Broken viewer

DavidTC · 04-03-2020, 05:04 PM

So I'm not sure exactly when this happened, I usually read on other devices, but my 'E-book viewer' has stopped working. It brings up a window that is entirely in black. It has a title bar, and...nothing. This is on Windows 10, normal install of Calibre 64-bit. I mean, I have a reasonable amount of plug-ins, but none of those do anything in the viewer, right?

Some clues:
1) This happened a while back, but _after_ the new viewer. I know that was working at some point.
2) It's not actually broken, just all black. If I click and drag on the very first page, I can drag the book cover image out, despite not being able to see it until it hits the boundaries of the window. Likewise, I can apparently hilite text, despite getting no feedback (Not even a blue hilite rectangle, like you normally get of black text on a black background.) and copy it out. There's also an invisible horizontal resizing bar somewhere in the middle I can hover over and actually move...as in, I put it somewhere else, and then have to hover over that place to find it again. I just cannot see _anything_ whatsoever.
3) ...except...I have, by hitting escape (Which presumably brings up an invisible menu), and clicking around, managed to get to the search thing! I CAN see that little popup with the X, with search area and everything. Searching works, it returns results, that whole little window works. Likewise, I've brought up the 'open a book' menu'.

So, basically, everything works, except I can't see the content area. Or the menu area, if that counts as a separate area. At all.

theducks · 04-03-2020, 06:24 PM

Sounds like you set the background color to Black, wich does not work too well with black text

With Calibre shut down:

In the configuration folder: delete (or rename) viewer.py, viewer.py.json

(you might be able to CAREFULLY fix this if you have a code (plain text) editor

background color is None in the PY and Null in the JSON )

DavidTC · 04-03-2020, 07:51 PM

That was not it, and...I really seriously doubt the background color could hide the _book cover image_ on the first page.

Bookstooge · 04-04-2020, 07:06 AM

So just to confirm, you DID rename the viewer.py and viewer.py.jsn files?

BetterRed · 04-04-2020, 04:11 PM

@DavidTC - hit Ctrl+F11 and you should be able to see the toolbar. Click the Paint Pot and try changing to a standard theme

If no joy with that, hit Escape and then click Reset Interface

If that doesn't 'work', I'm out.

BR

DavidTC · 04-05-2020, 08:15 PM

Yes, I did rename the files, and no, Ctrl+F11 doesn't do anything.

This isn't just a black text on black background situation. As I pointed, I would be able to see the images in there if it was. Also I'd be able to see the menu.

I also can't hit Escape and hit 'Reset Interface', because Escape doesn't bring anything visible up. I think it does bring the invisible menu up, but...I can't click on something unless people tell me where it is.

DavidTC · 04-05-2020, 08:21 PM

Huh, I just realized...when I hit Escape, I get tooltips. So I moused around a little until I discovered an area that said something about reseting viewer panels and stuff. I clicked it...and it did nothing.

DavidTC · 04-05-2020, 08:25 PM

Well, now something odd has happened. Just in case that needed a restart, I closed the reader, and opened it...and it worked. Except...once I closed it yet again, and reopened it, it went back to complete black. And now I can't get that to happen again.

DavidTC · 04-05-2020, 08:30 PM

It wasn't that. If I get the window to go full screen, and hit Alt+F4 while it's open...the next time I open a boot,and only the next time, it works. Unfortunantly...I'm not sure how I even get them full screen, I just got it happen by randomly clicking. What's the hotkey for that, anyone?

gbm · 04-06-2020, 12:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DavidTC

It wasn't that. If I get the window to go full screen, and hit Alt+F4 while it's open...the next time I open a boot,and only the next time, it works. Unfortunantly...I'm not sure how I even get them full screen, I just got it happen by randomly clicking. What's the hotkey for that, anyone?

A couple of questions
How old is your PC?
Is it using the builtin intel graphics or a graphics card?

Are you sure you are not running into the QT5 graphics bug.

https://bugs.launchpad.net/calibre/+bug/1846917

bernie

DavidTC · 04-06-2020, 01:02 PM

I _was_ running into the OpenGL bug, I just actually discovered this independently while trying to fix an apparently unrelated problem in Dropbox, which was nice enough to actually have an error message instead of just blackness. (That error started much much more recently, so I didn't think they were related...but apparently Dropbox had just updated or something.)

