Sigil-2.5.1 Released

[KevinH]

I don't know. Perhaps it is crashing for some reason? I did see that one fix I had high hopes for, was committed to dev and the 6.9 tree but for some reason was NOT included in 6.9.1 (according to the qtwebengine github site). It has a good chance of helping across all gpus since the underlying issue was missing share graphics buffer permissions.

See https://bugreports.qt.io/browse/QTBUG-136257

I just noticed that it was omitted from 6.9.1 and asked why? No idea if they will respond. I am hoping Arch maintainers will cherry-pick that fix since it was committed to both dev and the 6.9 branch.

And then someone would have to disable the patch that turns off GBM for nvidia for anything to help.

Sometimes I think one end of Qt has no idea what the other end of Qt is doing. And the Qt people who triage new issues seem to be clueless as well.

[DiapDealer]

I tried the repo version of Sigil 2.5.1 immediately after a fresh start and noticed no unusual Preview/CodeView behavior when making css edits.

[KevinH]

Here is why gbm mode is disabled on nvidia gpus because of the following (according to Qt sources):

https://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/...EADME/kms.html

Notice the known issues at the end which says nvidia's gbm support does not allow texture buffers to be uploaded to the kernel kms module.

Not sure if those nvidia docs are up to date or not.

See this commit to Qt WebEngine:

https://github.com/qt/qtwebengine/co...bc934cf19b2f07

At least there is a env var QTWEBENGINE_FORCE_USE_GBM you can set to 1 to override things.

It sounds like Vulkan support is the way forward with Qt and nvidia.

[DiapDealer]

I saw that, but I worry if that information is still accurate. it also states that:

NVIDIA's DRM KMS support is still considered experimental. It is disabled by default, but can be enabled on suitable kernels with the 'modeset' kernel module parameter.

But DRM KMS modesetting has been enabled by default since nvidia-utils 560.35.03-5 according to the following Arch wiki page: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/NVI...l_mode_setting

I can verify that it's indeed enabled on my own system with:

sudo cat /sys/module/nvidia_drm/parameters/modeset

(and I don't mess with my kernel parameters)

[DiapDealer]

But in the end... I can't really complain that much. After the cherry-picked updates to qt6-webengine, I don't really experience any significant slowdowns myself. I just worry that even slightly aging nvidia video hardware might not fare as well.

[RbnJrg]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

sudo ldconfig

Should be enough to refresh the ld cache without a reboot.

Quick question for Reuben: are you launching both the AppImage and the system version of Sigil from the command line (using the same terminal), or are you double-clicking on files and/or menu items?

I'm launching Sigil and the appimage by double-clicking in the launcher in my desktop.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by RbnJrg

I'm launching Sigil and the appimage by double-clicking in the launcher in my desktop.

Thanks. Can you try running /usr/bin/sigil from a terminal and see if any concerning output is being generated when launching/using Sigil?

[DiapDealer]

For anyone interested, it seems that at least on Linux, the best/easiest way to make sure QtWebEngine's chromium/blink uses 100% software rendering (in Qt6.9.0+) is to set the QT_QUICK_BACKEND environment variable to "software" (without the quotes, of course).

On my system, this bypasses the attempt to use GBM, AND the fallback to Vulkan. There's no noticeable performance degradation for me when running Sigil in this way (but my hardware is pretty beefy).

I would recommend that anyone experiencing Sigil Preview problems/sluggishness on Linux (using Qt6.9.0+) at least try launching Sigil from a terminal with:

QT_QUICK_BACKEND=software sigil

[RbnJrg]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Thanks. Can you try running /usr/bin/sigil from a terminal and see if any concerning output is being generated when launching/using Sigil?

I receive the following output:

Warning: QFSFileEngine:: open: No file name specified
[2949:8:0603/110222.418259:ERROR:command_buffer_proxy_impl.cc(131)] ContextResult::kTransientFailure: Failed to send GpuControl.CreateCommandBuffer.

