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Color Palette Button Causes a Freeze Up

Hello,

Before I forget, here's another anomaly I noticed recently. When using Qtractor 1.4.0 (installed from the PPA), if I try to access a color palette button, the entire program freezes (locks up).

Both the color palette buttons in the Track setup menu and in the View/Options/Display menu cause Qtractor to freeze when clicked.

On the other hand, they work properly in the AppImage for 1.4.0-6.1, and also in version 0.9.39 found in Linux Mint's Software Manager.

By the way, my op-system is Linux Mint Xfce 22.

Thomas

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rncbc's picture

hi, this is an old environmental issue, making its come back now and then, especially on Gtk based desktops.

try switching off the "Use desktop environment native dialogs" in View/Options.../Display/Options, and/or ultimately chose a custom widget "Style theme", any other than "(default)" and avoid "Gtk" at all costs! "Fusion" is an all-time favorite here :).

hth. cheers

https://www.rncbc.org/drupal/comment/10325#comment-10325

I had the same problem.
In my case I found another solution.
I uninstalled a conflicting library, but I forgot which one.

It's a problem between inappropriate combinations of Gtk and Qt libraries, there's no doubt about that.

Thanks to both of you for the ideas to try out. It's still acting up, and so I'm just trying to train myself to avoid the palette buttons.

The trade-offs now stand at:

  1. Use the AppImage. Then there is no freeze-up on the palette buttons. On the other hand, then I don't get the advantage of the GUIs for the various cool plugins (like Calf).

  2. Or, use the installed version. Now I get the nice GUIs for plugins, but need to avoid the palette buttons.

Given the choice, the latter seems the better of the two since I'm too much of a Linux novice to know what Gtk even is.

Thomas

You mentioned that you had another machine with Cinnamon.
Could you check if it happens there?

I want to move to Debian 12. I've tried it with Xfce... and that annoying bug has appeared again.
Maybe the solution is to change desktop system.
I would be annoyed, because Xfce fits me very well.

Greetings,

I checked it out, and the palette buttons work just fine on Cinnamon 20.3 running on my better day-to-day computer.

Cinnamon would have been my first choice for the studio computer. However, that particular machine has rather limited resources so I was forced to go with Xfce, which works quite well in general. This is an older computer with only 4 gig of RAM possible, and a dual core CPU. It was an old junker destined for the landfill, but as it turns out, is eminently usable for MIDI sequencing.

Thomas

So Linux Mint LMDE 6 (based on Debian 12 with Cinnamon) might be a good choice for me.
https://linuxmint.com/edition.php?id=308

However, in the end I decided on Locos Linux (in its KDE Plasma flavor), a distribution focused on optimizing resource consumption as much as possible.
https://loc-os.com/

I'm going to test it for a few days, if it doesn't satisfy me, I'll try the always reliable and pleasant Mint in its Debian flavor.

I'm currently using AVLinux, based on Linux MX, which in turn is based on Debian 11. It's a very good distribution focused on music.
I've been using AVLinux for more than 3 years now, and it's getting old. For example, it uses Qt5, and Rui has stopped supporting Qt5.

It already comes with almost all the software and plugins preinstalled and preconfigured. Curiously, it doesn't come with Qtractor.
However, this time I prefer a generic distribution to install only what I'm really going to use.

Every so often I have to reinstall from scratch, that's how it is :).

...

I'll tell you that it's GTK and Qt just to share knowledge.

They are two development frameworks.
The Gnome, XFCE, LXDE desktop is based on GTK.
KDE Plasma, LXQt on Qt.

This sometimes causes bugs due to library clashes and visual inconsistencies between Qt applications on Gtk desktops and vice versa.

Curiously, Cinnamon is based on an old version of Gnome (GTK), and yet the palette button error does not appear (perhaps precisely because it is based on an old version).

Greetings

LocOS Kde has proven to be an unsatisfactory option. I will try Mint.

I've tried the LXQT desktop and it doesn't give the error.
It's based on QT like Qtractor.

I hadn't tried it before, and it seems to be on par with XFCE. At least my first impressions.
It's even easier and more effective to customize.
When you log in you can select whether you want XFCE or LXQT.

If you have enabled the OS to load without "Login Screen", you'll need to log out. That sends you to the login screen. There you change (select) the desktop system.

The only drawback: it will install applications equivalent to those you already have in XFCE.
You will have for example 2 file managers:
- Thunar (xfce)
- PcManFM-Qt (LXQT)

I can't guarantee that it's a solution for Mint either (I've tested it on debian 12), but everything seems to indicate that it is.

If you want to try it, to install it:
sudo apt-install lxqt

For your information:
This Qtractor crash with the color picker occurs in XFCE and LXDE.

If you run from terminal, this message appears:
---
tractor

(qtractor:15488): GLib-GObject-WARNING **: 00:43:31.805: g_object_get_is_valid_property: object class 'GtkSettings' has no property named 'gtk-application-prefer-dark-theme'

(qtractor:15488): GLib-GObject-WARNING **: 00:43:31.806: g_object_get_is_valid_property: object class 'GtkSettings' has no property named 'gtk-application-prefer-dark-theme'

(qtractor:15488): GLib-GObject-WARNING **: 00:43:31.807: g_object_get_is_valid_property: object class 'GtkSettings' has no property named 'gtk-application-prefer-dark-theme'

(qtractor:15488): GLib-GObject-WARNING **: 00:43:31.807: g_object_get_is_valid_property: object class 'GtkSettings' has no property named 'gtk-application-prefer-dark-theme'
---

rncbc's picture

hi,

have you tried the above suggestions in re. Color Palette Button Causes a Freeze Up... and also in G3N-es's Other posible solution ?

hth.
cheers

I included the console output in case that might give some clue to a definitive solution.

I was reviewing the code and just in case, I forced: QColorDialog::DontUseNativeDialog

It didn't help at all, indeed :-).

It's true that there is that solution from qt6ct, but it's not intuitive. I'll indicate the steps to solve it in another post because it's a recurring error (many people have gtk-based desktops). In fact, I'll also make a "how to".

G3N-es, I figured it out myself last night and was about to write up the procedure, too. But you're no doubt better at explaining Linux than I, so I'll step back.

But here's the secret ingredient that made it finally work for me on Linux Mint Xfce 22: that environment variable setting must be made not only in .bashrc but also in .profile for the QT6ct utility to work.

One other thing: after wasting time searching online unnecessarily for a complex solution, all of a sudden I noticed that QT6ct is in fact in the Xfce Software Manager. I wish had know that earlier! A quick install, setting the two instances of the environment variable and a reboot took care of everything. So it is simple, but only when all the unspoken level of Linux expertise is assumed.

Thomas

bluebell's picture

https://www.rncbc.org/drupal/comment/10325#comment-10325 works on my system. Thanks a lot.

Check if you have qt6ct installed.

In console: qt6ct

If not (most likely, Mint does not have it preinstalled):
sudo apt-get install qt6ct

Now you need to create an environment variable for the system to manage qt application themes with qt6ct. In console:
export QT_QPA_PLATFORMTHEME=qt6ct

That's it.

It will work for you, because I also have Ubuntu "Noble" base, and I have confirmed that qt6ct is available.

However, there are still distributions that do not have qt6ct yet, they only have qt5ct available. So although it is a solution, it is not a universal solution.

Hi again,

We just crossed posts. As mentioned elsewhere, I had to put in the environment variable setting in both .bashrc and .profile to get it working. Thanks for you concern and contributions!

Thomas

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