Bug 6562 – kghostview does not open *ANY* pdf files

• Status: RESOLVED FIXED
• Product: Gentoo Linux

[Description Navreet Gill 2002-08-15 23:03:13 UTC]

kghostview does not open or preview any pdf files.

When asked to open, it'll just sit there w/ a blank window.

here's some output that might help:
(i got this output when i ran kghostview from the shell) and then i did a
file->open and selected a pdf file

KDirWatch::removeDir can't handle 'Desktop/PDFfiles/OpenGLPerf.pdf'

[Comment 1 Navreet Gill 2002-08-15 23:39:59 UTC]

oops... it does show the full path, just not Desktop/PDFFiles/filename.pdf...
but /home/username/Desktop/PDFFiles/filename.pdf

[Comment 2 Ryan Phillips (RETIRED) 2002-08-18 21:49:33 UTC]

I can recreate this...  maybe Dan has an idea.

[Comment 3 Dan Armak (RETIRED) 2002-08-31 14:33:53 UTC]

I'm sorry, I can't recreate it. kghostview opens pdfs perfectly well here. 
What version of ghostscript are you using? (desperate, but I've no real idea 
as to why this could be happening... maybe a thorough google would help?) 

[Comment 4 Cedric Veilleux 2002-09-04 00:29:54 UTC]

I has exactly the same problem until I entered "gs" as the interpreter field  of Settings / Configure KGhostView / Ghostscript. The field was empty.    Things seems to be working now excepted for the fonts which are ugly. I might  need to add some things in the  Antialiasing argument field but "man gs" didn't help me... 

[Comment 5 Dan Armak (RETIRED) 2002-09-04 13:20:19 UTC]

Cedric: thanks for the tip, that makes sense. Do you have any idea why on some 
configurations the default/working value of 'gs' isn't filled in? 
 
Navreet: please test Cedric's suggestion. 

[Comment 6 Cedric Veilleux 2002-09-05 22:50:04 UTC]

I had this problem only with kghostview from kde 3.1 alpha / beta.  No idea what is causing it. The "kghostviewrc" should be filled with default values but is not.  If someone with a working kghostscript tell me what they have under "Antialiasing arguments", we could have a complete workaround for this bug. Without antialiasing fonts, Kghostview is no good.   

[Comment 7 Dan Armak (RETIRED) 2002-09-07 06:47:05 UTC]

Cedric, I have:   
Non-antialiasing arguments="-sDEVICE=x11"  
Antialiasing arguments="-sDEVICE=x11 -dTextAlphaBits=4 -dGraphicsAlphaBits=2 
-dMaxBitmap=10000000" 
 
Can you try the cvs ebuilds? Does it still happen there? 

[Comment 8 Cédric Paquot 2002-09-19 12:39:58 UTC]

I'm using kde 3.1 beta 1 and I've got the same problem. There isn't any 
/usr/kde/3.1/share/config/kghostviewrc, nor in the user's home directory. 
 
I had to put "gs" in the configuration of kghostview. I tried the settings of 
Dan for AA but the fonts are still ugly. 

[Comment 9 Cedric Veilleux 2002-09-19 14:42:04 UTC]

With Dan's Anti-aliasing arguments, everything works perfectly.  
  
Make sure you check "Enable anti-aliasing of fonts and images"! 
 
I experienced this problem in kde3_alpha1, kde3_beta1 and now the latest kde 
cvs. 
 

[Comment 10 Dan Armak (RETIRED) 2002-09-20 07:07:17 UTC]

If I remove my own kghostviewrc, these gs-related settings aren't filled in 
automatically when I run kghostview again, and gs files aren't displayed. this, 
in combination with the fact that there's no global ghostviewrc installed by 
default, is a bug and I'll file it with the kde guys. 

[Comment 11 Dan Armak (RETIRED) 2002-09-20 08:43:43 UTC]

OK, a less hasty response:    
In the gs configure dialog is a "Configure" button that fills in these values   
for the interpreter and parameters. It's broken in beta1, but fixed in fairly   
recent cvs. Use that instead of copying other peoples' settings, since I've no  
idea how optimal settings change from system to system.  
  
I've submitted a feature-request-class report on bugs.kde.org (#48084) asking   
that this gs-detection code be run automatically if no previous config exists.   
   
I believe this can now be closed? 

[Comment 12 Hannes Mehnert (RETIRED) 2002-10-23 10:25:25 UTC]

This was on gentoo-desktop, maybe it will help (just don't wanted to loose this) 
  
By default kghostview isn't configured, so it cannot render ps/pdf files.           
                                                                                    
One solution would be to put a kghostviewrc file (below) in                         
/usr/kde/3/share/config by default.                                                 
                                                                                    
Charlie                                                                             
                                                                                    
# Below is a sample kghostviewrc file                                               
[General]                                                                           
Antialiasing=true                                                                   
Interpreter=gs                                                                      
Messages=false                                                                      
Palette=color                                                                       
Platform fonts=false                                                                
ShowPageList=true                                                                   
ShowPageNames=false                                                                 
ShowScrollBars=true                                                                 
WatchFile=false                                                                     
                                                                                    
[Ghostscript]                                                                       
Antialiasing arguments=-sDEVICE=x11 -dTextAlphaBits=4 -dGraphicsAlphaBits=2   
-dMaxBitmap=10000000                                                              
Interpreter=gs                                                                     
Non-antialiasing arguments=-sDEVICE=x11                                            
                                                                                   
[KFileDialog Speedbar]                                                             
Speedbar IconSize=32                                                               
                                                                                   
[MainWindow]                                                                       
Height 1024=572                                                                    
MenuBar=Enabled                                                                    
StatusBar=Enabled                                                                  
Width 1280=824                                                                     
                                                                                   
[MainWindow Toolbar mainToolBar]                                                   
Hidden=false                                                                       
IconSize=22                                                                        
IconText=IconOnly                                                                  
Index=0                                                                            
NewLine=false                                                                      
Offset=-1                                                                          
Position=Top               

[Comment 13 gtonic 2002-11-12 15:39:07 UTC]

Bug 9782 seems to be a duplicate of this one. 
Actually this works fine, why isn't the kghostviewrc file included yet?

[Comment 14 Dan Armak (RETIRED) 2002-11-22 04:42:38 UTC]

*** Bug 9782 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

[Comment 15 Dan Armak (RETIRED) 2002-11-22 11:47:06 UTC]

OK, the kdegraphics-3.0.4 ebuild now installs a edfault system-wide kghostviewrc. 
Sorry this took so long...