[RbnJrg]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

For anyone interested, it seems that at least on Linux, the best/easiest way to make sure QtWebEngine's chromium/blink uses 100% software rendering (in Qt6.9.0+) is to set the QT_QUICK_BACKEND environment variable to "software" (without the quotes, of course).

On my system, this bypasses the attempt to use GBM, AND the fallback to Vulkan. There's no noticeable performance degradation for me when running Sigil in this way (but my hardware is pretty beefy).

I would recommend that anyone experiencing Sigil Preview problems/sluggishness on Linux (using Qt6.9.0+) at least try launching Sigil from a terminal with:

QT_QUICK_BACKEND=software sigil

Great!! With that command line Sigil 2.5.1 works flawlessly. Many thanks!! How can I add that command in my luncher? (to avoid run Sigil from CLI).

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by RbnJrg

Great!! With that command line Sigil 2.5.1 works flawlessly. Many thanks!! How can I add that command in my luncher? (to avoid run Sigil from CLI).

The easiest way I can think of to keep everything integrated with your Desktop Environment's shortcuts and menu items would be to edit Sigil's /usr/share/applications/sigil.desktop file.

You can add environment variables to .desktop files by prepending "env QT_QUICK_BACKEND=software" to the existing Exec line in Sigil's .desktop file.

The entire new Exec line would be:

Exec=env QT_QUICK_BACKEND=software sigil %F

The only downside is that you'd have to remember to redo it any time you updated Sigil.

You could also modify Sigil's launch script /usr/bin/sigil and export QT_QUICK_BACKEND=software from there. It would work much the same. But it would also be wiped out after a Sigil update.

You might also copy the existing /usr/share/applications/sigil.desktop file to your own ~/.local/share/applications folder and make the edit there. I'm not entirely certain that way would work, but if it did, it _should_ survive Sigil updates.

Hope something there helps.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

You might also copy the existing /usr/share/applications/sigil.desktop file to your own ~/.local/share/applications folder and make the edit there. I'm not entirely certain that way would work, but if it did, it _should_ survive Sigil updates.

This last seems to work on my machine. If it works on yours, it's definitely the way to go. No need to have to worry about redoing it after every Sigil update.

You might need to log out and back in after making the initial change. There's a command you can type to get your desktop to re-read all if its menu caches without logging out, but I'll be damned if I can ever remember what it is. xdg-utils something, I think.

[RbnJrg]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

This last seems to work on my machine. If it works on yours, it's definitely the way to go. No need to have to worry about redoing it after every Sigil update.

You might need to log out and back in after making the initial change. There's a command you can type to get your desktop to re-read all if its menu caches without logging out, but I'll be damned if I can ever remember what it is. xdg-utils something, I think.

Many thanks, it worked! I can launch Sigil with the environment variable from my desktop without problems. And also Sigil works without issues with that "workaround".

[DiapDealer]

I was comparing the performance of my repo supplied Sigil 2.5.1 (with Qt6.9.0-7) and the Sigil 2.5.1 AppImage and not really seeing much difference. But when I compared the repo-supplied 2.5.1 (with QT_QUICK_BACKEND=software) and the repo-supplied 2.5.1 (without QT_QUICK_BACKEND=software) there was a significant difference. The software rendering is better. Go figure.

[RbnJrg]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

I was comparing the performance of my repo supplied Sigil 2.5.1 (with Qt6.9.0-7) and the Sigil 2.5.1 AppImage and not really seeing much difference. But when I compared the repo-supplied 2.5.1 (with QT_QUICK_BACKEND=software) and the repo-supplied 2.5.1 (without QT_QUICK_BACKEND=software) there was a significant difference. The software rendering is better. Go figure.

Indeed! Sigil with the enviroment variable is faster, very curious. Maybe with Qt 6.9.1 things change but for now, the rendering "via" software is better.