[SOLVED] libreoffice (var. versions under v.7.x) on arm64, terminate called after throwing an instance of 'com::sun::star::uno::RuntimeException' \ Fatal exception: Signal 6

[The Pthyister]

Hi there,

I've had the recurring problem on multiple 64-bit Ubuntu installations on multiple Raspberry Pi 4B's [aarch64/arm64] where libreoffice crashes on startup -- this seems to be a persistent bug, as it has happened to me on 20.04 LTS (arm64) as well as more recently on 20.10 groovy (arm64), whether I've used the official APT packages or the LibreOffice Launchpad PPA's.

I've tried looking around for the bug and for example, deleted the existing user config etc. -- to no avail.

As for the window manager, I'm running on Xubuntu (Xfce/Xfwm4) and with the latest available upstream kernel (5.8.0.1020-raspi), although LibreOffice crashing on startup has been a persisting problem on my RPi4B Ubuntu installations for quite some time now, probably around a half a year or so. Every now and then, as the apt packages get updated, LibreOffice actually works (!), so that's kind of odd.

Here's the error message I get (same crash applies for all other libreoffice executables that I've tried):

$ libreoffice
terminate called after throwing an instance of 'com::sun::star::uno::RuntimeException'

Fatal exception: Signal 6
Stack:
/usr/lib/libreoffice/program/libuno_sal.so.3(+0x3c850)[0xffffb3f50850]
/usr/lib/libreoffice/program/libuno_sal.so.3(+0x3c9ec)[0xffffb3f509ec]
linux-vdso.so.1(__kernel_rt_sigreturn+0x0)[0xffffb85805d8]
/lib/aarch64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6(gsignal+0xdc)[0xffffb3d7ce9c]
/lib/aarch64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6(abort+0xf4)[0xffffb3d6950c]
/lib/aarch64-linux-gnu/libstdc++.so.6(_ZN9__gnu_cxx27__verbose_terminate_handlerEv+0x1a8)[0xffffb135f888]
/lib/aarch64-linux-gnu/libstdc++.so.6(+0x9f1dc)[0xffffb135c1dc]
/lib/aarch64-linux-gnu/libstdc++.so.6(+0x9f240)[0xffffb135c240]
/lib/aarch64-linux-gnu/libstdc++.so.6(+0x9f534)[0xffffb135c534]
/usr/lib/libreoffice/program/libmergedlo.so(+0x116b51c)[0xffffb50f251c]
/usr/lib/libreoffice/program/libmergedlo.so(+0x116bbc4)[0xffffb50f2bc4]
/usr/lib/libreoffice/program/libmergedlo.so(+0x116c228)[0xffffb50f3228]
/usr/lib/libreoffice/program/libmergedlo.so(+0x116ccd4)[0xffffb50f3cd4]
/usr/lib/libreoffice/program/libmergedlo.so(+0x11709fc)[0xffffb50f79fc]
/usr/lib/libreoffice/program/libmergedlo.so(+0x2c4b6e0)[0xffffb6bd26e0]
/usr/lib/libreoffice/program/libmergedlo.so(+0x2c4be68)[0xffffb6bd2e68]
/usr/lib/libreoffice/program/libmergedlo.so(_ZN3utl10ConfigItemC2ERKN3rtl8OUStringE14ConfigItemMode+0x78)[0xffffb6bca33c]
/usr/lib/libreoffice/program/libmergedlo.so(+0x2c905c8)[0xffffb6c175c8]
/usr/lib/libreoffice/program/libmergedlo.so(_ZN19SvtSysLocaleOptionsC1Ev+0x124)[0xffffb6c18b54]
/usr/lib/libreoffice/program/libmergedlo.so(+0x30956a4)[0xffffb701c6a4]
/usr/lib/libreoffice/program/libvclplug_gtk3lo.so(+0xd8928)[0xffffad5e0928]
/usr/lib/libreoffice/program/libvclplug_gtk3lo.so(+0xda1d4)[0xffffad5e21d4]
/usr/lib/libreoffice/program/libvclplug_gtk3lo.so(+0xea218)[0xffffad5f2218]
/usr/lib/libreoffice/program/libmergedlo.so(_Z7InitVCLv+0x4a0)[0xffffb7029d60]
/usr/lib/libreoffice/program/libmergedlo.so(_Z10ImplSVMainv+0xf8)[0xffffb702b468]
/usr/lib/libreoffice/program/libmergedlo.so(soffice_main+0x9c)[0xffffb5f66f3c]
/usr/lib/libreoffice/program/soffice.bin(+0x8b4)[0xaaaad806e8b4]
/lib/aarch64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6(__libc_start_main+0xe8)[0xffffb3d69878]
/usr/lib/libreoffice/program/soffice.bin(+0x904)[0xaaaad806e904]

