[Libreoffice-bugs] [Bug 42673] With disconnected network printers, Calc hangs opening some files waiting on the Windows print spooler

[bugzilla-daemon at bugs.documentfoundation.org]

https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=42673

--- Comment #26 from Tim van der Meij <timvandermeij at gmail.com> ---
I also encountered this problem today and it took a long time to find the root
cause. I have some additional details to share.

I did a clean install of Windows and found that LibreOffice Calc would take 13
seconds to open even the most basic ODS files while this didn't happen before.
XLSX files worked just fine. I tried everything from reinstalling LibreOffice
to removing the profile directory with no result. I finally reinstalled Windows
again and kept track of when LibreOffice Calc would stop working. I found that
it started occurring when I installed the printer (Epson XP 630) through
Windows and the printer was offline, and found this bug.

Like others noticed above, ODS files (for most likely a good reason) contain a
reference to the printer, so I presume LibreOffice Calc is trying to locate
this printer upon startup. Unticking the "Load printer settings with the
document" as suggested in
https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=116559 did not work for me,
but what did work was changing the default printer to e.g., the Microsoft XPS
Writer.

I looked into this and found that Windows installed the default Microsoft IPP
drivers for the printer instead of the Epson drivers, and I can only assume
that the spooler keeps on trying to connect to the printer even though it's
offline. The moment I installed the Epson-specific drivers, the problem was
gone. I guess it has a faster way to tell the spooler that the printer cannot
be reached.

I would say that Windows is at fault for not installing the Epson drivers by
default and for having a default driver that apparently makes the spooler wait
for a long time before reporting that the printer is offline. However, I agree
with Comment 13 that LibreOffice Calc can mitigate the issue by querying the
spooler in a separate thread. Removing the spooler actions from the main thread
would allow the rest of LibreOffice Calc to work correctly and the document to
open normally, while in the background the spooler is queried. This would make
the issue invisible for the user because having to wait 10+ seconds for a
document to open is too long.

I'm hoping this will help to get the issue resolved. Thank you for all your
work on LibreOffice!

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