I would like to report: This bug is not just on 'Windows 7', and 'old computers'. This laptop is Windows 10, it came with it, and it's something like four years old. The problem is that DisplayLink adapters do not support OpenGL2. In any way...I mean, I assumed it would be slow, it's software only, but even if I'd thought Calibre was rendering books using it...who cares how fast a book renders?

I was not able to fix it, so I just stopped using that video adapter for the time being, and now everything works. Actually, things seems to work if I start without that connected, and then connect it, even if I move the window over there. I'm not entirely sure what's going on there.

And while I'm not quite sure why Calibre needs OpenGL, of any sort, although I guess that's part of Qt...but I think the real bug here was utter lack of _telling me_ something was wrong. Dropbox at least did that, mentioning OpenGL, which gave me a starting point. If I hadn't had Dropbox installed, I wouldn't have figured this out.

gbm · 04-06-2020, 02:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DavidTC

I _was_ running into the OpenGL bug, I just actually discovered this independently while trying to fix an apparently unrelated problem in Dropbox, which was nice enough to actually have an error message instead of just blackness. (That error started much much more recently, so I didn't think they were related...but apparently Dropbox had just updated or something.)

I would like to report: This bug is not just on 'Windows 7', and 'old computers'. This laptop is Windows 10, it came with it, and it's something like four years old. The problem is that DisplayLink adapters do not support OpenGL2. In any way...I mean, I assumed it would be slow, it's software only, but even if I'd thought Calibre was rendering books using it...who cares how fast a book renders?

I was not able to fix it, so I just stopped using that video adapter for the time being, and now everything works. Actually, things seems to work if I start without that connected, and then connect it, even if I move the window over there. I'm not entirely sure what's going on there.

And while I'm not quite sure why Calibre needs OpenGL, of any sort, although I guess that's part of Qt...but I think the real bug here was utter lack of _telling me_ something was wrong. Dropbox at least did that, mentioning OpenGL, which gave me a starting point. If I hadn't had Dropbox installed, I wouldn't have figured this out.

Are you using :

DisplayLink USB Graphics Software for Windows
Windows 10, 8.1, 7
Release: 9.3 M1 11 Feb 2020

Now you know why i asked about your graphs card.
bernie

DavidTC · 04-06-2020, 08:43 PM

Yes, I had already updated to the newest version, 9.3 M1, and it still doesn't work, if I start Calibre while that display is in use.

04-03-2020, 05:04 PM	#1
DavidTC Connoisseur Posts: 77 Karma: 10 Join Date: Sep 2011 Device: Nook, Boox C67ML	Broken viewer So I'm not sure exactly when this happened, I usually read on other devices, but my 'E-book viewer' has stopped working. It brings up a window that is entirely in black. It has a title bar, and...nothing. This is on Windows 10, normal install of Calibre 64-bit. I mean, I have a reasonable amount of plug-ins, but none of those do anything in the viewer, right? Some clues: 1) This happened a while back, but _after_ the new viewer. I know that was working at some point. 2) It's not actually broken, just all black. If I click and drag on the very first page, I can drag the book cover image out, despite not being able to see it until it hits the boundaries of the window. Likewise, I can apparently hilite text, despite getting no feedback (Not even a blue hilite rectangle, like you normally get of black text on a black background.) and copy it out. There's also an invisible horizontal resizing bar somewhere in the middle I can hover over and actually move...as in, I put it somewhere else, and then have to hover over that place to find it again. I just cannot see _anything_ whatsoever. 3) ...except...I have, by hitting escape (Which presumably brings up an invisible menu), and clicking around, managed to get to the search thing! I CAN see that little popup with the X, with search area and everything. Searching works, it returns results, that whole little window works. Likewise, I've brought up the 'open a book' menu'. So, basically, everything works, except I can't see the content area. Or the menu area, if that counts as a separate area. At all.

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04-03-2020, 06:24 PM	#2
theducks Well trained by Cats Posts: 31,014 Karma: 60358908 Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: The Central Coast of California Device: Kobo Libra2,Kobo Aura2v1, K4NT(Fixed: New Bat.), Galaxy Tab A	Sounds like you set the background color to Black, wich does not work too well with black text With Calibre shut down: In the configuration folder: delete (or rename) viewer.py, viewer.py.json (you might be able to CAREFULLY fix this if you have a code (plain text) editor background color is None in the PY and Null in the JSON )

04-03-2020, 07:51 PM	#3
DavidTC Connoisseur Posts: 77 Karma: 10 Join Date: Sep 2011 Device: Nook, Boox C67ML	That was not it, and...I really seriously doubt the background color could hide the _book cover image_ on the first page.

