Qubes vm's don't seem to allow Libreoffice preferences

General Discussion
1

Qubes 4.1 with Debian-based qubes and LibreOffice installed.

Having used LibreOffice for quite a while pre-Qubes, I am finding the inability to set global LibreOffice preferences in Qubes vm’s confusing, especially non-maximized windows and LibreOffice printer preferences, to be used when LibreOffice opens. Pre-Qubes I would close LibreOffice Writer with a non-maximized window and also with the printer prefs set to Print Quality draft and Print Resolution 150 DPI x 150 DPI. On restarting LibreOffice Writer, those settings would be set as default.

However in Qubes vm’s (such as the default Personal vm) every time Writer opens screen size is set to maximum and printer settings are standard and automatic defaults.

What I have tried to alter this behaviour:
-Open Writer in a vm such as Personal, unmaximize the screen, set to desired size, open an existing file or make a new file, open printer properties-devices and set Quality to Draft and Resolution to 150 x 150, save and close. Then close the vm, reopen the vm, start up Writer and I’m unfortunately back to maximized screen and Normal/Auto print properties for those same files.
-Open the Debian-11hvm and repeat the same procedure as above, hoping for the desired prefs to transfer over, when the Personal vm is subsequently started up. Still no joy I’m afraid.

Maybe I should mention, that in Firefox I can successfully transfer print settings to the next-opened session of the vm through the Qubes-Printer Settings in the Qubes menu for my localhost printer. Is it possible to overcome this snag somehow for Writer?

2

You might try creating a standalone based on the same template to see if the settings are preserved. Then you will know if it’s a LibreOffice issue or a Qubes issue. If they are preserved in the standalone, it might just be a matter of using bind-dirs in the appVM to make the setting persist (depending on where settings are saved).

[edit: wait… is that what you meant by “Debian-11hvm”? A standalone?]

3

Thanks for your reply. I will create a standalone based on the Debian-11hvm template, attempt to see if settings can be preserved and will report back. No, my debian-11hvm template was based off a cloned debian-11 template from the initial Qubes installation.

it might just be a matter of using bind-dirs in the appVM to make the setting persist (depending on where settings are saved )
If I need to go this final route, I may need some help with this one. Hopefully there’s some clarity with the standalone. cheers

4

Unfortunately a standalone vm doesn’t solve the problem. Upon opening the vm, it “insists” on opening LibreOffice fully maximized. Also the print quality and resolution are also back at default settings.