Can not save files to NAS cifs - needs nobrl or disable locking

[DaveHowes]

Binary package hint: openoffice.org

Ubuntu Karmic - recent upgrade from Jaunty - also moved from Gnome to KDE

Open Office under KDE can't save files to my Maxtor NAS drive. If I navigate to a file, all the folder names are displayed as numbers rather than letters. If I try to create a new file on the the NAS drive, an empty file is created, and then Open Office displays a General IO error.

OpenOffice continues to work correctly if I switch the desktop to Gnome

--

A little more info - in the cases described above, I was connecting to the
NAS using the "Network / Samba Shares" option in the Open Office file
manager.

I also have the files system mounted using the following entry in fstab

/MAXTOR/GREENOCK /media/network/greenock cifs
credentials=/root/.smbcredentials,iocharset=utf8,file_mode=0777,dir_mode=0777
0 0

If I access the files via the mount point, I can update an existing file,
but "SaveAs" gives a General Input/Ouput error, and creates an empty file
with the correct name

--

ccheney - note

This appears to be an issue with kernel cifs mounting possibly with mand option, versus when using gnome and gvfs-fuse which does not use regular cifs method to access files. This does not appear to be KDE specific. Try using the cifs nobrl option to see if this helps.

--

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: amd64
Date: Sat Nov 21 21:44:02 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
Package: openoffice.org-core 1:3.1.1-5ubuntu1 [modified: var/lib/openoffice/basis3.1/program/services.rdb]
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-14.48-generic
SourcePackage: openoffice.org
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-14-generic x86_64

[Dan Buhrman (dan-buhrman)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. Are you able to save the file somewhere on your local hard drive, and then copy the files over to your NAS afterwards? Or, is it any time you attempt to save files to your NAS?

[DaveHowes (howesda)]

I can save to the desktop and then copy and paste to the NAS using dolphin

If I try to open a file using the file manager in OpenOffice I get a message
that says "You can only select local files"

Same thing seems to be happening if I create a new file on OpenOffice and
then try to save to the NAS - this isn't what was happening previously ....

Dave

2009/11/21 dvlchd3 <email address hidden>

> Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make
> Ubuntu better. Are you able to save the file somewhere on your local
> hard drive, and then copy the files over to your NAS afterwards? Or, is
> it any time you attempt to save files to your NAS?
>
> ** Changed in: openoffice.org (Ubuntu)
> Status: New => Incomplete
>
> --
> Open Office Word Processor can not save files to NAS write
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/486443
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>
> Status in “openoffice.org” package in Ubuntu: Incomplete
>
> Bug description:
> Binary package hint: openoffice.org
>
> Ubuntu Karmic - recent upgrade from Jaunty - also moved from Gnome to KDE
>
> Open Office under KDE can't save files to my Maxtor NAS drive. If I
> navigate to a file, all the folder names are displayed as numbers rather
> than letters. If I try to create a new file on the the NAS drive, an empty
> file is created, and then Open Office displays a General IO error.
>
> OpenOffice continues to work correctly if I switch the desktop to Gnome
>
> ProblemType: Bug
> Architecture: amd64
> Date: Sat Nov 21 21:44:02 2009
> DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
> Package: openoffice.org-core 1:3.1.1-5ubuntu1 [modified:
> var/lib/openoffice/basis3.1/program/services.rdb]
> ProcEnviron:
> LANGUAGE=
> PATH=(custom, user)
> LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
> SHELL=/bin/bash
> ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-14.48-generic
> SourcePackage: openoffice.org
> Uname: Linux 2.6.31-14-generic x86_64
>

[DaveHowes (howesda)]

A little more info - in the cases described above, I was connecting to the
NAS using the "Network / Samba Shares" option in the Open Office file
manager.

I also have the files system mounted using the following entry in fstab

/MAXTOR/GREENOCK /media/network/greenock cifs
credentials=/root/.smbcredentials,iocharset=utf8,file_mode=0777,dir_mode=0777
0 0

If I access the files via the mount point, I can update an existing file,
but "SaveAs" gives a General Input/Ouput error, and creates an empty file
with the correct name

Dave

2009/11/21 Dave Howes <email address hidden>

> I can save to the desktop and then copy and paste to the NAS using dolphin
>
> If I try to open a file using the file manager in OpenOffice I get a
> message that says "You can only select local files"
>
> Same thing seems to be happening if I create a new file on OpenOffice and
> then try to save to the NAS - this isn't what was happening previously ....
>
> Dave
>
> 2009/11/21 dvlchd3 <email address hidden>
>
> Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make
>> Ubuntu better. Are you able to save the file somewhere on your local
>> hard drive, and then copy the files over to your NAS afterwards? Or, is
>> it any time you attempt to save files to your NAS?
>>
>> ** Changed in: openoffice.org (Ubuntu)
>> Status: New => Incomplete
>>
>> --
>> Open Office Word Processor can not save files to NAS write
>> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/486443
>> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
>> of the bug.
>>
>> Status in “openoffice.org” package in Ubuntu: Incomplete
>>
>> Bug description:
>> Binary package hint: openoffice.org
>>
>> Ubuntu Karmic - recent upgrade from Jaunty - also moved from Gnome to KDE
>>
>> Open Office under KDE can't save files to my Maxtor NAS drive. If I
>> navigate to a file, all the folder names are displayed as numbers rather
>> than letters. If I try to create a new file on the the NAS drive, an empty
>> file is created, and then Open Office displays a General IO error.
>>
>> OpenOffice continues to work correctly if I switch the desktop to Gnome
>>
>> ProblemType: Bug
>> Architecture: amd64
>> Date: Sat Nov 21 21:44:02 2009
>> DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
>> Package: openoffice.org-core 1:3.1.1-5ubuntu1 [modified:
>> var/lib/openoffice/basis3.1/program/services.rdb]
>> ProcEnviron:
>> LANGUAGE=
>> PATH=(custom, user)
>> LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
>> SHELL=/bin/bash
>> ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-14.48-generic
>> SourcePackage: openoffice.org
>> Uname: Linux 2.6.31-14-generic x86_64
>>
>
>

