libreoffice do not start, even after complete reinstalling

[Pietro Donatis]

I am using ubuntu 17.10
and the problem is in libreoffice5.

the logo of libreoffice5 appears for a few seconds then disappears without starting the program;
this happens with every package.

I am not sure this is a bug, but I have not found any solution of this problem anywhere.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 17.10
Package: libreoffice-calc 1:5.4.2-0ubuntu0.17.10.1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.13.0-17.20-generic 4.13.8
Uname: Linux 4.13.0-17-generic i686
ApportVersion: 2.20.7-0ubuntu3.5
Architecture: i386
CurrentDesktop: GNOME-Flashback:GNOME
Date: Wed Nov 22 13:11:30 2017
InstallationDate: Installed on 2013-04-30 (1666 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.04.2 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Release i386 (20130213)
SourcePackage: libreoffice
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Olivier Tilloy (osomon)]

Thanks for the report Pietro.
Can you please run libreoffice from a terminal, and share here the output?

    > libreoffice

[Olivier Tilloy (osomon)]

Also, was this happening with version 5.4.1, or is it a regression introduced by version 5.4.2 from artful-proposed?

[Pietro Donatis (pietrodonatis)]

No output,
just the green logo of libreoffice5 for a few seconds.

As for the other question: no, the problem began after the last update
of a few days ago (maybe yesterday...)

I realized that maybe the problem is that my ubuntu runs on a 32-bit SO;
but basic applications such as libreoffice should keep running without
problems even
on old devices.

Thanks for your attention.

Pietro

Il 22. 11. 17 21:56, Olivier Tilloy ha scritto:
> Thanks for the report Pietro.
> Can you please run libreoffice from a terminal, and share here the output?
>
> > libreoffice
>

[Olivier Tilloy (osomon)]

I am not seeing the issue in an up-to-date i386 artful VM with -proposed enabled.

Can you please try downgrading libreoffice and related packages to version 1:5.4.1-0ubuntu1 and let us know if then the applications launch.

Are there any related crash files under /var/crash/ ?

[Pietro Donatis (pietrodonatis)]

Yes. I have found a crash file.
About the downgrading I will try and do it.

Il 23. 11. 17 07:45, Olivier Tilloy ha scritto:
> I am not seeing the issue in an up-to-date i386 artful VM with -proposed
> enabled.
>
> Can you please try downgrading libreoffice and related packages to
> version 1:5.4.1-0ubuntu1 and let us know if then the applications
> launch.
>
> Are there any related crash files under /var/crash/ ?
>

[Pietro Donatis (pietrodonatis)]

I succeded in downgrading to version 5.4.1.1 and it is perfectly
functioning.

Il 23. 11. 17 07:45, Olivier Tilloy ha scritto:
> I am not seeing the issue in an up-to-date i386 artful VM with -proposed
> enabled.
>
> Can you please try downgrading libreoffice and related packages to
> version 1:5.4.1-0ubuntu1 and let us know if then the applications
> launch.
>
> Are there any related crash files under /var/crash/ ?
>

[Pietro Donatis (pietrodonatis)]

But it did not last long;
after the third time I used it, libreoffice repeated the same problem;
it appears very unstable.

Il 23. 11. 17 07:45, Olivier Tilloy ha scritto:
> I am not seeing the issue in an up-to-date i386 artful VM with -proposed
> enabled.
>
> Can you please try downgrading libreoffice and related packages to
> version 1:5.4.1-0ubuntu1 and let us know if then the applications
> launch.
>
> Are there any related crash files under /var/crash/ ?
>

[Olivier Tilloy (osomon)]

Unfortunately that crash file is not very helpful:

Thread 1 (Thread 0xaf827980 (LWP 5793)):
#0 0xa9f54ab5 in ?? ()
Backtrace stopped: Cannot access memory at address 0xbf3affe0

Can you try running libreoffice in gdb to trigger the crash and get a proper backtrace? You would need to install debug symbols for libreoffice (sudo apt install libreoffice-core-dbgsym), see https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Debug%20Symbol%20Packages for info on how to do that.

[Olivier Tilloy (osomon)]

Can you also try running libreoffice with a clean, temporary user profile, and see if the crash happens?

    libreoffice -env:UserInstallation=file:///tmp/test

[Olivier Tilloy (osomon)]

Another direction for investigation: is this crashing when opening a specific file, or with any file? Or even simply when running the libreoffice launcher?

