LibreOffice does not start in a KDE 4 session

[Kubuntu CI Bot]

It seems that the latest RC of LO is completely broken on KDE 4.

Launching the LO center causes nothing to come up ( I can see a window title, but nothing inside the window itself ), launching writer causes a window to come up, which immediately hangs.

Multiple users have brought this up on the Kubuntu Devel mailing list too.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.04
Package: libreoffice (not installed)
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.13.0-19.40-generic 3.13.6
Uname: Linux 3.13.0-19-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
ApportVersion: 2.14-0ubuntu1
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: KDE
Date: Mon Mar 31 17:22:08 2014
InstallationDate: Installed on 2014-03-18 (12 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Kubuntu 14.04 LTS "Trusty Tahr" - Alpha amd64 (20140318)
SourcePackage: libreoffice
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Paul White (paulw2u)]

I'm seeing slightly different here -

Main LO window displayed normally the first time I started it. Now, the window contents are black.

The Writer window displays but the window contents are black so the application is unusable.

For what it's worth, Calc starts normally.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Paul White (paulw2u)]

Further to comment #2, Writer opened correctly when I double mouse-clicked on a .odt file. Now Writer opens from both the main menu and Alt-F2.

The LO main window still starts up with black contents and needs to be terminated after it appears to hang.

[Mark Fraser (launchpad-mfraz)]

In my case I could get the start center to launch properly, but nothing else, but it would work properly by going into Konqueror and opening an ods or odt file.

[3vi1 (launchpad-net-eternaldusk)]

On my system, launching from the icon seems to be failing with an uninitialized window. If I launch it from a console, sometime I see that same problem, sometime I get the black window Paul described, and occasionally it works properly.

So I think we're all seeing the same issue, it's just that the symptoms can vary.

[George Dvorak (gldvorak-gmail)]

I have startcenter as a panel icon and it does not work as the original poster says. From the Application Launcher Writer also fails in the dame way. Calc works. When clicking on a libreoffice file that works correctly. I have attached the /home/gld/.local/share/applications/ desktop files for anyone who wants to inspect them.

Well, I can only attach one file, So this is fir Writer which has the problem.

[Jason Straight (jason-jeetkunedomaster)]

If you remove libreoffice-kde package, it will start working again. It'll just be ugly. ;)

[George Dvorak (gldvorak-gmail)]

On Fri, Apr 4, 2014 at 1:55 PM, Jason Straight <
<email address hidden>> wrote:

> libreoffice

Thankyou that fixed my problems!

George Dvorak

[Mark Fraser (launchpad-mfraz)]

Bit of a hack, but I copied libkde4be1lo.so and libvclplug_kde4lo.so from 4.2.1 into /usr/lib/libreoffice/programs and LibreOffice loads again.

[Mark Fraser (launchpad-mfraz)]

Odd that the same version of LO seems to work OK in 13.10.

[Alberto Salvia Novella (es20490446e)]

It has a severe impact on a large portion of Ubuntu users.

[Mark Fraser (launchpad-mfraz)]

My mistake, LibreOffice 4.2.3 rc3 does not work in Kubuntu 13.10 either, but copying the 2 files I mentioned earlier also fix it. One thing I have noticed is that all LibreOffice windows now appear behind the currently focused window.

[Ubuntu QA Website (ubuntuqa)]

This bug has been reported on the Ubuntu ISO testing tracker.

A list of all reports related to this bug can be found here:
http://iso.qa.ubuntu.com/qatracker/reports/bugs/1300283

[Björn Michaelsen (bjoern-michaelsen)]

@Mark Fraser: How can these files be missing on your install? Checking the libreoffice-kde 1:4.2.3~rc2-0ubuntu1 deb files for trusty from:

 http://launchpadlibrarian.net/170943415/libreoffice-kde_4.2.3%7Erc2-0ubuntu1_i386.deb
 http://launchpadlibrarian.net/170938878/libreoffice-kde_4.2.3%7Erc2-0ubuntu1_amd64.deb

clearly contain both.

