Installed Abiword, opens as blank screen

**stevesr0** · 03-20-2010, 09:47 PM

Anyone else having problem with Abiword?

steve

**Wollongong** · 03-31-2010, 01:27 AM

Steve,

can you provide a bit more information
* were you trying to open an existing file
* what type of file is it: abiword format, ms-word format ..
* does the problem still occur if opening a small abiword formatted document?

I have noticed that abiword has trouble with some ms-word documents: it opens as a blank screen, the CPU is 100% busy for several minutes, then abiword terminates.

**stevesr0** · 03-31-2010, 03:22 AM

I installed Abiword and whenever I launch it, a blank window appears. I can do nothing in this window except close it.

Don't have the opportunity to either open an existing document or create a new one.

Steve

**krishna.murphy** · 03-31-2010, 04:47 AM

Originally Posted by stevesr0

I installed Abiword and whenever I launch it, a blank window appears. I can do nothing in this window except close it.

Don't have the opportunity to either open an existing document or create a new one.

Steve

It didn't seem very functional to me, though I got more than this, myself.

**Wollongong** · 03-31-2010, 11:39 PM

Knoppix 6.3 DVD edition includes abiword, and it is quite functional.

If you started with a CD edition, and added abiword, it may be that the debian package didn't list all the required dependencies. Another possibility is that abiword requires certain data files to be setup, and they are not there.

One way to test this theory is to run abiword using 'strace' in a terminal window:

$ strace abiword

and see if the messages tell you anything about missing files or libraries. There will be lots of messages, so work back from the end.

I'm not certain that strace can tell you about library problems, so in that case, try 'ldd' to list out the necessary libraries.

$ ldd `which abiword`

Also, please mention your version of knoppix, and if it isn't the latest, maybe try the latest.