I'm asking because the crash file mentions that it was generated by the following command:

    /usr/lib/libreoffice/program/soffice.bin --calc file:///home/pietro/.cache/.fr-

It could be that the command is truncated, and it suggests that it's trying to open a file from a temporary extraction directory created by file-roller. I'm wondering if the crash happens when opening a file from your home directory instead (e.g. ~/Documents).

[Olivier Tilloy (osomon)]

@Pietro: did you get a chance to test what I suggested? Your feedback would be very much appreciated!

[Pietro Donatis (pietrodonatis)]

with a new clean user the crash does not happen.

Il 28. 11. 17 09:35, Olivier Tilloy ha scritto:
> Can you also try running libreoffice with a clean, temporary user
> profile, and see if the crash happens?
>
> libreoffice -env:UserInstallation=file:///tmp/test
>

[Pietro Donatis (pietrodonatis)]

the crash happens with any file and also with the libreoffice launcher

Il 28. 11. 17 09:45, Olivier Tilloy ha scritto:
> Another direction for investigation: is this crashing when opening a
> specific file, or with any file? Or even simply when running the
> libreoffice launcher?
>
> I'm asking because the crash file mentions that it was generated by the
> following command:
>
> /usr/lib/libreoffice/program/soffice.bin --calc
> file:///home/pietro/.cache/.fr-
>
> It could be that the command is truncated, and it suggests that it's
> trying to open a file from a temporary extraction directory created by
> file-roller. I'm wondering if the crash happens when opening a file from
> your home directory instead (e.g. ~/Documents).
>

[Olivier Tilloy (osomon)]

> with a new clean user the crash does not happen

Thanks for the feedback Pietro!
Can you try one more thing please? What's the output of

    grep enabled ~/.config/libreoffice/4/user/config/javasettings_Linux_*.xml

If it looks like:

    <enabled xsi:nil="true"/>

Can you change it to:

    <enabled xsi:nil="false">false</enabled>

And see if that makes the crash go away?

[Pietro Donatis (pietrodonatis)]

yes, the output is

<enabled xsi:nil="true"/>

but how can I change it?
please, be aware that I do not know what I am doing, I barely follow
your instructions.

Il 04. 12. 17 18:21, Olivier Tilloy ha scritto:
>> with a new clean user the crash does not happen
> Thanks for the feedback Pietro!
> Can you try one more thing please? What's the output of
>
> grep enabled
> ~/.config/libreoffice/4/user/config/javasettings_Linux_*.xml
>
> If it looks like:
>
> <enabled xsi:nil="true"/>
>
> Can you change it to:
>
> <enabled xsi:nil="false">false</enabled>
>
> And see if that makes the crash go away?
>

[Olivier Tilloy (osomon)]

Try the following command:

    sed -i '/enabled/c\<enabled xsi:nil="false">false<\/enabled>' ~/.config/libreoffice/4/user/config/javasettings_Linux_*.xml

Then execute libreoffice and let me know if the crash is still happening. Thanks!

[Pietro Donatis (pietrodonatis)]

The command you suggested has fixed the problem.
Everything seems okay now.
Libreoffice works running the launcher and opening different kind of files.
I am glad you worked it out.
Have you understood if I did something wrong that caused the problem?
Anyway, I thank you very much.
Pietro

Il 04. 12. 17 23:03, Olivier Tilloy ha scritto:
> Try the following command:
>
> sed -i '/enabled/c\<enabled xsi:nil="false">false<\/enabled>'
> ~/.config/libreoffice/4/user/config/javasettings_Linux_*.xml
>
> Then execute libreoffice and let me know if the crash is still
> happening. Thanks!
>

[Olivier Tilloy (osomon)]

Glad to know that this fixed the issue for you. For your information, this simply disabled java in libreoffice. There is a known java crash on x86 processors, which is fixed in openjdk 9.
I am now going to close this report as a duplicate of bug #1699772.
Thanks again for the report and for your prompt feedback.

[Olivier Tilloy (osomon)]

Note that I don't have a good explanation for why this started happening after updating to 5.4.2. If java was already enabled in libreoffice before, you should have been affected by the crash already. And if not, it's unexpected that applying the update should enable java on its own…

[Olivier Tilloy (osomon)]

I just checked in a clean artful VM, and by default java is enabled in libreoffice (but not functioning until openjdk is installed).
I'm guessing that what happened is that something pulled in openjdk when you installed upgrades.
I also verified that upgrading libreoffice from artful-proposed doesn't install openjdk if it wasn't there.