[Björn Michaelsen (bjoern-michaelsen)]

And since some users (e.g. comment 13) mention 4.2.3~rc3 (which as of now is only available from the PPAs) to miss the files too, I also checked the *.debs in the PPA and the libs are there on both i386 and amd64.

[Mark Fraser (launchpad-mfraz)]

@Björn Michaelsen They are not missing, but the versions of libkde4be1lo.so and libvclplug_kde4lo.so in 4.2.3-rc2 and rc3 seem to be the cause of the problem, coping those files from 4.2.1 allows LibreOffice to run.

[Björn Michaelsen (bjoern-michaelsen)]

@Mark Fraser: libkde4be1lo.so seems essentially unchanged since the last release, could you check if only copying the old libvclplug_kde4lo.so helps?

There have been KDE fixes for fdo#73115, fdo#45935 and fdo#74416 on vcl/unx/kde4 since libreoffice-4-2-1 which might be responsible.

[Björn Michaelsen (bjoern-michaelsen)]

From downstream bug lp#1300283:
It seems that the latest RC of LO is completely broken on KDE 4.

Launching the LO center causes nothing to come up ( I can see a window title, but nothing inside the window itself ), launching writer causes a window to come up, which immediately hangs.

Multiple users have brought this up on the Kubuntu Devel mailing list too.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.04
Package: libreoffice (not installed)
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.13.0-19.40-generic 3.13.6
Uname: Linux 3.13.0-19-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
ApportVersion: 2.14-0ubuntu1
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: KDE
Date: Mon Mar 31 17:22:08 2014
InstallationDate: Installed on 2014-03-18 (12 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Kubuntu 14.04 LTS "Trusty Tahr" - Alpha amd64 (20140318)
SourcePackage: libreoffice
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

This comment https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/libreoffice/+bug/1300283/comments/10 reports that copying the KDE plugin from 4.2.1 in solves this.

There are commits in vcl/unx/kde4 about fdo#73115, fdo#45935 and fdo#74416 -- one of them is likely causing this regression.

[Rene Engelhard (rene-debian)]

copying the file from 4.2.1(!) (as your commment) fixes the bug in 4.1.2(!) (as Version) says?!

either one is incorrect I assume...

[Mark Fraser (launchpad-mfraz)]

@Björn Michaelsen: Yes, I reinstalled the newer libreoffice-kde package and then just copied libvclplug_kde4lo.so from 4.2.1 and it works.

[Rene Engelhard (rene-debian)]

... or it is fixed in 4.2.x and needs to be backported to 4.1.x (but 4.1.x without jmux' branch is broken per se)

[Björn Michaelsen (bjoern-michaelsen)]

nope, fumbled when setting the version -- this is a recent regression on the 4.2 branch.

[Momonasmon (momonasmon)]

It's http://cgit.freedesktop.org/libreoffice/core/commit/?id=7dba6e0a71d090f06a6a1a39e87572674593b48a&h=libreoffice-4-2. See Bug 73115 comment 9. It was solved by later commits, which unfortunately didn't go to 4.2.3.

[Björn Michaelsen (bjoern-michaelsen)]

(In reply to comment #4)
> It's
> http://cgit.freedesktop.org/libreoffice/core/commit/
> ?id=7dba6e0a71d090f06a6a1a39e87572674593b48a&h=libreoffice-4-2. See Bug
> 73115 comment 9. It was solved by later commits, which unfortunately didn't
> go to 4.2.3.

Confirmed, reverting 7dba6e0a71d090f06a6a1a39e87572674593b48a makes 4.2.3~rc3 starts at least on kde.

@Jan-Marek: Any plans to backport the fixes for 4.2.4 (or are they already?)

[Momonasmon (momonasmon)]

@Björn: See http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/libreoffice/2014-March/060260.html. Those fixes are already in libreoffice-4-2 branch.