________

As for troubleshooting, I've been following i.e. these instructions for suggestions on how to try fixing the install [from: https://forum.openoffice.org/en/forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=53761 ]:

1. Made sure I don't have any existing OpenOffice packages installed (ran 'dpkg -l | grep openoffice').

2. Deleted the entire configuration directory ("libreoffice/") under "~/.config/".

3. I still can't even run 'libreoffice --help' without getting the same error message as otherwise (although with 'libreoffice --help' it's much shorter):

terminate called after throwing an instance of 'com::sun::star::uno::RuntimeException'

________

As of now, these are the packages for LibreOffice that I have installed ('dpkg -l | grep libreoffice'):

ii liblibreoffice-java 1:7.0.3-0ubuntu0.20.10.1 all LibreOffice UNO runtime environment -- Java library
ii libreoffice 1:7.0.3-0ubuntu0.20.10.1 arm64 office productivity suite (metapackage)
rc libreoffice-avmedia-backend-gstreamer 1:7.0.3-0ubuntu0.20.10.1 arm64 transitional package for GStreamer backend for LibreOffice
ii libreoffice-base 1:7.0.3-0ubuntu0.20.10.1 arm64 office productivity suite -- database
ii libreoffice-base-core 1:7.0.3-0ubuntu0.20.10.1 arm64 office productivity suite -- shared library
ii libreoffice-base-drivers 1:7.0.3-0ubuntu0.20.10.1 arm64 Database connectivity drivers for LibreOffice
ii libreoffice-calc 1:7.0.3-0ubuntu0.20.10.1 arm64 office productivity suite -- spreadsheet
ii libreoffice-common 1:7.0.3-0ubuntu0.20.10.1 all office productivity suite -- arch-independent files
ii libreoffice-core 1:7.0.3-0ubuntu0.20.10.1 arm64 office productivity suite -- arch-dependent files
rc libreoffice-dev 1:7.0.3-0ubuntu0.20.10.1 arm64 office productivity suite -- SDK -- architecture-dependent parts
rc libreoffice-dev-common 1:7.0.3-0ubuntu0.20.10.1 all office productivity suite -- SDK -- architecture-independent parts
ii libreoffice-draw 1:7.0.3-0ubuntu0.20.10.1 arm64 office productivity suite -- drawing
ii libreoffice-gnome 1:7.0.3-0ubuntu0.20.10.1 arm64 office productivity suite -- GNOME integration
ii libreoffice-gtk3 1:7.0.3-0ubuntu0.20.10.1 arm64 office productivity suite -- GTK+ 3 integration
ii libreoffice-impress 1:7.0.3-0ubuntu0.20.10.1 arm64 office productivity suite -- presentation
ii libreoffice-java-common 1:7.0.3-0ubuntu0.20.10.1 all office productivity suite -- arch-independent Java support files
ii libreoffice-math 1:7.0.3-0ubuntu0.20.10.1 arm64 office productivity suite -- equation editor
ii libreoffice-nlpsolver 0.9+LibO7.0.3-0ubuntu0.20.10.1 all "Solver for Nonlinear Programming" extension for LibreOffice
rc libreoffice-qt5 1:7.0.3-0ubuntu0.20.10.1 arm64 office productivity suite -- Qt 5 integration
ii libreoffice-report-builder 1:7.0.3-0ubuntu0.20.10.1 all LibreOffice component for building database reports
ii libreoffice-report-builder-bin 1:7.0.3-0ubuntu0.20.10.1 arm64 LibreOffice component for building database reports -- libraries
ii libreoffice-script-provider-bsh 1:7.0.3-0ubuntu0.20.10.1 all BeanShell script support provider for LibreOffice scripting framework
ii libreoffice-script-provider-js 1:7.0.3-0ubuntu0.20.10.1 all JavaScript script support provider for LibreOffice scripting framework
ii libreoffice-script-provider-python 1:7.0.3-0ubuntu0.20.10.1 all Python script support provider for LibreOffice scripting framework
ii libreoffice-sdbc-firebird 1:7.0.3-0ubuntu0.20.10.1 arm64 Firebird SDBC driver for LibreOffice
ii libreoffice-sdbc-mysql 1:7.0.3-0ubuntu0.20.10.1 arm64 MariaDB/MySQL SDBC driver for LibreOffice
ii libreoffice-sdbc-postgresql 1:7.0.3-0ubuntu0.20.10.1 arm64 PostgreSQL SDBC driver for LibreOffice
ii libreoffice-style-colibre 1:7.0.3-0ubuntu0.20.10.1 all office productivity suite -- colibre symbol style
ii libreoffice-style-elementary 1:7.0.3-0ubuntu0.20.10.1 all office productivity suite -- Elementary symbol style
rc libreoffice-style-tango 1:7.0.3-0ubuntu0.20.10.1 all transitional package for Tango symbol style
ii libreoffice-style-yaru 1:7.0.3-0ubuntu0.20.10.1 all office productivity suite -- Yaru symbol style
ii libreoffice-wiki-publisher 1.2.0+LibO7.0.3-0ubuntu0.20.10.1 all LibreOffice extension for working with MediaWiki articles
ii libreoffice-writer 1:7.0.3-0ubuntu0.20.10.1 arm64 office productivity suite -- word processor

