[Stephen_A]

I like to use the lean and mean Abiword on Ubuntu instead of the larger OpenOffice, on a Dell 1150 with a gig of RAM, running Ubuntu 8.04. But after using Abiword for a time, it hangs. Everything else works fine. The only way to get out of Abiword is to go to System Monitor and 'kill' the process.
I know I could switch Linux distributions, but I've invested rather a lot of time getting to know Ubuntu.
I'd really appreciate ay ideas or suggestions.
Thanks in advance.

[tomdkat]

Which version of AbiWord are you running?

Peace...

[Stephen_A]

I'm using the 2.4.2 version. I've tried to upgrade it to 2.6, but that's another story. Do you think that might be the answer?

[tomdkat]

I would certainly start there.

Peace...

[Stephen_A]

I'll mark this as solved, I re-installed Ubuntu after adding more RAM. Seems to be OK now. Thanks.

[tomdkat]

Why did you re-install? Did you try AbiWord first, after adding RAM?

Peace...

[Stephen_A]

I re-installed because the first installation was a bit twitchy, with a number of problems. The new installation is fine, but the Abiword problem continues. Abiword seems fine, but if I open a Word document it hangs. I tried changing the document to .rft, but there is still the same problem. Do you have any ideas?

[tomdkat]

Are you now running the latest version of AbiWord? Does it hang when you open ANY Word document or just one or two in particular?

Peace...

[Stephen_A]

Yes, got the latest version of Abiword, 2.6.3. When opening a .txt file it runs OK. But if I open a Word document, .rtf, it hangs or runs very sluggishly. I even saved a Word document as an Abiword document, and had the same problem.

[tomdkat]

Can you put the Word file you're having problems with in a ZIP file and attach it to this thread?

Peace...

[Stephen_A]

Sure. Here it is.

[tomdkat]

Did you install AbiWord 2.6.3 from source or did you use the information here?

EDIT: I think it's the size of your document. Try a smaller sized file and see how AbiWord behaves. I have 1.5GB of RAM in my system and OpenOffice 2.4.1 opened the file without any problems or performance issues. I installed AbiWord 2.4.6 from the Ubuntu repositories and loaded your document. It loaded but scrolling through it wasn't smooth. This leads me to believe AbiWord might be having issues with the sheer size of it. Try a smaller document, say something UNDER 50k in size and see how AbiWord behaves for you.

Peace...

[Stephen_A]

I used the source from the link you gave. That is I added the link deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/abiword-stable/ubuntu hardy main in the Settings>Repositories, exactly as per the instructions. It appeared to install without any hitches.

[tomdkat]

Ok, then it might be a quirk of AbiWord. I'll do more testing to see if I can shed any light on the issue.

EDIT: I just tried AbiWord 2.6.3 and it performed poorly with your document. I think it's the size of the document. On this page, someone else reports AbiWord hanging when opening "large" documents.

If I were you, I would either file a bug report against AbiWord or post a message on the AbiWord mailing list asking for assistance. That way, you might interact with the AbiWord developers or those close to the developers.

Good luck!

Peace...

[Stephen_A]

Many thanks.