[Björn Michaelsen (bjoern-michaelsen)]

reverting 7dba6e0a for now, to at least let LibreOffice start on KDE4 (see upstream bug for details)

[Björn Michaelsen (bjoern-michaelsen)]

Ok, marking as resolved/fixed then and assigning to Jan-Marek as he did the work on this one.

LibreOffice users on KDE4 are thus encouraged to test the 4-2 nightlies from:
 http://dev-builds.libreoffice.org/daily/libreoffice-4-2/
to see if there are remaining issues on the upcoming 4.2.4.

[Paul White (paulw2u)]

LO 4.2.3.3 installed and all seems to be working fine now. Thanks Björn.

[Jason Straight (jason-jeetkunedomaster)]

I'm still having the same issues.

[Mikael Bergqvist (mikaelb)]

Rename /usr/lib/libreoffice/program/libvclplug_kde4lo.so to /usr/lib/libreoffice/program/libvclplug_kdelo.so fixes the problem with 4.2.3~rc3-ubuntu1

The name seems to be changed in this way in 4.2.3.2 and onwards

[Mikael Bergqvist (mikaelb)]

Oops, my suggestion probably just hides the problem, libreoffice starts, but looking closer, it seems to lack KDE integration.

[Björn Michaelsen (bjoern-michaelsen)]

@Paul White: Fix Committed is not Fix released. FWIW, this is the (still unreleased) hotfix:
http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=pkg-openoffice/libreoffice.git;a=commit;h=a5f78a1e5b81756cf924be311e3a4cb6bad934f0

[Björn Michaelsen (bjoern-michaelsen)]

A hotfixed version is currently building in trusty-proposed:

 https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/libreoffice/1:4.2.3~rc3-0ubuntu2

It actually finished on amd64 and i386, so you are invited to download the libreoffice-kde debs and test them.

[Paul White (paulw2u)]

Further to my comment in #25 where the problem *disappeared*, yes, I did realise the fix has not been released, I can confirm that the latest build also works here. Calc, Writer, Base, Impress and the main LO application all open correctly.

Although I am not sure that my input is valid at this point as the fix doesn't actually fix anything here because the initial release of 4.2.3.3 also worked correctly. </confused>

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package libreoffice - 1:4.2.3~rc3-0ubuntu2

---------------
libreoffice (1:4.2.3~rc3-0ubuntu2) trusty; urgency=medium

  * revert 7dba6e0a, to at least let LibreOffice start on KDE4 (LP: #1300283)
 -- Bjoern Michaelsen <email address hidden> Wed, 09 Apr 2014 14:07:13 +0200

[Momonasmon (momonasmon)]

*** Bug 77446 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

[Momonasmon (momonasmon)]

*** Bug 77303 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

[Momonasmon (momonasmon)]

*** Bug 77400 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

[Momonasmon (momonasmon)]

*** Bug 77463 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

[Momonasmon (momonasmon)]

@Björn: Turns out that it was actually fixed by Luboš Luňák with http://cgit.freedesktop.org/libreoffice/core/commit/?id=71f2aff7a56cef4e133abad3c2e447c76c5ee1fe. Unfortunately it's not in 4.2 yet, so I submitted a request to gerrit:

https://gerrit.libreoffice.org/9079/

Of course I verified that it fixes the bug for 4.2.

[Momonasmon (momonasmon)]

*** Bug 78595 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

[Isaac Mercer (nos-developer)]

I am experiencing this bug with the Libreoffice package version 4.2.3~rc3-0ubuntu2. The window borders launch but there is no window content except my desktop.

I am running Ubuntu 14.04 64bit. According to apt-cache I am using 4.2.3~rc3-0ubuntu2 but libreoffice says 4.2.4.2

[Mark Fraser (launchpad-mfraz)]

it has stopped working here as well. The only part of LibreOffice I can launch now is the launch center as it was when it broke last time.

[August Karlstrom (fusionfile)]

I use latest Lubuntu 14.04 and the only thing that comes up is the start window where I can select what kind of document I want to create. Nothing happens when I click on the Create buttons.