Image Viewer shows only blank screen

Rene_Thomas

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Screenshot from Image Viewer 2018-07-02 18-27-15.png
Hi !

Does anyone know why my Image Viewer program won't display jpeg files?

Much of the time, only a blank screen is shown, although other times it works normally.

Above is a screenshot taken from the program when it is misbehaving:

open

I am using Ubuntu 16.04 LTS on a HP-Compaq NC-6220

Any help will be most appreciated.
 


Hi Rene! Sorry I have not had much time to investigate what might be going on with your image viewer. I think the "View" menu might have an option to "Reload"... have you tried that? I might also try to "Rotate" one direction or another to see if it appears, then rotate back as necessary. I'd also take a peek in "Edit > Preferences" (assuming that you have such an option) to see if there is any setting in there that could perhaps be changed to help the problem.

It is strange since you say it works for some JPEG's but not others. Have you noticed whether the file size of the photo might make a difference? Like small photos work, but large photos fail? That might hint at a memory issue.

Gotta run. Check back soon if I can.

Cheers
 
Hi Rene & welcome to linux.org :p

To add to what good friend Stan (@atanere ) has said -

In your Ubuntu, the default viewer is eog - Eye Of GNOME.

If I am not mistaken, you are at that time in a Folder, perhaps Pictures, perhaps other, containing 122 files, jpegs all, perhaps? And the one you screenshotted is number 33, size 4.4MB. Eog is defaulting with it to 17% size/view.

You can hold down your Ctrl key, and click your plus sign or minus sign repeatedly, and the viewing aspect will change, try that and see what you find and report back.

Cheers

Chris Turner
wizardfromoz
 
Thanks, both of you, for giving this your time and attention.

Chris, I had wondered what "Eye of GNOME" was, and your investigative skills in ascertaining how many files were in that folder would be worthy of Columbo. However, enlarging the photos doesn't make them visible.

Atanere, the answer seems to lie more in what you suggest. It seems the program will only display jpegs that are smaller in file size, perhaps below 4MB. There isn't anything in the Preferences menus that can help. I will try using the GIMP image editor (which I am having to use to display the images anyway) to reduce the resolution of the images, and hence the file size. It doesn't seem to make them more blurry. They should be OK to load up with EoG after that.

It does seem an awkward approach though, as GIMP is clumsier to load the images up with.
 
I will try using the GIMP image editor (which I am having to use to display the images anyway) to reduce the resolution of the images, and hence the file size.
Hi Rene! Reducing the resolution of the photo will indeed reduce the file size, but I would avoid that if possible unless you are working with a copy of your original photo. Quality lost can never be recovered. While it may look okay on screen... the degradation may show more when printing, especially if trying to make a large print.

I remember not long ago you were looking to uninstall some of the built-in apps on your laptop because space was running low. These computer specs from CNET, if accurate for your computer, show only 512 MB of RAM was typical. But says it could be upgraded to 2 GB of RAM. If you haven't upgraded to 2 GB already, this would be an enormous improvement to your system. I think with careful shopping it would only cost about $10-15 (USD) to do this. But sometimes RAM is very easy to change, and sometimes it can be more difficult... so if you are interested, we can also investigate how the procedure would go for you.

A couple of other suggestions: 1) Try to shutdown all other programs while you want to view the large photos. That may allow enough memory for them to load. 2) Increasing SWAP space on the hard drive might help. But if your hard drive is still nearly full, it might be risky to change partition sizes to increase SWAP. 3) Since GIMP seems to still work to load them, why not use it as your default photo viewer instead? Then you need only double-click on any JPEG file and it would simply open up in GIMP and you wouldn't have to judge file size every time.

Looking further down the road, when you start to think about upgrading Ubuntu.... I think I would really suggest that you consider some other distros that would run better on this laptop, unless you decide to retire it altogether. The RAM upgrade would help Ubuntu a lot, but some other distros would, I believe, run much better for you.

There may be some other tricks that Wizard or others may share to help with the immediate problem.
 
Morning all

(Wizard appears in a puff of smoke, brandishing nearly empty 2nd coffee cup, wipes sleep out of eyes)

I think Stan is right on the money regarding RAM, I have only just taken a gander at the HP's specs. Its configuration is not unlike that which my wife Elaine is using, a Compaq Presario C300, 512MB RAM, 60GB HDD. On hers, I have 4 Linux running, with the 3 best performers being LXLE, MX-17, and Peach OSI BB (Bare Bones). Linux Lite would also run well on your unit.

I also have both Linux Lite, and a 32-bit version of LXLE on my Toshiba Satellite for appraisal for Members in your circumstances.

The RAM usage on bootup and entry to the desktop ie at idle, is about 390 - 400MB for both Linux Lite and MX-17. Take a look below, though, at the screenshot I have just taken from the System Monitor ala Conky, expanded, that LXLE have top right-side of their panel:


naHliuC.png


...now if you take the two (2) figures illustrated on RAM usage, it is using somewhere from 204 - 246MB only, at rest - that is hard to beat for a lightweight Distro?

Just be aware that if you go trying LXLE Live, ie on USB or DVD, there is an inbuilt screensaver which I have yet to come to grips with, with a Password even on the Live. Its not LXLE, User, Linux, Root or Admin &c, may be "qwerty" but check in advance :D

On the subject of GIMPing, Rene - JPEGs are renowned for a "lossiness" when scaled or converted, but GIMP is the best I have seen for preserving the clarity of resolution. You could also export, within GIMP, the files to .png, and then work from there.

Just a few ideas.

Cheers

Wizard
 
Dear atanere and Wizard,

From past exchanges, atanere became aware of how limited my competence with Linux (and computers in general) was, and I can tell you it hasn't increased much since then.

I had been looking into switching distros to Linux Mint, and I was getting nowhere fast working out how to do it. Eventually I decided I was only persevering with it out of a sense of pride, so I gave up trying.

What I do know is that switching distros is something that would take me quite a bit of time and research, so I don't know whether that is going to happen. Working out whether to and how to increase the RAM of the SWAP space is another thing that is beyond my capacities at present. It took me a lot of effort to work out what a SWAP partition is, and I forgot all but a vague impression.

What you tell me about reducing resolution is a handy tip that will serve me well in future I am sure, though.

As for making GIMP my default image viewer, that would make sense, but I am not sure that there is a function allowing you to quickly move between images in the same folder the way Image Viewer and its windows equivalents do.

Thanks for the tips anyway, both of you.

May your skills in Linux never falter !
 
Your computer skills are fine, Rene! But the computer is more just a "tool" for you... it is expected to do the basic tasks you need in your daily life (like photo management, banking, etc). And it should just work when needed, without a lot of geekness necessary. (Is "geekness" a word? I also thought of "geekery!" And a lot of us here suffer from severe Geekus Maximus! :D)

As I see things, it is just about time that you need to think about getting a more modern computer to keep up with those basic tasks, if you can put it into your budget. You've probably upgraded your phone (and using it to take those 4MB size photos). Upgrading the RAM and hard drive on this laptop would be cheaper and would help for a time, but sometimes it is better to take that upgrade money and instead put it towards a newer system. Not that you have to get the newest and latest-greatest stuff... and not even necessarily brand new. But a more modern system could get you into a "comfortable" computer position... to run Windows, if you wish (I hope not!) or to run Linux more easily. Or maybe to run both!

But all roads lead to a bit of work or hassle to make any serious change. Even setting up a new computer and bringing over stuff from the old one may not be fun when you aren't in the same geek-world as some of us. But we will be glad to help you along in any way that we can, and I think you know that too. All the best, my friend!

Cheers
 

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