OOo 3 crashes during install of mailmerger.py in jaunty studio

[praseodym]

During the installation of OOo 3 from the repositories (both add/remove and synaptic) the installation crashes in jaunty studio during the package mailmerger.py! A clean installation of regular jaunty works with OOo from the DVD. If I try to install OOo 3 in jaunty studio from the regular DVD it crashes again at that package!!! If I reset the system every package manager asks me to "sudo dpkg --configure -a" in a terminal which leads to the same result.

[Caldrac (caldrac)]

I can confirm this bug on Ubuntu Studio 9.04 / 2.6.28-3-rt, clean install

dkpg --configure -a in recovery mode causes a kernel bug (.../buffer.c:1282). The trace output ends with "fixing recursive fault but reboot is needed"

You can fix your system by
rm /var/lib/dpkg/info/openoffice.org-emailmerge.prerm
dpkg -r --force-all openoffice.org-emailmerge

but openoffice won't work (tried also the .deb packages on the official homepage).

[praseodym (oliver-ehlert)]

This is how it worked on Jaunty Studio:

add the OOo repositories
install the generic kernel
boot into that kernel
install OOo from Synaptic
boot into the rt-kernel

enjoy Openoffice !!!

[Joey (josetorres-jr)]

Is there any way that you all can post how to add this generic kernel and also the repositories for OOo?

[Rail Aliiev (rail)]

Is thus bug reated to http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=529637 ?

[Chris Cheney (ccheney)]

Can you attach the install log showing the problem?

[praseodym (oliver-ehlert)]

To Joey,

install the following in synaptic and change the /boot/grub/menu.lst:

linux-generic
linux-image-generic
linux-headers-generic
linux-restricted-modules-generic

after that it should work.

To Rail Aliev,
no it is not. After installing OOo from the ppa repositories it worked!
BTW: After this installation my german language pack tried to uninstall everything from OOo. I installed it by hand.

greetings

[Joey (josetorres-jr)]

Hello praseodym
I tried what you posted and the install of OpenOffice worked just fine and it opens in generic kernel but in RT is still does not open.

[praseodym (oliver-ehlert)]

Hello Joey,

due to the fact that I installed compiz I cannot try it because my x-server is not starting with compiz installed... So I am currently only running the generic kernel. Did you install

linux-headers-rt
linux-restricted-modules-rt
and all the other
-rt
files for your particular kernel?

[Joey (josetorres-jr)]

I picked linux-generic and then all the other ones that you mentioned got selected too,.

[praseodym (oliver-ehlert)]

Here:
http://webupd8.blogspot.com/2009/05/install-openoffice-31-in-ubuntu-jaunty.html

are the repos you need and also the gpg-key. Just follow the instructions:
First uninstall all packages that begin with OpenOffice in Synaptic.
Second: delete (if it is there!) your hidden folder .openoffice in your home-directory
Third: "sudo apt-get autoremove" in a terminal
Fourth: Add the repos to your sources.list, then "sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade"
Fifth: Install the OOo packages from Synaptic

It should work now.
If you take all I wrote in combination OOo worked in generic and rt -kernel, respectively. I cannot boot into the rt-Kernel right now because I installed compiz so the x-server is not starting...

[Joey (josetorres-jr)]

hey praseodym
I just read the resposes again and I noticed that I did not aswer one of your questions. The rt kernel that I have installed is the one that was installed with the original installation of 9.04.

[Joey (josetorres-jr)]

I wanted to ask you:
I reinstalled Ubuntu Studio 9.04 again becuase after I put in the generic kernel it has installed something for wireless cards. After the second time that I booted in RT I kept getting some error about IPv6 routers not present or something like that.
Do I need to install the generic kernel again to follow the new instructions? Becuase the link you gave me assumes that I have OOo already installed.

[praseodym (oliver-ehlert)]

Only the rt-kernel is shipped with ubuntu studio! So, yes, you have to install it again. After that you boot into the generic kernel, add the repositories and the key for the ppa files and you can install it under the generic kernel. After that you can boot into the rt-kernel and OOo should work.

[praseodym (oliver-ehlert)]

After the new update OOo 3.1 works from the repos! Even the problems with my german language package are solved now automatically. Here:

http://www.zolved.com/synapse/view_content/28209/How_to_make_OpenOffice_run_faster_in_Ubuntu

you can tune your OOo for faster starting, etc. I even added it to the german Wiki.

Have fun

[Joey (josetorres-jr)]

Only works under generic mode for me. I guess it is going to be that way for a while.

[bramilo (bramilo)]

OOo only works under the generic kernel, not the rt one, following the above advice of installing linux-generic then installing OOo while running linux-generic. OOo will not run under linux-rt. This is a major disappointment; I would like to use OOo while running Ubuntu Studio 9.04. I was able to do it under Ubuntu Studio 8.04. Is there a fix in sight, or should I revert to 8.04, or use another distro entirely?

