Openoffice 1:2.4.1-1ubuntu1 apps crash on "save as" / "open"

[ilpara]

Openoffice.org is a metapackage.
This bug report is valid only for openoffice applications version 1:2.4.1-1ubuntu1 (latest / hardy-updates) , but not for version 1:2.4.0-3ubuntu6 (previous / hardy-security).
Any openoffice application (Writer, Calc, ...) constantly crashes i) when trying to "open" or ii) when trying to "save as" a file and you click to "Browse for other folders". However openoffice does not crash i) when trying just to "save" ii) when trying to "save as" a file to any location in "Save in folder:" without clicking to "Browse for other folders". Even if you kill it with "Force Quit" not only it does not start again unless you restart the pc, but also you cannot shutdown the pc normally and Ctrl+Alt+Backspace is required.
If I run: ":~$ oowriter" or ":~$ oocalc" then "javaldx: Could not find a Java Runtime Environment!" and the program starts.
This bug report is similar to #238628 but it is not identical.
Until solved I have downgraded to openoffice version 1:2.4.0-3ubuntu6.

Additional Info: ubuntu 8.04 / gnome 2.22.2 / openoffice.org 1:2.4.1-1ubuntu1 / main / editors

[Chris Cheney (ccheney)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. However, your crash report is either missing or challenging to deal with as a ".crash" file. Please follow these instructions to have apport report a new bug about your crash that can be dealt with by the automatic retracer.

If you are running the Ubuntu Stable Release you might need to enable apport in /etc/default/apport and restart.

If you are using Ubuntu with the Gnome desktop environment - launch nautilus and navigate to your /var/crash directory and double click on the crash report you wish to submit.
If you are using Kubuntu or Xubuntu you can file the crash using /usr/share/apport/apport-qt --crash-file=/var/crash/_my_crash_report.crash in a terminal - where _my_crash_report.crash is the crash you would like to report.

I'm closing this bug report since the process outlined above will automatically open a new bug report which can then dealt with more efficiently. Thanks in advance for your cooperation and understanding.

[Craig McQueen (cmcqueen1975)]

I'm also encountering this bug with version 1:2.4.1-1ubuntu1 in Hardy. I enabled apport as requested by the previous commenter, and restarted. Then I recreated the crash. But no crash file in /var/crash. Sorry, but I followed the directions as given.

This is a fairly major bug -- it prevents creating any new documents.

[ilpara (paraponiaris)]

Neither did I manage to find the crash file although I followed the directions given.
However a workaround is either to downgrade to version 1:2.4.0-3ubuntu6 or better to remove packages openoffice.org-gnome and openoffice.org-gtk.
Hereunder are the terminal messages during the crash or freezing:
[quote]ip@ipubuntu:~$ oowriter
ip@ipubuntu:~$
ip@ipubuntu:~$ error: duplicate REP tables used
Failure loading aff file /usr/lib/openoffice/share/dict/ooo/en_ZA.aff
*** glibc detected *** /usr/lib/openoffice/program/soffice.bin: free(): invalid next size (normal): 0x080e4b70 ***
======= Backtrace: =========
/lib/tls/i686/cmov/libc.so.6[0xb6770a85]
/lib/tls/i686/cmov/libc.so.6[0xb6772650]
/lib/tls/i686/cmov/libc.so.6(realloc+0x10b)[0xb677475b]
/usr/lib/libfontconfig.so.1[0xb51b203c]
/usr/lib/libfontconfig.so.1[0xb51b2331]
/usr/lib/libfontconfig.so.1[0xb51b2375]
/usr/lib/libfontconfig.so.1[0xb51b2ef2]
/usr/lib/libfontconfig.so.1(FcFontSetSort+0x480)[0xb51bb280]
/usr/lib/libfontconfig.so.1(FcFontSort+0x58)[0xb51bb488]
/usr/lib/libpangoft2-1.0.so.0[0xb515af26]
/usr/lib/libpango-1.0.so.0(pango_font_map_load_fontset+0x50)[0xb5f463f0]
/usr/lib/libpango-1.0.so.0[0xb5f441f7]
/usr/lib/libpango-1.0.so.0(pango_itemize_with_base_dir+0x8d)[0xb5f445dd]
/usr/lib/libpango-1.0.so.0[0xb5f4d6a0]
/usr/lib/libpango-1.0.so.0[0xb5f4ea6d]
/usr/lib/libgtk-x11-2.0.so.0[0xb4dc018a]
/usr/lib/libgobject-2.0.so.0(g_cclosure_marshal_VOID__BOXED+0x5a)[0xb5ea80ba]
/usr/lib/libgobject-2.0.so.0[0xb5e9a079]
/usr/lib/libgobject-2.0.so.0(g_closure_invoke+0x1ff)[0xb5e9b82f]
/usr/lib/libgobject-2.0.so.0[0xb5eaf975]
/usr/lib/libgobject-2.0.so.0(g_signal_emit_valist+0x8c6)[0xb5eb1916]
/usr/lib/libgobject-2.0.so.0(g_signal_emit_by_name+0x122)[0xb5eb1bd2]
/usr/lib/libgtk-x11-2.0.so.0[0xb4e3e536]
/usr/lib/libgtk-x11-2.0.so.0[0xb4e3e76a]
/usr/lib/libgtk-x11-2.0.so.0(gtk_widget_size_request+0x7f)[0xb4ef953f]
/usr/lib/libgtk-x11-2.0.so.0[0xb4ceac0f]
/usr/lib/libgobject-2.0.so.0(g_cclosure_marshal_VOID__BOXED+0x5a)[0xb5ea80ba]
/usr/lib/libgobject-2.0.so.0[0xb5e9a079]
/usr/lib/libgobject-2.0.so.0(g_closure_invoke+0x1ff)[0xb5e9b82f]
/usr/lib/libgobject-2.0.so.0[0xb5eaf975]
/usr/lib/libgobject-2.0.so.0(g_signal_emit_valist+0x8c6)[0xb5eb1916]
/usr/lib/libgobject-2.0.so.0(g_signal_emit_by_name+0x122)[0xb5eb1bd2]
/usr/lib/libgtk-x11-2.0.so.0[0xb4e3e536]
/usr/lib/libgtk-x11-2.0.so.0[0xb4e3e76a]
/usr/lib/libgtk-x11-2.0.so.0(gtk_widget_size_request+0x7f)[0xb4ef953f]
/usr/lib/libgtk-x11-2.0.so.0[0xb4cfd162]
/usr/lib/libgobject-2.0.so.0(g_cclosure_marshal_VOID__BOXED+0x5a)[0xb5ea80ba]
/usr/lib/libgobject-2.0.so.0[0xb5e9a079]
/usr/lib/libgobject-2.0.so.0(g_closure_invoke+0x1ff)[0xb5e9b82f]
/usr/lib/libgobject-2.0.so.0[0xb5eaf975]
/usr/lib/libgobject-2.0.so.0(g_signal_emit_valist+0x8c6)[0xb5eb1916]
/usr/lib/libgobject-2.0.so.0(g_signal_emit_by_name+0x122)[0xb5eb1bd2]
/usr/lib/libgtk-x11-2.0.so.0[0xb4e3e536]
/usr/lib/libgtk-x11-2.0.so.0[0xb4e3e76a]
/usr/lib/libgtk-x11-2.0.so.0(gtk_widget_size_request+0x7f)[0xb4ef953f]
/usr/lib/libgtk-x11-2.0.so.0[0xb4dffa43]
/usr/lib/libgobject-2.0.so.0(g_cclosure_marshal_VOID__BOXED+0x5a)[0xb5ea80ba]
/usr/lib/libgobject-2.0.so.0[0xb5e9a079]
/usr/lib/libgobject-2.0.so.0(g_closure...

