White Box covers most of Screen

[keepitsimpleengineer]

#13544
#13544 Qt 5.14 : GUI displays a white rectangle.
Reported by: hamelg
Owned by: ~
Priority: minor
Milestone: needs_triage
Component: MythTV - User Interface Library
Version: v30-fixes
Severity: medium
Keywords: ~

[keepitsimpleengineer]

Major update today including qt5...

Still the ugly obscuring white box

Well over a month, no indication or evidence of any progress fixing the problem...

[pgbennett]

Does this happen without plugins installed? If not, can you identify which plugin is causing it?

[paulh]

It's not a plugin it's the MythUIWebBrowser widget. Some themes have a base definition for it in base.xml which creates an instance of it in the global store which is then used to create inherited UI widgets. That's nothing out of the ordinary all widgets defined in a base.xml work this way. The difference is this widget actually creates a window that has been up to now hidden until it's actually displayed. Something must have changed in Qt 5.14.

I've tried to reproduce it several times but can't.

[keepitsimpleengineer]

Does this happen without plugins installed? If not, can you identify which plugin is causing it?

No known plugins installed

Happens on three clients (2·Manjaro64bitXFCE&1·ArchLinux64bitXFCE)and on a client/backend.

Reinstalling/changing themes without restart removes the obscuring box until exiting from a recording.
~

Screenshot_2020-02-07_17-36-47.jpg (39.35 KiB) Viewed 2435 times

Screenshot_2020-02-07_17-30-05.jpg (37.57 KiB) Viewed 2435 times

Code: Select all

# pacman -Qss qt5
local/appstream-qt 0.12.10-2
    Qt5 interface for AppStream
local/grantlee 5.2.0-2
    A string template engine based on the Django template system and written in Qt5
local/libaccounts-qt 1.16-1
    Qt-based client library for accessing the online accounts database
local/libdbusmenu-qt5 0.9.3+16.04.20160218-4
    A library that provides a Qt implementation of the DBusMenu spec
local/phonon-qt5 4.11.1-1
    The multimedia framework by KDE
local/phonon-qt5-gstreamer 4.10.0-1
    Phonon GStreamer backend for Qt5
local/plasma-framework 5.66.0-1 (kf5)
    Plasma library and runtime components based upon KF5 and Qt5
local/polkit-qt5 0.113.0-1
    A library that allows developers to access PolicyKit API with a nice Qt-style API
local/poppler-qt5 0.85.0-1
    Poppler Qt5 bindings
local/python-pyqt5 5.14.1-2 (pyqt5)
    A set of Python bindings for the Qt5 toolkit
local/python-pyqt5-sip 12.7.1-1
    The sip module support for PyQt5
local/python2-pyqt5 5.14.1-2
    A set of Python 2 bindings for the Qt5 toolkit
local/python2-sip-pyqt5 4.19.21-1
    Python 2.x SIP bindings for C and C++ libraries (PyQt5 version)
local/qt5-base 5.14.1-1 (qt qt5)
    A cross-platform application and UI framework
local/qt5-declarative 5.14.1-1 (qt qt5)
    Classes for QML and JavaScript languages
local/qt5-doc 5.14.1-1 (qt qt5)
    A cross-platform application and UI framework (Documentation)
local/qt5-graphicaleffects 5.14.1-1 (qt qt5)
    Graphical effects for use with Qt Quick 2
local/qt5-location 5.14.1-1 (qt qt5)
    Provides access to position, satellite and area monitoring classes
local/qt5-multimedia 5.14.1-1 (qt qt5)
    Classes for audio, video, radio and camera functionality
local/qt5-quickcontrols 5.14.1-1 (qt qt5)
    Reusable Qt Quick based UI controls to create classic desktop-style user interfaces
local/qt5-quickcontrols2 5.14.1-1 (qt qt5)
    Next generation user interface controls based on Qt Quick
local/qt5-script 5.14.1-1 (qt qt5)
    Classes for making Qt applications scriptable. Provided for Qt 4.x compatibility
local/qt5-scxml 5.14.1-1 (qt qt5)
    Static and runtime integration of SCXML models into Qt code
local/qt5-sensors 5.14.1-1 (qt qt5)
    Provides access to sensor hardware and motion gesture recognition
local/qt5-serialport 5.14.1-1 (qt qt5)
    Provides access to hardware and virtual serial ports
local/qt5-speech 5.14.1-1 (qt qt5)
    Qt module to make text to speech and speech recognition easy
local/qt5-svg 5.14.1-1 (qt qt5)
    Classes for displaying the contents of SVG files
local/qt5-tools 5.14.1-1 (qt qt5)
    A cross-platform application and UI framework (Development Tools, QtHelp)
local/qt5-virtualkeyboard 5.14.1-1 (qt qt5)
    Virtual keyboard framework
local/qt5-wayland 5.14.1-1 (qt qt5)
    Provides APIs for Wayland
local/qt5-webchannel 5.14.1-1 (qt qt5)
    Provides access to QObject or QML objects from HTML clients for seamless integration of Qt applications with HTML/JavaScript clients
local/qt5-webengine 5.14.1-1 (qt qt5)
    Provides support for web applications using the Chromium browser project
local/qt5-webkit 5.212.0alpha3-9
    Classes for a WebKit2 based implementation and a new QML API
local/qt5-x11extras 5.14.1-1 (qt qt5)
    Provides platform-specific APIs for X11
local/qt5-xmlpatterns 5.14.1-1 (qt qt5)
    Support for XPath, XQuery, XSLT and XML schema validation
local/signond 8.60-1
    A D-Bus service which performs user authentication on behalf of its clients
local/sonnet 5.66.0-1 (kf5)
    Spelling framework for Qt5