________

I've found references to this error message online i.e. at:

1. https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=84006
... where the bug report has been closed due to "insufficient data", after lingering around since at least 2014, and affecting i386/amd64 builds as well.

2. Way more in-depth talk on ArchLinux forums on this: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=206869 ("This seems to be a java related error, but I have nothing java related installed.") <= I've tried some of the suggested solutions over there as well, such as setting the environment variable "SAL_USE_VCLPLUGIN=gen".

I do have the libgtk2.0 libraries installed, so that doesn't apply as a workaround either -- I've also tried removing libreoffice-related apt packages altogether ('sudo apt-get remove libreoffice*') and reinstalling, that hasn't helped out either.

The runtime exception seems to be related to the UNO API, as described in LibreOffice's documentation:
https://api.libreoffice.org/docs/idl/ref/RuntimeException_8idl.html

All help to resolve this is kindly appreciated!

[The Pthyister (pthyister)]

I've tried compiling from latest Git source of LibreOffice as to their instructions; everything else seems to compile pretty much OK, but alas; the same 'com::sun::star::uno::Sequence' is there to haunt during the compile -- it registers as a "warning" rather than an "error", so that's why it's probably passed on to pre-compiled binaries.

Details during 'make -j4':

________________

[CXX] codemaker/source/codemaker/exceptiontree.cxx
/home/ubuntu/builds/core/instdir/sdk/include/rtl/uri.h:65: warning: unexpected command endverbatim
/home/ubuntu/builds/core/instdir/sdk/include/rtl/uri.h:76: warning: unexpected command endverbatim
/home/ubuntu/builds/core/instdir/sdk/include/rtl/uri.h:86: warning: unexpected command endverbatim
/home/ubuntu/builds/core/instdir/sdk/include/rtl/uri.h:96: warning: unexpected command endverbatim
/home/ubuntu/builds/core/instdir/sdk/include/rtl/uri.h:106: warning: unexpected command endverbatim
/home/ubuntu/builds/core/instdir/sdk/include/rtl/uri.h:116: warning: unexpected command endverbatim
/home/ubuntu/builds/core/instdir/sdk/include/rtl/uri.h:124: warning: unexpected command endverbatim
warning: Included by graph for 'config.h' not generated, too many nodes (81), threshold is 50. Consider increasing DOT_GRAPH_MAX_NODES.
warning: Included by graph for 'types.h' not generated, too many nodes (52), threshold is 50. Consider increasing DOT_GRAPH_MAX_NODES.
a00518:146: warning: explicit link request to 'com::sun::star::uno::Sequence< E >' could not be resolved
a00518:267: warning: unexpected token TK_COMMAND_BS as the argument of _internalref

________________

There is a LibreOffice Q&A page that might have to do something with this subject matter: https://ask.libreoffice.org/en/question/189887/uno-hanging-or-libreoffice-crashing/

Then again, there's multiple bug reports that are open here on Launchpad considering UNO+LibreOffice. Perhaps this needs a closer look?

[The Pthyister (pthyister)]

Alright, I finally got this fixed -- don't know where the problem was but decided to give it a harsh treatment and start all over.

1. Disabled all PPA's and other sources alike, and from /etc/apt/sources.list , made sure that I had only the repositories under "http://ports.ubuntu.com" selected, as well as changed the "deb" in each line to "deb [arch=arm64]", just in case.

2. Got rid of my existing LibreOffice install one more time, this time not just with remove+autoremove but with purge -- it seems that "apt remove" wasn't enough.

sudo apt-get purge libreoffice*

3. Updated the apt-packages repository again.

sudo apt update

4. Re-installed LibreOffice from scratch:

sudo apt-get install libreoffice

... And now it WORKS! :) Anyone struggling with the same issue, I suggest you just nuke your existing LibreOffice installation from the orbit and start all over again.

[Heather Ellsworth (hellsworth)]

I'm so glad you found the solution to your problem! I often remove packages with:
sudo apt purge libreoffice*

Since apt succeeded apt-get. Also "remove" will uninstall a package but not remove it's config files. "purge" will do both uninstall and removal of config files, so there was some config somewhere messing things up for you.