[Craig McQueen (cmcqueen1975)]

Thanks for noting the work-around. Note that it stops SCIM input from working (Japanese in my case).

I'm interested in the downgrade option, but openoffice.org is split into numerous packages so I don't know how to do that.

[ilpara (paraponiaris)]

To downgrade:
1. Go to Synaptic -> Settings -> Repositories -> Updates and select only hardy-security (the 1st option), nothing else, in order to have available the older version 1:2.4.0-3ubuntu6.
2. Reload repositories. Version 1:2.4.1-1ubuntu1 is no more available.
3. Go to Synaptic -> Search with keyword "openoffice.org" and remove all relevant packages (version 1:2.4.1-1ubuntu1).
4. Then reinstall them (version 1:2.4.0-3ubuntu6).
Please also note that this bug cannot be reproduced in any computer/installation and I have not found out what is the exact cause of this malfunction.
Any advise how to investigate this bug would be helpful.

[vis_a_viz (eyma-nerd)]

I'm having the same problem, but switching to the OpenOffice.org open/save dialogs seems to have helped a lot (Tools->Options->OpenOffice.org/General->Use OpenOffice.org dialogs)

Hope that helps!

[Craig McQueen (cmcqueen1975)]

ilpara -- as for how to investigate this bug, here are two ideas:

1) Compare the output of "dpkg -l" (or whatever the command is to list installed packages and versions) on "good" and "bad" installations.

2) Someone tell us how to get a crash trace from OpenOffice (since the instructions for using apport didn't work).

I'm an embedded software engineer which means I know the theory and practice of debugging on embedded platforms, but I've never really done programming/debugging for Linux so far.

The only package I can think of that may be "unusual" in my installation is java. I've been trying to get jEdit, JBidWatcher and Firefox java plugins working, and I've got strange results from a few of the packages I've installed (icedtea, java5, java6 something like that). But it seems unlikely that the Open/Save As dialog boxes would have anything to do with java. But I'll try a few things and see if I can uncover anything useful.

[Craig McQueen (cmcqueen1975)]

I'm changing the bug status back to "New" since "Incomplete" is apparently not the right status.

[Craig McQueen (cmcqueen1975)]

1) I've confirmed the report that switching to the OpenOffice.org open/save dialogs avoids the bug. Hopefully this narrows down the issue.
2) I've tried disabling Java in OpenOffice settings. Didn't help.
3) I've run strace:
    strace -f ooffice -norestore &>/tmp/ooo4.log
Then I did File->Open and it crashed. The resulting file is attached. Interestingly, once when I did an strace, it didn't crash. But only once.
Is there someone who can make sense of the strace log?

[Claude Paroz (paroz)]

Confronted with same bug. No more hints, though :-(

[Marcus Asshauer (mcas)]

Due to the last reports i mark this bug as confirmed.

[Simos Xenitellis  (simosx)]

It looks like the issue relates to the GNOME integration work (package: openoffice.org-gnome).

When you click on Open or Save As, you get a dialog box that comes from GNOME. It does not appear to be Java related.

[Chris Cheney (ccheney)]

Does upgrading to openoffice.org 1:2.4.1-1ubuntu2 from hardy-proposed fix this problem for you?

Thanks,

Chris Cheney

[Craig McQueen (cmcqueen1975)]

I was not familiar about how to upgrade from hardy-proposed, so I didn't.

Now openoffice.org 1:2.4.1-1ubuntu2 is available in the mainstream hardy repository. I've upgraded to it, and it does indeed seem to fix the issue. So I guess this bug can be closed, unless someone else is still having problems.