Slow scrolling in LibreOffice Writer Solus Plasma

Pots

Hi everyone,
I've noticed a problem with Solus Plasma.
When I open a file with LibreOffice Writer and want to scroll down using the right-hand bar, there's a slowdown. Am I the only one experiencing this?
Thanks

Original-Syn

I do not generally use LibreOffice myself, but I loaded it up and tested some long documents I have. I could not recreate the issue.

Sorry, I am not more help.

edit: I use Plasma

banger

I can't re-create this either on Plasma.

BuzzPCSOS

Related question. Are you running Solus on an SSD?
Version 4.7 did not automatically turn on trim which is important for SSDs and will cause slowdowns if it is not enabled.

Pots

BuzzPCSOS Yes, I use Solus on an SSD. What should I do?

SilverBird775

Somehow I got the impression that Skia+wayland is the new drawing backend but it reverted back to legacy cairo+wayland. Am I imagining things? Not that it really matter, OpenOffice scrolling was always painfully inefficient to put it mildly, for weak CPUs especially. That is a known problem.

BuzzPCSOS

Pots Test to see if Trim is enabled.
sudo systemctl status fstrim.timer
it should return something like this
fstrim.timer - Discard unused filesystem blocks once a week Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/fstrim.timer; enabled; preset: enabled) Active: active (waiting) since Sat 2025-12-20 08:15:58 GMT; 5min ago Invocation: 590f35ae24b44bb4af27b5179a239f81 Trigger: Mon 2025-12-22 00:07:52 GMT; 1 day 15h left Triggers: fstrim.service Docs: man:fstrim
Both timer and preset should be enabled. If not then Trim can be enabled with
sudo systemctl enable fstrim.timer

Pots

BuzzPCSOS
Done, thanks

Pots

BuzzPCSOS
I made the changes, but the problem persists.

BuzzPCSOS

Pots I hope that has solved your LibreOffice Writer troubles.

Akelun

I just noticed that I have the same problem (I just probably never scrolled that way on LibreOffice). And I'm on Plasma (Wayland) as well.

However, even if fstrim was disabled, I enabled it with the command mentioned, and it still didn't improve anything on my side (even after a reboot).

BuzzPCSOS

Pots The fstrim setting enables a timer which should cause the Trim command to be run once a week. It is a very necessary inclusion for any system with an SSD. Not using it will slowly cause your OS to slow down. Suggesting it as a fix was a hunch not a guarantee.
Plasma heavily uses your graphics card. Maybe turning off some of the effects.
From System Settings - Windows Management>Desktop Effects Uncheck any animations or blur.
LibreOffice can be made to respond a little faster by stopping Java.
From LibreOffice - Tools>Options>Advanced Uncheck "Use a Java runtime environment"
I hope that

Akelun

BuzzPCSOS I tried all of that, but it still doesn't work for me. =X

Original-Syn

Have you disabled smooth scroll in LibreOffice settings?

BuzzPCSOS

Original-Syn That is a good call. I have previously noticed some lag when using the right-hand bar but usually use the mouse wheel to scroll so have not looked in a while.
On my install smooth scroll was not enabled by default so I checked the box to see if there was any difference. The right-hand bar operation was smooth. I also noted that un-checking the smooth scroll box left the improvement unchanged, so I wish that I had checked it's status before trying the fix. Maybe improved performance was down to a recent updates, or possibly other tasks not running in the background.
It will be interesting to hear how @Pots and @Akelun get on with this.

Akelun

Original-Syn It was disabled. I tried to enable it, apply, then restart Libreoffice... The problem's still here.

Like BuzzPCOS, and like I mentioned it before, I also use mostly the wheel, so I never really noticed that, and it's not a big deal. But the slow down of the manual scrolling is real. When I press the mouse and put it down, I need to wait well 2 or 3 REAL seconds for it to go down all suddenly where I released my mouse click. Feels like when a video game freeze for 2 or 3 seconds then teleport you where your character is supposed to be.

Original-Syn

Akelun Yeah there are a few other things we could try. Unfortunately I am on vacation with limited access so the recommendationswas from memory. I know a lot of it is due to the Java pieces within LibreOffice.

Another common issue is their software rendering. You can try are different Skia software rendering settings (restarting between change)

That is just off the top of my head. Wish I could help more

TraceyC

You may get more insight from the LibreOffice community. This is probably not specific to Solus.

Pots

TraceyC
That's probably it. It's not a big deal.