengine.tuxfamily.org/lists.tuxfamily.org/slitaz/

I want to make sure people understand that opening a doc and seeing content is not a test and does not mean that abiword works. Abiword will show content of docs made elsewhere before they are edited and reopened by abiword but not after.

Test 1 (edit existing doc): Open a doc made elsewhere (made in windows ms word) and slitaz abiword might show content. Add one letter, close, and reopen. Slitaz abiword shows a blank page or what looks like scattered punctuation or occassionally a table grid.

Test 2 (create new doc): Open abiword, type one letter, save as doc, and reopen. Slitaz abiword shows a blank page.

Ubuntu abiword displays both of those files correctly but slitaz abiword does not.

Ernia, yes, I installed both of jozee's files from his link as he said and --forced installed them.

Jozee, when you say yours works, did you run both tests and did you run both tests on a live cd or fresh install like a new user would have or are you testing on your customized system with extra packages?

Thank you.

Both test 1 and test 2 works on my machine. I haven't tested on livecd.

on livecd it does not show the contents of the file, but it saves it, i can see saved files in my system.
i think that it's something related to how fonts are rendered.
i'll start to investigate it, first i need to fix virtualbox to let me use my usbkey in the virtualmachine :-)

@slicel
you could try to cooperate, i think. the livecd test could have been done from you if you were not so busy in making sure we understand what you say...

Ernia,

The first post of the thread is a report of a fresh install of slitaz 3 on a hdd.

The live cd is simply an easier way for some people to replicate the test that I did and reported.

Anyone who says that they have a working slitaz abiword is the one holding the answer but we need to know what is different about that combination of packages that works.

Thank you for checking live cd and reporting that abiword worked on your 4/15 test but not on your 4/16 test. It would help to know what is different between yesterday and today, between your working and non-working systems.

Thank you.

"on livecd it does not show the contents of the file, but it saves it, i can see saved files in my system.
i think that it's something related to how fonts are rendered."

The problem could be in fonts or it could be in the file wrapper-

Save as abw works*
Reading doc works (close/reopen without editing, using abiword as doc viewer)
Save as doc fails**

* Saving a newly created file as abw works but attempting to save a non-displaying doc as abw or txt fails.

Even though notepad shows the content of a doc file that does not display in slitaz abiword, any attempt to have slitaz abiword save that non-displaying doc file as plain, unencoded txt will save a blank txt file (or one with stray punctuation if that is all that showed as the doc in abiword).

** I want to make sure people understand that slitaz abiword saves edited changes but then does not display the file content (except for some punctuation or table grids) when slitaz abiword reopens the edited doc, even though ubuntu abiword, slitaz wine ms wordviewer, and other programs do display the edited content that slitaz abiword saved.

save as doc works, open the file you edited with beaver and you will find somewhere the text you have added.

 cat prova.doc
...
\pard\plain\ltrpar\ql\s29\sl240\slmult1\itap0{\s29\f0\fs24\lang1033{\*\listtag0}\abinodiroverride\ltrch testoscritto}{\s29\f0\fs24\lang1033{\*\listtag0}\par}}

the text is there, it's just that you can't see it.
just a doubt, wich locale are you using? may you post the output of

locale -a
locale

?

Save as doc saves the content but save as doc fails to save the content in a way that all slitaz abiword can display properly (the thread topic is displaying content, not saving content). Yes, the content is there and can be displayed by ununtu abiword, slitaz wine ms wordviewer, and others. I will clarify the post.

All my locale are C, en_US, or POSIX.

Thank you.

utf8 or not?

How do I check for utf8?

Thank you.

locale -av

shows all locales with codeset,

locale

shows you the one you are using, but now i think that this is not our problem...
i'll keep investigating

it really seems to be a locale issue.
please do this

tazpkg get-install glibc-locale

and try to open a problematic .doc.
if it does not work may you post the output of previous commands?

EDIT and the content of your /etc/locale.conf

"i built it, the problem was that the build of the main program fails if there is no /usr/lib/libxcb-render-util.la , installing xcb-util-dev solved the problem, so maybe it should be included in BUILD_DEPENDS."

Abiword fails even though I have installed-

cairo-xcb
libxcb
xcb-proto
xcb-util
xcb-util-dev

are you building abiword or just trying to use it? the phrase you reported is a missing dependency to build abiword.
please, do

tazpkg get-install glibc-locale

, i got abiword working in a livecd fiddling with locales

No, I am not building, I was testing and my 7:31 post was before I read your 7:02 and later posts.

I just finished the glibc-locale tests-

Slitaz 3 xvesa, hdd, fully updated about a day ago-

Test 1 with doc works
Test 2 with doc works
Test 1 with rtf works
Test 2 with rtf works

The hdd installation is not exactly a fresh install now but glibc-locale was the first package installed that was followed by working abiword.

Thank you.

