Blank preview window

tamaracks · 06-05-2022, 02:01 PM

I've been having trouble with Sigil's preview window, and it also extends to PageEdit. I found this thread that was the closest thing to what I'm experiencing. I tried the suggestion about setting the QT_OPENGL variable and launching Sigil and it seems to get the preview behaving correctly. However I'm not sure what that means for the bigger picture and what's the best way to eliminate the problem when launching Sigil normally as an app.

I started a new thread because the one above is 2 years old and also because I don't have anything unusually patched on my machine like the OP there did. I have an M1 13" MacBook Pro running macOS 12.4. I do do some stuff with the command line, although I don't know if anything I've done/installed would be interfering with QT environment stuff.

I also don't quite know what the interaction between environment variables and apps launched in the GUI is. Obviously if you launch the app using the open command after setting the variable, it uses that, but can one set it somewhere that it would be used any time the app is opened normally? My default shell is currently set to fish, and when I set the QT_OPENGL variable there, it seems to be working every time I launch Sigil or PageEdit, but at this point I don't feel quite certain about any of this.

Unfortunately, I don't know exactly when this problem started or what might have changed around that time. It seemed like it occurred intermittently at first and now it's been all the time.

KevinH · 06-05-2022, 02:15 PM

If you have Sigil 1.9.10, try *not* using the opengl environment variable, and instead launch Sigil and look through the Sigil General Preferences for a new setting to disable the GPU.

Check it to disable your gpu acceleration when using Preview. Completely shutdown Sigil after saving your Preferences (changing that preference requires Sigil to be restarted). Then try firing up Sigil again.

Does that help?

tamaracks · 06-05-2022, 02:24 PM

Yes, that seems to work. I unset the variable in the command line to be sure, and then set the Sigil setting, quit, and relaunched. The preview window displays correctly.

Is it fine to leave it that way, or is there anything else I should do?

KevinH · 06-05-2022, 02:48 PM

That means Apple has yet again messed up its graphics driver software that handles gpu acceleration. They seem to break one driver or another every few os updates.

So keep it checked for now. But after any macOS updates, try unchecking it to see if they fixed the driver bug they introduced yet. If not, recheck that setting until it is fixed.

Unfortunately, we never added that new disable preference to PageEdit so you will need to keep setting the environment variable and using open for PageEdit. I will add copying that new preference setting into PageEdit to my to-do list for a future release.

KevinH · 06-05-2022, 04:06 PM

Update: I just pushed support for a disable GPU Preferences setting for PageEdit as well based on the code we used in Sigil. This new setting will appear in the next release of PageEdit.

tamaracks · 06-05-2022, 08:03 PM

Oddly PageEdit has kept working along with Sigil. I am not sure why that would be. I even just rebooted to see if there were any lingering environment variables.

But if that doesn't last, I'm glad to hear that the same setting is coming to PageEdit.

Thanks for your help!

06-05-2022, 02:01 PM	#1
tamaracks Connoisseur Posts: 53 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jun 2021 Device: Onyx Boox Nova3	Blank preview window I've been having trouble with Sigil's preview window, and it also extends to PageEdit. I found this thread that was the closest thing to what I'm experiencing. I tried the suggestion about setting the QT_OPENGL variable and launching Sigil and it seems to get the preview behaving correctly. However I'm not sure what that means for the bigger picture and what's the best way to eliminate the problem when launching Sigil normally as an app. I started a new thread because the one above is 2 years old and also because I don't have anything unusually patched on my machine like the OP there did. I have an M1 13" MacBook Pro running macOS 12.4. I do do some stuff with the command line, although I don't know if anything I've done/installed would be interfering with QT environment stuff. I also don't quite know what the interaction between environment variables and apps launched in the GUI is. Obviously if you launch the app using the open command after setting the variable, it uses that, but can one set it somewhere that it would be used any time the app is opened normally? My default shell is currently set to fish, and when I set the QT_OPENGL variable there, it seems to be working every time I launch Sigil or PageEdit, but at this point I don't feel quite certain about any of this. Unfortunately, I don't know exactly when this problem started or what might have changed around that time. It seemed like it occurred intermittently at first and now it's been all the time.

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06-05-2022, 02:15 PM	#2
KevinH Sigil Developer Posts: 8,760 Karma: 5706256 Join Date: Nov 2009 Device: many	If you have Sigil 1.9.10, try not using the opengl environment variable, and instead launch Sigil and look through the Sigil General Preferences for a new setting to disable the GPU. Check it to disable your gpu acceleration when using Preview. Completely shutdown Sigil after saving your Preferences (changing that preference requires Sigil to be restarted). Then try firing up Sigil again. Does that help?

06-05-2022, 02:24 PM	#3
tamaracks Connoisseur Posts: 53 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jun 2021 Device: Onyx Boox Nova3	Yes, that seems to work. I unset the variable in the command line to be sure, and then set the Sigil setting, quit, and relaunched. The preview window displays correctly. Is it fine to leave it that way, or is there anything else I should do?

06-05-2022, 02:48 PM	#4
KevinH Sigil Developer Posts: 8,760 Karma: 5706256 Join Date: Nov 2009 Device: many	That means Apple has yet again messed up its graphics driver software that handles gpu acceleration. They seem to break one driver or another every few os updates. So keep it checked for now. But after any macOS updates, try unchecking it to see if they fixed the driver bug they introduced yet. If not, recheck that setting until it is fixed. Unfortunately, we never added that new disable preference to PageEdit so you will need to keep setting the environment variable and using open for PageEdit. I will add copying that new preference setting into PageEdit to my to-do list for a future release.

06-05-2022, 04:06 PM	#5
KevinH Sigil Developer Posts: 8,760 Karma: 5706256 Join Date: Nov 2009 Device: many	Update: I just pushed support for a disable GPU Preferences setting for PageEdit as well based on the code we used in Sigil. This new setting will appear in the next release of PageEdit.

06-05-2022, 08:03 PM	#6
tamaracks Connoisseur Posts: 53 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jun 2021 Device: Onyx Boox Nova3	Oddly PageEdit has kept working along with Sigil. I am not sure why that would be. I even just rebooted to see if there were any lingering environment variables. But if that doesn't last, I'm glad to hear that the same setting is coming to PageEdit. Thanks for your help!

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