[SOLVED] Need help - Scribus 1.6.1 crashing when I try to save

[Dr. Mindermast]

(Windows 11, in case that makes a difference here)

This problem just popped up a few days ago.  I was editing a document that I've been working on for a while, and when I tried to save it the program crashed.  After a little bit of experimentation I've found that it only happens after one specific change - deleting a page break that I inserted in the past and have now decided I don't want (between linked text frames, in case that's important).  I can make any other changes to the document, before or after the trouble spot, and it saves normally.  It's just this one spot, and I have no idea why, and it's driving me a little crazy.  Does anybody know why this might be happening and if there's anything I can do to fix it?

For what it's worth, I have already tried rebooting my computer, and that did not help.  Besides that I'm out of ideas.

[AdmFubar]

Make a copy of the .sla with the issue. Open it in a text editor and do a search for

 <breakcol/>

Delete that and save, then try an open it in scribus and see if it crashes.

[Dr. Mindermast]

Thanks for the suggestion.  I was able to find and delete <breakcol/>, which was in exactly the place where I've been having the problem, but now when I try to open that file Scribus crashes immediately instead of waiting until I try to save my work.  So I'm glad you reminded me to make a duplicate and mess with that one instead of my original file

In case it will help, I've attached a screenshot here from the text editor, with the problem re-inserted, in case maybe something else around it might be contributing to the problem and you are able to identify that.

[AdmFubar]

Next test on the copy, delete everything from the column break to the end, including the column break. save that copy and open it in scribus. if it opens ok then the issue is in the file after the column break. Will need to see that in full if possible to trouble shoot

[Dr. Mindermast]

Okay, I tried deleting everything after the break, it gave me an error message about the document stopping abruptly.  I checked the deleted section (which was pasted into a separate document), copied the closing tags from the end of it, and it gave me error messages about tags not matching.  I couldn't figure out what was missing so I scrapped that plan.  I wouldn't have been able to show you all of the text here anyway - the problem is on page 7 of a 50-page document.

Next I did some experimenting myself to see if I could figure out... anything.  Working directly in the document, I can add new text in the middle of a paragraph, including in or after the column that has been giving me all this trouble, and successfully save the file.  But if I create a new paragraph then it crashes while saving.  Furthermore, I saw that this also crashed Scribus when I tried it before the page where the problem first occurred.  The other thing I tried was opening the file in Notepad, adding <para PARENT="Heading"/> somewhere, and then opening it in Scribus afterward.  This was successful when I added it to a random paragraph on page 9 or 10, but not when I added it to existing text in my trouble spot on page 7.

I don't know if this is an option, but I could save everything as a .txt file and upload it here for you to examine, if you would want to do that (and if the forum will allow it).  I'm fine with sharing my text here as much as is needed to diagnose (and hopefully fix) this problem.

[AdmFubar]

you can just attach the .sla . i'd recommend doing a collect for output, and compressing that directory, zip is fine, then i will have any fonts and images you are using in the document.

[Dr. Mindermast]

Too large to copy directly into the forum, so I uploaded it here instead - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GsoJGqndZZOnKcYVzprjTAWDvdtJRAo7/view?usp=sharing

If you scroll down to page 7 in Scribus I put a red text box off to the side, that's where the problem first reared its head but like I mentioned in my last post it seems to be affecting other places too now, potentially the whole document...

[PatJr]

I couldn't figure it out.
Cool looking document.

tip maybe?
put the comments on a separate non printing layer dedicated to the comments.

[Dr. Mindermast]

I hadn't dug into Scribus enough to see that "non-printing layers" is a thing, but yeah, that will probably save me a lot of headache in the future.  Thanks for the suggestion!

[AdmFubar]

I cant see any issue with the .sla file, however i am having issues with the fonts you are using. I added them to my system and when i exit scribus and reload your .sla, scribus prompts to substiute fonts, then doesnt load them.

I'm going to change the body text fonts to another and see if this clears the issue.

Swapped fonts. Let me know if this works for you.

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/eg95t1bzuuh7qwr69u4ab/NK-Collected.zip?rlkey=5kxgmgatvk82j8ty7zisuexj1&st=zn9py0by&dl=0

[Dr. Mindermast]

That did it!  Kind of!

I was able to download your version with the changed font, and when I messed around with that it worked okay.  So then I opened my version that I had uploaded, and changed the font (I didn't have the exact same one you did, but another in the same family at least), and it was successful!  I could add space and paragraphs and headers and still save without crashing.

Then I switched back to my original font and it crashed again.  Other fonts worked fine, both TT and OT, but the one I wanted didn't.  Got mixed results when working with what I assume are related ones - Century Schoolbook (my original one) failed, as did Century and CenturySchL, but Century Gothic was able to save successfully.

And then one more experiment - I took your version, changed it back to my font, and that was able to save successfully.

So it looks like my problem might actually be solved (and thank you so much for that!).  Any idea why the font would have created this problem?

[AdmFubar]

Could be the font was designed out of spec, or more likely, it was corrupted in some way from where ever you had obtained it.

Note to developers: might be something to look into. Hsving a more gracefull handing of fonts that produce errors.  We've found a font that is questionable.

What got me looking at the fonts, was a wonky scribus config. Works with my files, finds fonts as it should but wouldnt with yours. Exited scribus an renamed the config directory, and restarted scribus, it will recreate the default config. You file then loaded, it would't keep the path to the fonts directoy i was using. but only after i made the substitutions in window that opens. not sure if it was just my setup or the font. It dawned on me then to try alternate similar fonts.

[Dr. Mindermast]

I think it came already installed on this computer actually - I've spent more time than I care to admit downloading crazy fonts for titles and stuff, but I don't think I've ever intentionally downloaded a "just plain legible" font since Windows comes with so many already.

[AdmFubar]

I've collected font over the years and was stress testing scribus with how many it can recognize, it loses it marbles somewhere after 14,000 entries.

[PatJr]

loses it marbles somewhere after 14,000 entries.

you have over 14,000 fonts! AWESOME!