04-04-2020, 07:06 AM	#4
Bookstooge Member Retired Posts: 805 Karma: 2091358 Join Date: May 2019 Device: Kindle Oasis 1st Gen, PB Era	So just to confirm, you DID rename the viewer.py and viewer.py.jsn files?

04-04-2020, 04:11 PM	#5
BetterRed null operator (he/him) Posts: 21,704 Karma: 29711016 Join Date: Mar 2012 Location: Sydney Australia Device: none	@DavidTC - hit Ctrl+F11 and you should be able to see the toolbar. Click the Paint Pot and try changing to a standard theme If no joy with that, hit Escape and then click Reset Interface If that doesn't 'work', I'm out. BR

04-05-2020, 08:15 PM	#6
DavidTC Connoisseur Posts: 77 Karma: 10 Join Date: Sep 2011 Device: Nook, Boox C67ML	Yes, I did rename the files, and no, Ctrl+F11 doesn't do anything. This isn't just a black text on black background situation. As I pointed, I would be able to see the images in there if it was. Also I'd be able to see the menu. I also can't hit Escape and hit 'Reset Interface', because Escape doesn't bring anything visible up. I think it does bring the invisible menu up, but...I can't click on something unless people tell me where it is.

04-05-2020, 08:21 PM	#7
DavidTC Connoisseur Posts: 77 Karma: 10 Join Date: Sep 2011 Device: Nook, Boox C67ML	Huh, I just realized...when I hit Escape, I get tooltips. So I moused around a little until I discovered an area that said something about reseting viewer panels and stuff. I clicked it...and it did nothing.

04-05-2020, 08:25 PM	#8
DavidTC Connoisseur Posts: 77 Karma: 10 Join Date: Sep 2011 Device: Nook, Boox C67ML	Well, now something odd has happened. Just in case that needed a restart, I closed the reader, and opened it...and it worked. Except...once I closed it yet again, and reopened it, it went back to complete black. And now I can't get that to happen again.

04-05-2020, 08:30 PM	#9
DavidTC Connoisseur Posts: 77 Karma: 10 Join Date: Sep 2011 Device: Nook, Boox C67ML	It wasn't that. If I get the window to go full screen, and hit Alt+F4 while it's open...the next time I open a boot,and only the next time, it works. Unfortunantly...I'm not sure how I even get them full screen, I just got it happen by randomly clicking. What's the hotkey for that, anyone?

04-06-2020, 01:02 PM	#11
DavidTC Connoisseur Posts: 77 Karma: 10 Join Date: Sep 2011 Device: Nook, Boox C67ML	I _was_ running into the OpenGL bug, I just actually discovered this independently while trying to fix an apparently unrelated problem in Dropbox, which was nice enough to actually have an error message instead of just blackness. (That error started much much more recently, so I didn't think they were related...but apparently Dropbox had just updated or something.) I would like to report: This bug is not just on 'Windows 7', and 'old computers'. This laptop is Windows 10, it came with it, and it's something like four years old. The problem is that DisplayLink adapters do not support OpenGL2. In any way...I mean, I assumed it would be slow, it's software only, but even if I'd thought Calibre was rendering books using it...who cares how fast a book renders? I was not able to fix it, so I just stopped using that video adapter for the time being, and now everything works. Actually, things seems to work if I start without that connected, and then connect it, even if I move the window over there. I'm not entirely sure what's going on there. And while I'm not quite sure why Calibre needs OpenGL, of any sort, although I guess that's part of Qt...but I think the real bug here was utter lack of _telling me_ something was wrong. Dropbox at least did that, mentioning OpenGL, which gave me a starting point. If I hadn't had Dropbox installed, I wouldn't have figured this out.

04-06-2020, 08:43 PM	#13
DavidTC Connoisseur Posts: 77 Karma: 10 Join Date: Sep 2011 Device: Nook, Boox C67ML	Yes, I had already updated to the newest version, 9.3 M1, and it still doesn't work, if I start Calibre while that display is in use.

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