on-disk documentation is not accessible

[Grzegorz Mazur]

System info:
Description: Ubuntu 19.04
Release: 19.04

Package:
octave:
  Installed: 4.4.1-5
  Candidate: 4.4.1-5
  Version table:
 *** 4.4.1-5 500
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu disco/universe amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

Steps to reproduce:
1. Open octave
2. A message shows:
   Could not copy help collection to temporary file. Search capabilities may be affected. Cannot create index tables in file /usr/share/octave/4.4.1/doc/octave_interpreter.qhc.
3. Choosing Help/Documentation/On Disk results in empty documentation window

Expected behaviour:
1. No warning message on startup
2. Correctly populated documentation window

[Bart (misterbart)]

I have the same problem on a machine where I installed Ubuntu 19.04. On an older machine, which is updated to Ubuntu 19.04 this problem does not occur. So I believe on the older machine the file was copied correctly when initially installing octave.

Execute octave once with sudo seems to fix the problem for some people:
https://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?321255-Gnu-Octave-quot-Could-not-copy-help-collection-to-temporary-file-quot
I have not yet tested this though, I am hoping the bug is resolved with an octave update.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.