[praseodym (oliver-ehlert)]

It is still a problem with rt! I just found it again in the german forum (i am only running in generic so I didn't see the problem actually). OOo3.1 is not running in rt, in my case with compiz installed...

[variona (variona)]

Execution of Openoffice freezes Ubunu Studio 9.04 on AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ with 1G Ram Kernel 2.6.28.3-rt (options nosmp acpi=off pnpbios=off (as suggested to get rid of random 'freezing'))

Running on generic Kernel this installation of Openoffice works.

[Alessio Igor Bogani (abogani)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. The issue that you reported is one that could be fixed in the Beta release of Karmic Koala. It would help us greatly if you could test with it! Thanks again and we appreciate your help.

[David Morrell (dsmorrell56)]

This problem may affect more than OpenOffice.org 3 suite. I didn't note it carefully, but I'm fairly sure I saw the dreaded message "Fixing recursive fault but reboot is needed!" following an attempt to install Java runtime while using the RT kernel. So it may be that the best practice is to use the generic kernel for all package installations. Watch out for those 'on-the-fly installations of codecs when you try to play a media type not encountered before!

Another option may be to try another realtime kernel. Writing in Ubuntu User issue 2, in an article entitled 'Sensible Sounds', Dave Phillips said "For example, for my Jaunty systems, I installed kernel 2.6.28.3-rt (and its headers) with the Synaptic package manager. Alas, that kernel does not play well with my system, so I checked the Ubuntu forums and discovered Luke McNeil's 2.6.29.1-rt8-custom kernel. I'm currently running that kernel with excellent results....". However, a Google search for that kernel suggests that installation might not be straightforward. For more information, try;

http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/judgement-day-studio-dave-tests-ubuntu-studio-904

When I've receovered from the trauma of the OOo issue (really a kernel issue), I might try another RT kernel.

As for OOo specifically, thanks VERY MUCH for everyone's help.

OOo is working fine for me using both generic and realtime kernels after following the sequence of;

1) rm /var/lib/dpkg/info/openoffice.org-emailmerge.prerm
dpkg -r --force-all openoffice.org-emailmerge

except I removed ALL openoffice packages, not just emailmerge

2) Install the linux-generic package to get the latest generic kernel and associated bits

3) Install OOo.

Versions in use are;
Realtime kernel: 2.6.28-3-rt #12-Ubuntu SMP PREEMPT RT Fri Apr 17 10:09:11 UTC 2009 i686 GNU/Linux

OOo: 3.0.1 OOO300m15 (Build: 9379)

The realtime kernel version was obtained by running this command in a termal:
uname -a

[variona (variona)]

Actually, my problem was fixed after I installed another 1GB Ram (now 2GB). BTW, the 1GB swap file stays untouched, even if Ardour runs out of memory and Segfaults. As mentioned before OOo froze the system on startup. Can anyone shed a little light on this puzzle? E.g. is your swap file being used? (Try the "free" command in a terminal)

[Alessio Igor Bogani (abogani)]

We are closing this bug report because it lacks the information we need to investigate the problem, as described in the previous comments. Please reopen it if you can give us the missing information, and don't hesitate to submit bug reports in the future. To reopen the bug report you can click on the current status, under the Status column, and change the Status back to "New". Thanks again!

[Baskak (antoni-beksiak)]

i have two machines affected by this problem. currently i managed to run dpkg again thanks to instructions on the bug discussion. the kernel in question is the same, 2.6.28-3-rt. i am now updating 9.04 to latest packages and will attempt to upgrade to 9.10. please let me know what informations can i provide to help solve the problem.
the other machine is not available to me due to hardware failure, however the symptoms were the same, though (as far as i remember) not caused by openoffice (as noted above by one of debaters). i have some notes taken during encountering the bug on this other machine, if it can be helpful.
both cases were extremely troubling, as i had no access to two machines (on their linux partitions) for a few months. no help was available on irc.

[praseodym (oliver-ehlert)]

In Karmic Koala (9.10) I never read anything about this bug. With Kernel 2.6.31-xx it should run both in -rt and -generic with OOo 3.1.1. But I have to mention that I made a clean install of 9.10 not an upgrade because of the ext4 file system

Greetz

[Baskak (antoni-beksiak)]

well, already there's trouble. the upgrade to 9.10 is stuck on "preparing openoffice.org-writer2latex". no idea what to do since this is an upgrade. solutions warmly welcome. i will login to #ubuntu to seek for help in about 30 minutes.

[praseodym (oliver-ehlert)]

You can try to boot into the recovery mode (netroot !) and uninstall that particular package with "sudo apt-get purge packagename" and to "sudo dpkg --configure -a" if necessary due to the upgrade interruption. Maybe yo'll find an upgraded package of that one on "http://packages.ubuntu.com". Search for the Karmic package there.

[bramilo (bramilo)]

OOo 3.1 works in Ubuntustudio 9.10 (Karmic) with kernel 2.6.31-9-rt. I also did clean install of 9.10.