LibreOffice crashes under load.

[KGIII]

lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu Hirsute Hippo (development branch)
Release: 21.04

apt-cache policy libreoffice
libreoffice:
  Installed: (none)
  Candidate: 1:7.0.3-0ubuntu1
  Version table:
     1:7.0.3-0ubuntu1 500
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu hirsute/universe amd64 Packages

I expect to be able to open all of LibreOffice's apps at once and use them.

If you open all the LibreOffice applications and then select a template for LibreOffice Writer, they all close immediately, reopen, and offer to recover any lost data.

Error reports may have been sent. I am not sure as this is Hirsute and I'm testing it.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 21.04
Package: libreoffice (not installed)
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.8.0-25.26-generic 5.8.14
Uname: Linux 5.8.0-25-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.11-0ubuntu51
Architecture: amd64
CasperMD5CheckResult: pass
CasperVersion: 1.455
CurrentDesktop: LXQt
Date: Mon Nov 23 20:06:19 2020
LiveMediaBuild: Lubuntu 21.04 "Hirsute Hippo" - Alpha amd64 (20201123)
SourcePackage: libreoffice
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[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/1905322

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Thank you for your bug report. Could you add the 'journalctl -b 0' log after getting the issue?

[KGIII (uninvolved)]

It's a large amount of text, so I exported it to text and attached it. If that's not the convention, please let me know. This is my first time taking the time to report bugs.

[KGIII (uninvolved)]

Here it is in today's build, this time from a VM. Again, attached as text.

Same bug, same symptoms. I just wanted to include one from a VM to add to the previous report.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

weird, no error in the logs there

[KGIII (uninvolved)]

Nope. I too don't see any errors in the log. I can take a video if you want, or I'm reasonably confident you can replicate it. I've been able to replicate it on different hardware and virtualized hardware. Open up every LibreOffice choice, pick a template in Impress, and click okay. They crash and they offer to recover lost files.

Also, it's Impress - not Writer - that triggers it. My bad.

It happens time and time again.

Hold on... One sec. I can replicate it again and again for you.

There, you'll find a video attached. Sorry that I can't be of more assistance, but you can now see the bug in action. Again, it's Impress and not Writer that triggers it. Or at least that's what I triggered it with today. I think (but I'm not sure) it can be triggered multiple ways and the specific commonality is that it happens when all LibreOffice apps are opened.

I'd have never discovered it under normal circumstances. In testing Hirsute, I open all the category applications at once. That's how I noticed.

[KGIII (uninvolved)]

Alright, open all the LibreOffice apps one by one - do it in order.

When you open Impress, Math and Writer do NOT open.

In Impress, select a template and click Okay. Everything LibreOffice related crashes and it gives a dialog about restoring files.

I installed ksystemlog (just to make it easier) and triggered the crash multiple times. Nothing shows up in the error logs, though you can clearly see it in the video provided in #7 (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/libreoffice/+bug/1905322/comments/7).

That happens time and time again - every time. It happens in a VM on different hardware. It happens in a live USB environment. It happens in today's Hirsute build.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Leó Kolbeinsson (leok)]

I can confirm this bug - testing Lubuntu Hirsute daily 27.11.2020 on the QA site

http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/lubuntu/daily-live/20201127/hirsute-desktop-amd64.iso

Machine used Acer [Aspire] E3-111-P60S (Pent.N3530, 4GB)

Opened all LibreOffice apps one by one and selected Impress templete "Vivid" as in the video posted in comment # 7 and received the same results as KGIII.

[Leó Kolbeinsson (leok)]

I did some further testing on the same machine in comment #10 -

I think the error is not because of the "load" but somehow related to the template selection in Impress - I noticed that when I selected the apps one by one after Impress opened with the "template selection" dialog if I did nothing and continued on to open "Math" and "Writer" they did not appear in the panel bar .I then (as in the video comment #7" selected a templete (vivid) and received the crash - if I selected a template other than "vivid" then there was no crash.

Also tested but this time opened a template when "Impress" started - then no errors, no crash.

Lastly I changed the Impress "select a Template dialog box - Show this dialog at startup " button and reran the tests and all worked normally.

