Preview failure

[KevinH]

Yes the fix to remove the need for AVX and SSE4 did not make it into Qt 6.7.3, so Sigil 2.4.0 will not help if your processor is too old to have those register sets.

Have you tried with the older Sigil 2.2.0 to see if the same issue happens?

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by Horus01

The preview problem remains even in the latest version.

If you ever installed a Windows game on your machine, the game might have installed the dxdiag.exe utility, which can be used to display hardware information.

Try the following:

• Press WIN+R or right-click the Start menu icon and select Run.
• In the Run dialog box, paste or enter dxdiag and hit Enter.
  (On my machine, it takes a minute or so to open dxdiag.)
• If you don't see the app, look for new blue icon with a yellow X in it in the task bar and click on it.
• Click Save All Information... and attach DxDiag.txt to your next post.

[guhangsong]

I have the same blank preview problem on MacOS.

My CPU is 2.5 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7, it supports AVX and SSE4.

Does anyone have some idea about it?

[KevinH]

Well I have a I7 based MacOS and it works just fine.

An I7 definitely has AVX and SSE4 registers then this is a different issue completely.

I need more info:

What exact version of Sigil are you using (see the About Sigil dialog)

What exact version of MacOS are you using? (see MacOS System Information)

What graphics card or cards are you using?

The issue is typically that your graphics card or driver software is too old to be supported by the Chrome backend used by Qt's WebEngine

So try the following first:

1. Go to Sigil Preferences and under General Settings on one of the tabs try checking the box: "Disable GPU Acceleration in QtWebEngine/Preview" and saving the exiting Preferences. Then completely exit out of Sigil and launch Sigil again.

Did that help?

2. Try to update your graphics card driver.
If you are running the very latest driver for your graphics card, try updating it direct from Apple first and then directly from or the card manufacturer's website next.

Did that help?

[guhangsong]

Thanks a lot for the help

I use the latest 2.4.0 sigil
My MacOS has updated to Sequoia 15.3 (I install OpenCore-Patcher for the latest system, I'm wonder if it can cause my problem)
The Graphics cards are AMD Radeon R9 M370X 2 GB and Intel Iris Pro 1536 MB

I have checked the box: "Disable GPU Acceleration in QtWebEngine/Preview" and updated the operation system, but it still show blank.

[DiapDealer]

I've not yet seen anyone respond as to whether my previous post has any effect.

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...82#post4447882

[guhangsong]

Hi I see your post, but I can't find the way to set env for Sigil in MacOS~~

[guhangsong]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

I've not yet seen anyone respond as to whether my previous post has any effect.

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...82#post4447882

Thanks for your advice, I use https://github.com/yuezk/macenv to set the env for GUI app, and now the preview works normally, though there is no margin in the view.

[KevinH]

Given you are on a Mac, there really only is one internal driver for QtWebEngine anymore.
But for the record to launch Sigil with an environment variable set for testing purposes you use Terminal.app and use:

export ENVIRONMENT_VARIABLE_NAME=VALUE
cd /Applications
open ./Sigil.app

My guess is it the OpenCore Patcher you are using to run a version of MacOS that is not supported by your hardware. It constantly patches drivers for gpu/graphics.

Is there some reason you feel the need to run Sequoia via a patcher and not the latest supported Mac OS for your system?

Also If you are using any type of MacOS anti-virus checker, please disable it by rebooting into safe mode and testing.

I tried the OpenCore patcher for a few months but it generated enough issues on my old iMac that I finally gave up and just installed Linux on that machine and now that machine is running the latest version of KDE 6 Desktop, Manjaro Linux, and Sigil 2.4.0 with no issues and still getting security updates.

[KevinH]

Originally Posted by guhangsong

Thanks for your advice, I use https://github.com/yuezk/macenv to set the env for GUI app, and now the preview works normally, though there is no margin in the view.

Well it is good to know that the old opengl interface/backend still works on MacOS.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by guhangsong

Thanks for your advice, I use https://github.com/yuezk/macenv to set the env for GUI app, and now the preview works normally, though there is no margin in the view.

Thanks for reporting back. That it worked would imply that there's something wrong with the default "Metal" implementation on your Mac.

The default for that backend is metal on macOS, d3d11 on Windows, and opengl elsewhere. I'd love to hear if the same issue on the earlier Windows report could be fixed this same way.

There's more environment variables (many for debugging purposes) that can be found here: https://doc.qt.io/qt-6/qtquick-visua...ware-interface

[guhangsong]

I use OpenCore Patcher because Homebrew stopped support macOS Monterey, which is the last supported OS on MacBook2015~~

And I see it patched graphics drivers.

I don't use any anti-virus checker.

Maybe one day I will switch to Linux either~

Also thanks for the link of the environment, I have learnt a lot

[ikkethuis]

I have 4 'old' computers all updated to Windows 11.
2013: Intel core i7-2600
2011: Intel core i5-2450M
2009: Intel core 2 duo P8600
2007: Intel core 2 duo E7300
On the two "less old" PC's the Preview window of Sigil 2.4.2 works fine. However on the two oldest the Preview window refuses to function in sigil 2.4.2: only a flash and after that the preview window stays blank. After uninstalling version 2.4.2 and reinstalling Sigil 2.2.0 the Preview window was working again. No need to set environment variables named QSG_RHI_BACKEND and/or QT_OPENGL and no need to "Disable GPU Acceleration in QtWebEngine/Preview"in settings.
It seems that the combination of windows 11 and the very old processors prevent the Preview window to work in the most recent versions of Sigil

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by ikkethuis

I have 4 'old' computers all updated to Windows 11.
2013: Intel core i7-2600
2011: Intel core i5-2450M
2009: Intel core 2 duo P8600
2007: Intel core 2 duo E7300
On the two "less old" PC's the Preview window of Sigil 2.4.2 works fine. However on the two oldest the Preview window refuses to function in sigil 2.4.2: only a flash and after that the preview window stays blank. After uninstalling version 2.4.2 and reinstalling Sigil 2.2.0 the Preview window was working again. No need to set environment variables named QSG_RHI_BACKEND and/or QT_OPENGL and no need to "Disable GPU Acceleration in QtWebEngine/Preview"in settings.
It seems that the combination of windows 11 and the very old processors prevent the Preview window to work in the most recent versions of Sigil

It's probably the graphics drivers used for the old computers. You culd try setting the following environment variable on the old computers and then try the latest Sigil.

QTWEBENGINE_CHROMIUM_FLAGS="--disable-gpu"

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

It's probably the graphics drivers used for the old computers. You culd try setting the following environment variable on the old computers and then try the latest Sigil.

QTWEBENGINE_CHROMIUM_FLAGS="--disable-gpu"

No need. Setting that precise variable before launch is EXACTLY what Sigil's "Disable GPU Acceleration in QtWebEngine/Preview" preference setting does.

https://github.com/Sigil-Ebook/Sigil.../main.cpp#L479

In this case, it's entirely possible that the embedded blocklist in Sigil 2.4's Qt6.8.3 has blocked the particular driver version(s) on the two oldest machines.

If setting QSG_RHI_BACKEND to opengl doesn't work, one could try setting QTWEBENGINE_CHROMIUM_FLAGS to --disable-gpu-blocklist, but there's a reason the block list exists.