You could spread your solution throughout the linux world and credit yourself and/or the slitaz community.

i'm almost drunk with keeping track of the events in this topic :-)
i've retested with a livecd and it works just installing abiword, abiword-plugins, librsvg (which was missing in abiword, already fixed by jozee) and glibc-locales, so the missing dependencies must be glibc-locales.
i will be glad to see SOLVED in the topic title :-)
@jozee
would it be possible to put glibc-locales in abiword's dependencies so it works in livecd too?

It is amazing that slitaz could go 2 years with broken abiword when the solution is so simple (the simplicity of the answer does not diminish the importance of ernia's efforts).

Does anyone know why slitaz abiword would display doc content without glibc-locale before editing (using abiword as a doc viewer) but would not display doc content without glibc-locale after editing?

Thank you.

Hi ernia,

can you help to find which file from glibc-locale we need (maybe from /usr/lib/gconv)? Slitaz has divided glibc into glibc-base and glibc-locale. glibc-locale is a huge dependency. Typically,we only need 1or2 more files to achive this. e.g. see this change http://hg.slitaz.org/wok/rev/419417e23618

On 2/22, I asked about fixing abiword when a cooking (slitaz 3 candidate) was released so that abiword would be fixed for slitaz 3.

On 2/24, davesurrey identified ntop as an abiword fix.

On 2/26, lux identified glibc-locale as an abiword fix by narrowing from glibc and ntop.

I had stopped posting in that thread the day before lux's post because tazpkg bugs created problems with installing new packages for testing but I am surprised that the February fixes identified by 2 forum users were not in slitaz 3.

Thank you.

    *   LuX
    * February 26
    * Permalink

Hello Dave!

I have found something for your Abiword problem: among ntop dependencies there is glibc, which all the devs as well as everybody who build a package, has installed. And among the numerous dependencies of glibc there is glibc-locale, which is one of the first thing I install in Slitaz, probably like anybody else using UTF-8 encoding (at least they should).

Since I never experience in Slitaz any of the problem you and Slicel reported about Abiword, I decided to test this intuition. I started from a fresh install of the last available Cooking, release 20100221, and followed this steps:
- I installed only abiword. It doesn't work, that is to say it crashes just after starting.
- I installed glibc-locale. Run abiword and it works. Well I haven't tested it much like you did, but at least it doesn't crash just after starting and seems to work nicely.

So one can understand now not only a solution (add glibc-locale or some of its dependance among the dependencies of abiword) but also the reason why the devs, as well as a lot of normal users like me, never encountered your problem, hence could not solve it.

But this proves also that people who write new receipts should always test the resulting package not only in their usual Slitaz environment but in a fresh installed one, and even in the smallest possible flavor, namely Slitaz-base.

Hope this helps (no, I know this helps ;-))
LuX. 

http://forum.slitaz.org/index.php/discussion/630/slitaz-new-cooking-release:-20100221

Mentioned again in another thread on 2/25 and 2/26-

http://forum.slitaz.org/index.php/discussion/637/abiword-not-working/#Item_1

@slicel
i'm experimenting your frustration with get-virtualbox, but you should remember that slitaz devs don't owe us anything.
we could do together the works asked by jozee, this would allow us to learn something new and to feel as we have done something useful for slitaz community.
if you read jozee's post abiword was working without glibc-locale on 4 march, this was achieved changing glibc-base.
probably slitaz switch to utf8 has broken abiword again, we could stop complaining and help to fix this.

without /usr/lib/gconv/ISO8859-1 abiword does not start at all, without /usr/lib/gconv/CP1252.so abiword shows a blank page.
the issue could be that abiword saves windows doc in that codepage and so it needs to reconvert them back to utf8 to show us the content.
so a solution could be to add /usr/lib/gconv/CP1252.so and maybe all windows codepage library (east-europe chinese and indonesian users support) to glibc package or abiword package:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows-1252
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_code_page
maybe a better solution would be to make abiword save in windows unicode and put the relative library in glibc, but sure i don't know if it's possible.

Thank you for pointing out the 4 March date, which makes the length of this thread even more puzzling.

I do not see many complaints on the forum besides what is necessary to fix slitaz, except sometimes a forum user complains about another forum user instead of fixing slitaz.

I am glad that my persistent work helped slitaz by leading to the discovery of glibc-locale in February and its rediscovery in this thread.

Your points about the code page and unicode are interesting.

Thank you.

Okay, but if i do not want to invest in understanding the underlying problem: what do i need to do to see abiword work on my machine ??
Is anyone releasing a working version soon ??

THanks

tazpkg get-install glibc-locale

Right. This time, it works.
Can't believe it.

Can anyone find a way for Slitaz to boot on my old Dell C400 with a decent screen ?
I wish it would be that "simple"....

Hi Christophe,
As this topic is dealing with abiword, would you mind opening a new discussion about your C400?

;-)
Stephane

ok - thanks