[KGIII (uninvolved)]

I have done some more testing.

I tried the same thing on LMDE (outside the Ubuntu family) and it froze all the LibreOffice apps but didn't crash. It locked them up. They couldn't be closed except by killing them with the system monitor or through the terminal.

I don't think the problem is a Lubuntu/Ubuntu thing. I think it's upstream, given that behavior in Linux Mint *Debian* Edition.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Could it be that opening several applications and a template just get your machine out of RAM? Could you check in the system monitor on top the usage while opening?

[Leó Kolbeinsson (leok)]

@seb123 Sebastein Bacher

I have also tested this on several machines and get the same error see my comment item 11.

I tested also LibreOffice 7.02.2 running on a machine with 32GB RAM and very little running i.e 1.6 GB RAM 31GB available and get the same results. Again this happens when I select the "vivid" template but no the others.

[KGIII (uninvolved)]

#13, nah. Gobs of RAM are/were available.

I am forced to wonder how long the bug has existed. Under normal circumstances, nobody would ever trigger it. I'm also puzzled about the lack of any error messages.

As leok said, it seems to only happen with Vivid. I purely tested it because I'd tested that it scrolled down and clicked the one immediately available. The odds of this happening in the real world are really low.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

It's still unclear the steps to follow, trying a xubuntu hirsute daily in a vm and opening writer then impress and the vivid template works without anything closing. On the video the sidebar displays an equation editor so perhaps the sidebar configuration makes a difference?

[Leó Kolbeinsson (leok)]

@seb128 -Sebastien -- the tests we did were in Lubuntu not Xubuntu .. I have only been able to preoduce this in Lubuntu Hirsute so far. Will try to run a few more tests in the other flavors.

[Heather Ellsworth (hellsworth)]

Following the video, I created a daily hirsute lubuntu vm. Then I opened calc, writer, math. Once all three of those blank documents were up, I opened Impress and chose the vivid template. I see the template load and nothing crashes. Other templates load fine too.

Can you please do the following:
1. Open calc, writer, math
2. Open a terminal and run impress with:
    $ strace libreoffice --impress

This should open up impress, go ahead and select the vivid theme. I assume you'll see the crash and your terminal command will exit.. Could you please capture the output and provide it here?

[Leó Kolbeinsson (leok)]

@hellsworth Heather Ellsworth

In order to reproduce the crash this is the proceedure you need to use -

1. Open in this order - calc,draw,impress (do not select a template at this time,proceed and select math and then writer from the menu.
2. Now select the vivid template (which should be on the desktop -
3. the crash occurs

I have not been able to reproduce thi unless apps opened in this order.

Also I tested as per your instructions in #18 - this crash did not occur.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

> (do not select a template at this time,proceed and select math and then writer from the menu.

unsure what you mean there by 'select math and writer'? where do you select those?

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

could you try also without libreoffice-qt5 installed?

[Leó Kolbeinsson (leok)]

@seb128 Sebastien

Sorry I was not clear...select LibreMarh and Librewriter from the Office menu in Lubuntu.

[KGIII (uninvolved)]

Let me give the exact steps once more.

You can get similar results with a different OS, like LMDE, but we'll stick with Lubuntu for this one.

Boot to the newest beta version of Lubuntu. You can do this on bare metal, or you can do it in a VM. Wait for the desktop to load.

Open the menu in the lower left.
Click on Office.
Click on LibreOffice.
Open the menu in the lower left.
Click on Office.
Open LibreOffice Calc.
Open the menu in the lower left.
Click on LibreOffice Draw.

Keep doing that for all of them - going down the list of LibreOffice apps in order.

NOTE: The last two (Math and Writer) will NOT show on the screen. You'll still have Impress as the focused screen.

In Impress, it will first offer you a tip of the day, just click okay. Then, it will have a screen asking you if you want to select a template. Scroll down, in that template selection window, and select "Vivid."

If you've done everything correctly, it will crash - as seen in the video and as verified by at least one other user. You can trigger it on 20.10 on DistroTest.net. In LMDE the behavior is different - it crashes and freezes all the LibreOffice apps, requiring a killall from the terminal to close each of them.