[Dan Buhrman (dan-buhrman)]

Found bug report upstream: http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=93957

[Chris Cheney (ccheney)]

Does using 'nomand' resolve this problem for anyone? I noticed most/all of the complaints were about using cifs with 'mand' which is 'Allow mandatory locks on this filesystem.' which may be somehow causing the problem. If it is that will probably help the developers to fix the problem.

[Chris Cheney (ccheney)]

Actually if that is the cause it is probably a bug in the cifs/kernel related bits not OOo.

From man 2 fcntl:

   Mandatory locking
       (Non-POSIX.) The above record locks may be either advisory or manda‐
       tory, and are advisory by default.

       Advisory locks are not enforced and are useful only between cooperating
       processes.

       Mandatory locks are enforced for all processes. If a process tries to
       perform an incompatible access (e.g., read(2) or write(2)) on a file
       region that has an incompatible mandatory lock, then the result depends
       upon whether the O_NONBLOCK flag is enabled for its open file descrip‐
       tion. If the O_NONBLOCK flag is not enabled, then system call is
       blocked until the lock is removed or converted to a mode that is com‐
       patible with the access. If the O_NONBLOCK flag is enabled, then the
       system call fails with the error EAGAIN.

       To make use of mandatory locks, mandatory locking must be enabled both
       on the file system that contains the file to be locked, and on the file
       itself. Mandatory locking is enabled on a file system using the "-o
       mand" option to mount(8), or the MS_MANDLOCK flag for mount(2). Manda‐
       tory locking is enabled on a file by disabling group execute permission
       on the file and enabling the set-group-ID permission bit (see chmod(1)
       and chmod(2)).

       The Linux implementation of mandatory locking is unreliable. See BUGS
       below.

[Chris Cheney (ccheney)]

Does the cifs 'nobrl' option help anyone with this bug? I have heard early reports this might work.

[Chris Cheney (ccheney)]

If setting nobrl works, then I think I know of a workaround that doesn't require using nobrl long term. There is a check in /usr/lib/openoffice/program/soffice to disable locking on network filesystems due to locking often breaking that doesn't currently check for cifs.

[Piotr Kujawski (elektrownia)]

The 'nobrl' option for cifs works for me on three wotkstations.

[DSHR (s-heuer)]

We are using nobrl in a production environment with 3k workstations.

This fixed also problems with CIFS clients on low bandwidth connections. There a kernel bug led to corrupted files by race conditions between application writes and the kernel flushing buffers in kernel mode - without looking at the locks by the application write (different writing processes).

Maybe that is fixed in newer kernels ...

[Marco Giorgetti (midimarcus)]

I've added nobrl options to cifs mount and it works for me, too.

[PseHouri (psehouri)]

It works for us too !!! thankx !!!

[bart (bart-wp)]

The 'nobrl' option for cifs works for me, thank you.

[Björn Michaelsen (bjoern-michaelsen)]

No new OOo releases in Ubuntu => Wont fix
Needs upstream bug reference in LibreOffice => Incomplete

[penalvch (penalvch)]

DaveHowes, is this an issue for you in LibreOffice? If using Lucid or Maverick feel free to type at the Terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:libreoffice/ppa && sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get -y upgrade && sudo apt-get -y install libreoffice-writer

[Michael Lueck (mlueck)]

I tried following your steps to install LibreOffice on a recently loaded 10.04 system. I wanted to install the entire suite, not just writer so I tried selecting libreoffice in Aptitude. That results in the following error:

libreoffice:

 Depends: libreoffice-core but it is not going to be installed

 Depends: libreoffice-writer but it is not going to be installed

 Depends: libreoffice-calc but it is not going to be installed

 Depends: libreoffice-impress but it is not going to be installed

 Depends: libreoffice-draw but it is not going to be installed

 Depends: libreoffice-math but it is not going to be installed

 Depends: libreoffice-base but it is not going to be installed

 Depends: libreoffice-report-builder-bin but it is not going to be installed

 Depends: libreoffice-filter-mobiledev but it is not going to be installed

 Depends: libreoffice-java-common but it is not going to be installed

This is after it comes up with an additional changes dialog stating that OpenOffice related packages will be removed.

So, that must not be complete steps to transition form OO to LO. Could you please elaborate further? Thanks!

[Michael Lueck (mlueck)]

Never mind about the install problems, others please find the instructions here:

"Install libreoffice in ubuntu 11.04/10.10/10.04 using PPA"
http://www.ubuntugeek.com/install-libreoffice-in-ubuntu-11-0410-1010-04-using-ppa.html

Off to testing the existing OO bugs I know of...

[Michael Lueck (mlueck)]

This bug was originally for me:

Lucid Impress crashes when opening a file located on a Samba smbfs mount
Bug #586438
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/586438

I removed the nobrl option from my mount commands

I logged off all mounts / logged back on

I can open files on the Samba server successfully, I can SaveAs creating new copies of files, and I can successfully open the new copies.

I think this one is confirmed fixed with 10.04 Lucid and LibraOffice installed via the instructions in #18

[Björn Michaelsen (bjoern-michaelsen)]

closing as fix released as per comment 19