Jabref rendering problems with GTK Look and Feel on Linux and OpenJDK

[nswitte]

My system:
Ubuntu 15.10

Linux version 4.2.0-18-generic (buildd@lgw01-38) (gcc version 5.2.1 20151010 (Ubuntu 5.2.1-22ubuntu2) ) #22-Ubuntu SMP Fri Nov 6 18:25:50 UTC 2015 (Ubuntu 4.2.0-18.22-generic 4.2.3)

java version "1.7.0_91"
OpenJDK Runtime Environment (IcedTea 2.6.3) (7u91-2.6.3-0ubuntu0.15.10.1)
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 24.91-b01, mixed mode)

All three versions of Jabref hang (after starting up OK, reading the database and selecting an entry), say when editing a file link or some other operation. Once this happens all buttons are inactive and I have to kill the process. This started today after Java got upgraded, so maybe this has something to do with it. Previously this was not a problem. I have looked at the FAQ but it doesn't seem relevant.

Any solutions would be really handy as I am pretty reliant of Jabref to manage my bibliographies.

Thanks, Nicholas

[koppor]

We did not change any code in JabRef 2.10 since its release in March 2014. Therefore, this should be an JRE issue. Could you downgrade your JRE? As soon as you know the JRE version where JabRef runs, could you report this as an issue to the ubuntu bug tracker?

Meanwhile, you can try Java8 and the latest build. I am afraid, that this won't succeed, too.

The only thing, that currently helps is to upgrade to Oracle's JRE using the oracle-java8-installer.

[matthiasgeiger]

At least 2.11 should also work with OpenJDK 8 - see #168.

[pviotti]

As reported above, I too use Ubuntu 15.10, and I have tried both the version in the repository (2.10) and the last stable version available (2.11.1).

• Version 2.10 using java 1.7 (openjdk): cannot test it because even if I change the default java from 1.8 to 1.7 system wide, it uses java 1.8 (this should probably be a separate bug..)
• Version 2.10 using java 1.8 (openjdk): sometimes it hangs on the splashscreen, sometimes it starts up and load the last file I edited, but as soon as I try to click around or open another file, it hangs (with no errors printed on the console, except warnings such as "Could not get key binding for "Open folder"")
• Version 2.11.1 (jar) using java 1.7 (openjdk): starts up and load the last file I edited, but as soon as I try to do something like clicking around or opening another file, it hangs
• Version 2.11.1 (jar) using java 1.8 (openjdk): starts up and load the last file I edited, but as soon as I try to open another file, it hangs (more precisely, it hangs as I click on a folder in the standard java open file dialog window)

So right now I don't know any trivial way of using JabRef on the last version of Ubuntu.
Thanks,
Paolo

[matthiasgeiger]

😞

Have you tried it with oracle-jdk?

[pviotti]

Nope, unfortunately I don't have time to install it (it's not in the Ubuntu repositories) nor to do other tests..
(Anyway, OpenJDK is the official reference implementation of Java SE, so you should use it to develop JabRef... 😉 )

[simonharrer]

All current developers of JabRef use Windows. I have not found an openjdk implementation that can be installed on windows. Do you have any pointers for us?

[pviotti]

Uh, I wasn't aware that openjdk is only available for Linux 😕 so much for "write once, run everywhere"
Still, since I reckon Linux is widely used by researchers, I suggest you should pay more attention to its compatibility.
Anyway, thanks for the work you guys did and do on JabRef: it's a very useful piece of software. 😃

I'll try to run it with oracle-jdk as soon as I can...

[peebz]

The same problem has been happening to me today. I've just submitted a report to Ubuntu bug tracker.

[simonharrer]

Hm, you could try to run the jar via java -jar jabref.jar (jar can be downloaded directly from our mirrors) and then give us any stacktraces for debugging purposes.

[pviotti]

No stacktraces nor errors get printed.
So as suggested here I tried to run the jar (2.11.1, with openjdk 7) and then get a thread dump using jstack.
I enclose two log files: one before it gets stuck, and one after.
jabref_jstack-before.txt
jabref_jstack-after.txt

In short, after it gets stuck, some thread in charge of painting some graphical component appears to be in BLOCKED state.
So it seems to me that this is a (major) bug of the GTK look&feel implementation.
Besides, for the record, recently I had similar problems with other java software such as Freemind and Netbeans.

[koppor]

For the record 1520294 is Ubuntu's bug number.

[simonharrer]

In Preferences -> Advanced you could change the look and feel if you are able to get there. Maybe this helps.

[pviotti]

Indeed it works. I switched to MetalLookAndFeel, restarted, and it doesn't get stuck anymore (using any java version).
Great, thanks for the hint!
(Maybe don't mark this as solved so that people with this problem can come here and read about the workaround - waiting for a proper fix..)

[peebz]

Fantastic! Just done the same and it works :-) Many thanks Simon!

PS. Please move Jabref off Sourceforge. It is so dodgy nowadays...