I can't think of a way to describe it more clearly.

[Heather Ellsworth (hellsworth)]

KGIII,Thanks to your very clear steps I've reproduced this on hirsute Lubuntu.

Further testing suggests that the crash will occur if at least one Libreoffice application is opened when Impress is opened AND then you immediately open Libreoffice Math and then go back and select the vivid theme.

While I agree we have a bug here, it is a super corner case to hit.

[KGIII (uninvolved)]

I have no idea how long the bug has existed. The odds of someone finding it are really low. I only noticed because that's how I was testing Hirsute. I'd open all the apps in a category, maybe click a few things, scroll a little, pick an option, and then close everything. I just so happened to click on Vivid and the whole thing crashed.

Nobody is going to encounter this bug in the real world. Outside of testing, it will never impact anyone. Which is to say, I absolutely agree with the 'low' rating of this bug.

As this is my first time really taking the time to report bugs, I am left with a question:

Has my obligation to this bug ended? I see no reason to report it in the daily beta Lubuntu builds. It's obviously upstream and out of Lubuntu's control. So, do I need to do anything else at this point?

[Chris Guiver (guiverc)]

@KGIII

This is a very belated reply to your last (final paragraph) question of 2020-12-03, and I can only give my opinion, ie. what I'd do.

It's a low priority bug, and I'd test for it occasionally.. but not daily (a quick look at shows you very regularly testing for it; http://iso.qa.ubuntu.com/qatracker/reports/bugs/1905322). If you want to test for it, that's fine.. but I fear it'll feel a little depressing/disheartening when you keep coming across it. That won't apply for major/serious bugs, which we should be testing for daily.

If you want this solved, you'd likely have to take it upstream (https://www.libreoffice.org/community/qa/) which may involve more testing like you've already performed (ie. not just here/Ubuntu but elsewhere, eg. LMDE though as I understand it, LMDE is older software so it may require using specific OSes that are bleeding-edge or nearer it).

I noticed this bug report appear in the "to test for" today for impish on main Ubuntu so I tested for it... I didn't notice a crash (tried twice)... but maybe I didn't do things in the right order as I didn't spend long on it (ie. low chance of users having issues)

You're doing a great job testing, but be sure you don't burn out (ie. keeping yourself sane needs to considered in your testing). My 2c

[KGIII (uninvolved)]

Hmm... I don't mind testing for it every day. That doesn't bother me at all. It's literally 15 seconds worth of testing to confirm that it still exists as a bug.

On the other hand, I would like it fixed.

And, yeah, it still exists. It breaks every time, so you may have not triggered it properly.

I don't mind testing and reporting it, but if it's cluttering up the system and has no benefit, I'll happily drop it. Just be sure to let me know with an affirmative and I'll stop reporting it here. (I may take the time to report it upstream.)

[Chris Guiver (guiverc)]

NO it's NOT cluttering up the system, and it has benefit (far more benefit than my suggestion of occasional testing.. then forgetting to test for it every again which is a risk with occasional testing, esp. for me anyway). My concern was to avoid you becoming burnt out...

> It breaks every time, so you may have not triggered it properly.

Yes I do believe I didn't trigger it 'correctly'.. and have no doubt the issue is real, my comment was more my belief that it was as Heather (@hellsworth) had said in describing it as a "super corner case" (won't impact many end-users; ie. low priority).

(I'll test for it again with Lubuntu... then once I've triggered it can re-try the same steps with Ubuntu... Taking it upstream would be what I'd see as greatest chance for fix (fastest way anyway); my issue with LMDE is I believe it's based on debian stable; ie. older software; I use debian testing frequently in testing issues found in lubuntu)

[KGIII (uninvolved)]

Still crashes - albeit a bit differently now.

Follow the directions and it crashes at the same point, but not everything closes - just the last two LibreOffice applications close (math and writer).

[KGIII (uninvolved)]

Huh... Today was a new version of LibreOffice and of course I tested for the bug. I am unable to reproduce the bug at this time with today's daily .iso.

[Ken Sharp (kennybobs)]

This seems to be specific to Lubuntu. Has anyone tried a recent Lubuntu release?