[pvr4me]

I take it the white box appears after some sequence of actions? What are those actions? Can you reliably trigger it through a certain set of steps?

When the white box appears, does the frontend still accept and process keystrokes? Can you navigate through menus, etc?

If you have a mouse connected and click outside the white box, does that bring forward the window behind? Is the frontend then functional for a period of time? Can you trigger the problem again through a certain set of steps?

I think it is possible that this is another manifestation of the issue I ran into on the Mac with MythTV 29.0 a year ago. See the middle portion of the following link where I describe Myth becoming unresponsive (pressing any key results only in a beep).

viewtopic.php?f=26&t=2216&start=60#p14335

I think these problems are probably tied up to changes in the Qt software. Unfortunately, I don't have time to install a bunch of Qt versions in turn and test Myth frontend with each.

Craig

[keepitsimpleengineer]

I take it the white box appears after some sequence of actions? What are those actions? Can you reliably trigger it through a certain set of steps?
①
When the white box appears, does the frontend still accept and process keystrokes? Can you navigate through menus, etc?
②
If you have a mouse connected and click outside the white box, does that bring forward the window behind? Is the frontend then functional for a period of time? Can you trigger the problem again through a certain set of steps?
③
I think it is possible that this is another manifestation of the issue I ran into on the Mac with MythTV 29.0 a year ago. See the middle portion of the following link where I describe Myth becoming unresponsive (pressing any key results only in a beep).

viewtopic.php?f=26&t=2216&start=60#p14335

I think these problems are probably tied up to changes in the Qt software. Unfortunately, I don't have time to install a bunch of Qt versions in turn and test Myth frontend with each.
④
Craig

⁓
①Watch any recording, then close it.
②Keystroke commands accepted, which is how you can reinstall a theme, which will remove the white box.
③Mouse commands work, i.e. clicking on screen will restore the recording being played sans the white box, the frontend remains functional, and the white box returns when exiting the recording.
④ Install Manjaro XFCE {https://manjaro.org/download/official/xfce/}
Install pacman helper {$ git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/yay.git; cd yay; makepkg -si}
Update the installation {$ yay -Syu)
Install mythtv {$ yay -S mythtv} ~ requires local compilation of mythtv source
Note: Manjaro is a rolling release so there is no current distribution problems as along as you keep it updated {$ yay -Syu}
⁓
Details of mythtv install (including qt5) on Manjaro/ArchLinux shown here: {https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/mythtv/}
Details of AUR (Arch User Repository) here: {https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ar ... Repository}
⁓
Current qt5 on Manjaro:

Code: Select all

[KISE-066 ~]# pacman -Qss qt5
local/kvantum-qt5 0.14.1-1
    SVG-based theme engine for Qt5 (including config tool and extra themes)
local/polkit-qt5 0.113.0-1
    A library that allows developers to access PolicyKit API with a nice Qt-style API
local/poppler-qt5 0.85.0-1
    Poppler Qt5 bindings
local/pyside2 5.14.1-1 (qt qt5)
    Enables the use of Qt5 APIs in Python applications
local/python-pyqt5 5.14.1-2 (pyqt5)
    A set of Python bindings for the Qt5 toolkit
local/python-pyqt5-sip 12.7.1-1
    The sip module support for PyQt5
local/python-sip-pyqt5 4.19.19-1
    Python 3.x SIP bindings for C and C++ libraries (PyQt5 version)
local/qt5-base 5.14.1-1 (qt qt5)
    A cross-platform application and UI framework
local/qt5-connectivity 5.14.1-1 (qt qt5)
    Provides access to Bluetooth hardware
local/qt5-declarative 5.14.1-1 (qt qt5)
    Classes for QML and JavaScript languages
local/qt5-location 5.14.1-1 (qt qt5)
    Provides access to position, satellite and area monitoring classes
local/qt5-multimedia 5.14.1-1 (qt qt5)
    Classes for audio, video, radio and camera functionality
local/qt5-networkauth 5.14.1-1 (qt qt5)
    Network authentication module
local/qt5-remoteobjects 5.14.1-1 (qt qt5)
    Inter-process communication (IPC) module developed for Qt
local/qt5-script 5.14.1-1 (qt qt5)
    Classes for making Qt applications scriptable. Provided for Qt 4.x compatibility
local/qt5-sensors 5.14.1-1 (qt qt5)
    Provides access to sensor hardware and motion gesture recognition
local/qt5-serialport 5.14.1-1 (qt qt5)
    Provides access to hardware and virtual serial ports
local/qt5-styleplugins 5.0.0.20170311-19
    Additional style plugins for Qt5
local/qt5-svg 5.14.1-1 (qt qt5)
    Classes for displaying the contents of SVG files
local/qt5-tools 5.14.1-1 (qt qt5)
    A cross-platform application and UI framework (Development Tools, QtHelp)
local/qt5-wayland 5.14.1-1 (qt qt5)
    Provides APIs for Wayland
local/qt5-webchannel 5.14.1-1 (qt qt5)
    Provides access to QObject or QML objects from HTML clients for seamless integration of Qt applications with HTML/JavaScript clients
local/qt5-webengine 5.14.1-1 (qt qt5)
    Provides support for web applications using the Chromium browser project
local/qt5-webkit 5.212.0alpha3-9
    Classes for a WebKit2 based implementation and a new QML API
local/qt5-websockets 5.14.1-1 (qt qt5)
    Provides WebSocket communication compliant with RFC 6455
local/qt5-x11extras 5.14.1-1 (qt qt5)
    Provides platform-specific APIs for X11
local/qt5-xmlpatterns 5.14.1-1 (qt qt5)
    Support for XPath, XQuery, XSLT and XML schema validation
local/qt5ct 0.41-2
    Qt5 Configuration Utility

[pgbennett]

A search through the code shows that the web browser widget is only used in program details and in plugins. What happens if you move your cursor to a program name and press I or info? That should create a web browser and display the results there.Does that work and does it have any effect on the white box?

[pvr4me]

Thanks for the details but your issue seems to be quite different from what I experienced. Too bad--I was hoping that a fix for this issue might also fix the problem I saw.

Craig

[paulh]

Note: Manjaro is a rolling release so there is no current distribution problems as along as you keep it updated {$ yay -Syu}

That funny. You do realise that the version of MythTV in the AUR is over a year old (Jan 14, 2019 to be exact)

Maybe I'm not making myself clear or maybe no one is listening. I know exactly what is causing the problem. I have an idea how to fix it. I don't know that changed to cause this other than something in Qt 5.14. The problem is I need to be able to reproduce it know if I fixed it.

[paulh]

Added a patch to the ticket that should fix this. Can someone who can reproduce this please test it. I've briefly tested it to make sure the browser still works that's all.
https://code.mythtv.org/trac/ticket/13544

[Vaska]

Thanks for the patch paulh. I installed the patch, recompiled and installed and it has resolved the issue for me. I'm even able to use my old favorite (unsupported) theme BlueAbstract. I tried at least 3 other themes as well and they all work fine too. I originally noticed the issue when launching a custom button that used mpv to show a feed from one of my outdoor security cameras. When exiting the security camera feed I would also get the white box, but even that is now fixed.

Nice work and thanks for the help!

Vaska.

[paulh]

Great thanks for testing. I'll double check it's not going to break anything and probably commit it later this evening.

[paulh]

The fix is now committed to fixes/30, fixes/31 and master.

Don't know how arch users will get the fix if they are using the AUR package since it's appears to be using the github tar.gz from the 30.0 release and not using the latest from the fixes/30 branch.

[keepitsimpleengineer]

The fix is now committed to fixes/30, fixes/31 and master.

Don't know how arch users will get the fix if they are using the AUR package since it's appears to be using the github tar.gz from the 30.0 release and not using the latest from the fixes/30 branch.

Compiled three Manjaro and one archlinux mythtv from AUR, and all worked w/o the white box, thanks for the fix.

BTW AUR (Arch User Repository) is a user maintained repository, not in the mainstream archlinux/manjaro repositories, so the comment about rolling release would not necessarily apply to it. That said, the AUR supporting users do very good work and are much appreciated.
⁓