Libreoffice snap can read but not save files over SSH

[Sami Pietila]

With Ubuntu 20.04 libreoffice can not anymore save files over SSH share.

When trying to save, it says: Error saving the document. General Error. General input/output error.

In addition, starting from Ubuntu 20.04 libreoffice has become very slow to start.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. Please execute the following command, as it will automatically gather debugging information, in a terminal:

  apport-collect 1877711

When reporting bugs in the future please use apport by using 'ubuntu-bug' and the name of the package affected. You can learn more about this functionality at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ReportingBugs.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Could you give some details on the desktop environment you are using and the way you connect to the ssh server? (using the desktop mount feature? sshfs? other?)

[Sami Pietila (sampie)]

I am using the default Ubuntu Desktop (gnome). I am connecting to the server by using the desktop file browser (Named "Files" in ubuntu menu): ctl+l and typing the address "ssh://untuserver.somedomain.com". Then using the file browser to open a file and later trying to save it. Saving the file fails. It seems Ubuntu Desktop 20.04 version is no longer compatible with Ubuntu server.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

It works fine here, could you do
$ journalctl -f
then try to save and see if anything is printed in the log?

[Sami Pietila (sampie)]

Hi,

Please see the messages from the log. There seems to be some "libinput error: client bug" messages, but I don't know if they are related to this error.

$ journalctl -f
-- Logs begin at Wed 2020-02-19 09:28:50 EET. --
touko 12 18:09:26 530s slack.desktop[140375]: [05/12/20, 18:09:26:659] info: [DESKTOP-SIDE-EFFECT] Update from desktop for keys ["app"]
touko 12 18:09:48 530s systemd-resolved[636]: Using degraded feature set (TCP) for DNS server 2001:14b8:1000::2.
touko 12 18:10:18 530s systemd-resolved[636]: Using degraded feature set (UDP) for DNS server 2001:14b8:1000::1.
touko 12 18:10:19 530s slack.desktop[140375]: [05/12/20, 18:10:19:926] info: [DND] (TADSNN2D9) Checking for changes in DND status for the following members: UASJ1J57H,UAE0FL04S,UARGU2CQH,UAN2ACN2W,UAH2W0Q1K,UAY6FKSHL,UAGUME46N
touko 12 18:10:19 530s slack.desktop[140375]: [05/12/20, 18:10:19:927] info: [DND] (TADSNN2D9) Will check for changes in DND status again in 5 minutes
touko 12 18:10:33 530s systemd-resolved[636]: Using degraded feature set (UDP) for DNS server 2001:14b8:1000::2.
touko 12 18:10:50 530s systemd-resolved[636]: Using degraded feature set (TCP) for DNS server 2001:14b8:1000::1.
touko 12 18:11:04 530s slack.desktop[140375]: [05/12/20, 18:11:04:927] info: [CHECK-FOR-OLD-IMS] (TADSNN2D9) Within limit: 11
touko 12 18:11:06 530s slack.desktop[140375]: [05/12/20, 18:11:06:723] info: Store: SET_SYSTEM_IDLE active
touko 12 18:11:06 530s slack.desktop[140375]: [05/12/20, 18:11:06:728] info: [DESKTOP-SIDE-EFFECT] Update from desktop for keys ["app"]
touko 12 18:11:15 530s systemd-resolved[636]: Using degraded feature set (TCP) for DNS server 2001:14b8:1000::2.
touko 12 18:11:46 530s slack.desktop[140375]: [05/12/20, 18:11:46:758] info: Store: SET_SYSTEM_IDLE idle_taskbar
touko 12 18:11:46 530s slack.desktop[140375]: [05/12/20, 18:11:46:762] info: [DESKTOP-SIDE-EFFECT] Update from desktop for keys ["app"]
touko 12 18:11:56 530s slack.desktop[140375]: [05/12/20, 18:11:56:760] info: Store: SET_SYSTEM_IDLE active
touko 12 18:11:56 530s slack.desktop[140375]: [05/12/20, 18:11:56:766] info: [DESKTOP-SIDE-EFFECT] Update from desktop for keys ["app"]
touko 12 18:11:59 530s dbus-daemon[1097]: [session uid=1000 pid=1097] Activating via systemd: service name='org.freedesktop.Tracker1' unit='tracker-store.service' requested by ':1.1' (uid=1000 pid=1087 comm="/usr/libexec/tracker-miner-fs " label="unconfined")
touko 12 18:11:59 530s systemd[1060]: Starting Tracker metadata database store and lookup manager...
touko 12 18:11:59 530s dbus-daemon[1097]: [session uid=1000 pid=1097] Successfully activated service 'org.freedesktop.Tracker1'
touko 12 18:11:59 530s systemd[1060]: Started Tracker metadata database store and lookup manager.
touko 12 18:11:59 530s dbus-daemon[1097]: [session uid=1000 pid=1097] Activating via systemd: service name='org.freedesktop.Tracker1.Miner.Extract' unit='tracker-extract.service' requested by ':1.1' (uid=1000 pid=1087 comm="/usr/libexec/tracker-miner-fs " label="unconfined")
touko 12 18:11:59 530s systemd[1060]: Starting Tracker metadata extractor...
touko 12 18:11:59 530s tracker-extract[169737]: Set scheduler policy to SCHED_IDLE
touko 12 1...

[Sami Pietila (sampie)]

I found a fix. I did uninstall the snap and installed deb packages from libreoffice home page. Saving works and starting libreoffice is fast again.

Is it possible to have libreoffice deb packages back to Ubuntu? It looks like snap is quite problematic and slow.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Thank you for the comment and figuring out it was specific to the snap, libreoffice is a deb by default in Ubuntu though so unsure what you meant being possible to have it back as a deb?

[Sami Pietila (sampie)]

If I try to install libreoffice deb version from the software center, I get a message saying it is not supported. Please see the attached screenshot.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

@Sami, could you report that issue using 'ubuntu-bug gnome-software'?

[Sami Pietila (sampie)]

Reported. I also tried to report bugs with chromium-browser, but it seems "ubuntu-bug chromium-browser" does not work. It just hangs.

Anyway, chromium browser does not work with jupyter-notebook as running "jupyter-notebook" starts the browser with following messages:"
Access to the file was deniedThe file at file:///home/sami/.local/share/jupyter/runtime/nbserver-208350-open.html is not readable. It may have been removed, moved, or file permissions may be preventing access.
ERR_ACCESS_DENIED"

I think this might be a snap issue. I wanted to ask how can I switch to chromium-browser deb package like with libreoffice? Like with libreoffice, the chromium-browser snap-version is very slow.

[Heather Ellsworth (hellsworth)]

Trying to reproduce the issue, here are my findings:

I have two focal systems on the same network: a host and a vm. The host has a test.odt file and the vm has the host's ip added to nautilus and can see the host's files (including test.odt). I double click on the test.odt icon which opens up libreoffice writer as expected but I have an error message saying that the file is locked for editing (see attached screenshot), even though the test.odt file is not open on the host.

A workaround is to open a copy of the document, make edits, save it locally and then in nautilus on the vm you can move the file to the remote system to overwrite the file.

The snap should however be able to save remote files directly.