[SOLVED] Libreoffice not loading

[SamCaine]

I'm hoping to find some help. To set the background: I'm a long term Linux (since '98) and Kubuntu user (for years and years) but I'm no power user by any means. I've been solving problems with Linux all that time, but this one has me stumped.

I upgraded to 21.04 yesterday morning via the command line download process and everything went well until I tried opening a spreadsheet. I've tried opening the application directly and opening a document, and I've tried loading from the command line, and all that happens in all casesis that I get the Libreoffice banner briefly, with a part-complete loading bar, which disappears soon after, leaving the spinning wheel of doom, which also disappears soon after. There are no warning dialogue boxes hidden to say there's another instance running, or anything.

I've succeeded in loading Libreoffice from the command line using sudo, everything works fine, but of course that's not what I want.

Clearly it's a permissions issue, but I can't seem to find a way to alter that.

Any help, advice gratefully received.

[claydoh]

Opening LibreOffice, or any GUI program, with sudo is a good way to screw up permissions, so don't do that again
At the very least, your LO settings are probably set to root, now.
What happens in the terminal when you try running a component without sudo (libreoffice --writer, for example)?

Did you use a PPA to upgrade LO at any time before you upgraded? If so, you will need to re-enable that, and update your system, as you may be running LO packages for 20.10 still, as the PPA version is newer than the stock 21.04, so they might not have been upgraded.
apt policy libreoffice will show what you have installed, from where, and other versions (if any).

Here is mine, on 20.04

$ apt policy libreoffice
libreoffice:
Installed: 1:7.0.4~rc2-0ubuntu0.20.04.2
Candidate: 1:7.0.4~rc2-0ubuntu0.20.04.2
Version table:
*** 1:7.0.4~rc2-0ubuntu0.20.04.2 500
500 http://ppa.launchpad.net/libreoffice/libreoffice-7-0/ubuntu focal/main amd64 Packages
100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
1:6.4.7-0ubuntu0.20.04.1 500
500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates/universe amd64 Packages
1:6.4.2-0ubuntu3 500
500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal/universe amd64 Packages

To fix any bunged up permissions,:

sudo chown -R your-username:your-username /home/your-username

[SamCaine]

Opening LibreOffice, or any GUI program, with sudo is a good way to screw up permissions, so don't do that again

Well, it was broken anyway...

At the very least, your LO settings are probably set to root, now.

They were before I ran it as root, so no damagae done

What happens in the terminal when you try running a component without sudo (libreoffice --writer, for example)?

As described, the banner appears briefly, then it closes and I get the spinning wheel of death briefly, then nothing.

Did you use a PPA to upgrade LO at any time before you upgraded? If so, you will need to re-enable that, and update your system, as you may be running LO packages for 20.10 still, as the PPA version is newer than the stock 21.04, so they might not have been upgraded.
apt policy libreoffice will show what you have installed, from where, and other versions (if any).

Here is mine, on 20.04

$ apt policy libreoffice
libreoffice:
Installed: 1:7.0.4~rc2-0ubuntu0.20.04.2
Candidate: 1:7.0.4~rc2-0ubuntu0.20.04.2
Version table:
*** 1:7.0.4~rc2-0ubuntu0.20.04.2 500
500 http://ppa.launchpad.net/libreoffice/libreoffice-7-0/ubuntu focal/main amd64 Packages
100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
1:6.4.7-0ubuntu0.20.04.1 500
500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates/universe amd64 Packages
1:6.4.2-0ubuntu3 500
500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal/universe amd64 Packages

I've never used a PPA, just the version of LO that comes installed with the version of Kubuntu I install.

Here's what I get when I apt policy libreoffice

$ apt policy libreoffice
libreoffice:
Installed: 1:7.1.2~rc2-0ubuntu2
Candidate: 1:7.1.2~rc2-0ubuntu2
Version table:
*** 1:7.1.2~rc2-0ubuntu2 500
     500 [URL]http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu[/URL] hirsute/universe amd64 Packages
     100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

[claydoh]

So you don't see any messaging in the terminal?

running anything with sudo can cause anything that program touches to change permissions, so at the very minimum that program's configs.

find ~/ -user root

will show any baddies, but the command I gave earlier will fix any files that have had the permissions changed.

[SamCaine]

There is nothing when I type libreoffice-writer in the terminal, all that happens is the brief banner, brief spinning wheel and the terminal returns to the next line with no error messages.

I used the command you posted earlier, thank you, and the command you just offered throw up no baddies.

I have just noticed that in my home folder's .config folder there's a Libreoffice folder with a .lock file in it.

[claydoh]

There is nothing when I type libreoffice-writer in the terminal, all that happens is the brief banner, brief spinning wheel and the terminal returns to the next line with no error messages.

I used the command you posted earlier, thank you, and the command you just offered throw up no baddies.

I have just noticed that in my home folder's .config folder there's a Libreoffice folder with a .lock file in it.

What is the specific path and file name?
LO may have crashed the first time out, but is still running in the background, maybe. The lock file (I *think*) is there to prevent a particular file from being edited by another program while it is open. Normally these are deleted when closing the program. The file's presence may indicate a crash, and maybe LO is still running in the background? so you might want to use KSysGuard to stop any running LO processes and delete the lock file, or just reboot (and move/delete the lock), and see if that cure the problem

[SamCaine]

What is the specific path and file name?

/home/user/.config/libreoffice/4/.lock

[SNIP]
[Lockdata]
User=
Host=
Stamp=38915C417CCEA279DCD4646BFE036456
Time=Thu May 13 13:22:12 2021
IPCServer=true[/SNIP]

LO may have crashed the first time out, but is still running in the background, maybe. The lock file (I *think*) is there to prevent a particular file from being edited by another program while it is open. Normally these are deleted when closing the program. The file's presence may indicate a crash, and maybe LO is still running in the background? so you might want to use KSysGuard to stop any running LO processes and delete the lock file, or just reboot (and move/delete the lock), and see if that cure the problem

I've rebooted a number of times and tried to open LO afterwards with the same result each time. From searching the web I've tried suggestions to delete the lock file, deleting that whole folder, rebooting, etc. I've removed LO, purged LO, reinstalled from Discover, reinstalled from the command line.

I've looked at KSysGuard each time and there no instances of LO running.

[SamCaine]

Well, I fixed it. Probably not the most elegant way, nor one the gurus and SysAdmins would approve of. I simply removed LO using apt, then went to Discover and found that I had to remove the individual applications from there too. I deleted the LO folder in /home/user/.cache and then I opened Nemo as root in a terminal, did a search for 'libreoffice' and deleted everything I could find that came up (though that still left hundreds of image and a few .css files. Then I rebooted, I installed LO via Discover, which didn't work, so I tried it from the command line using apt, but said that LO was already installed. So I installed it using snap, and now everything is tickety boo.

I need LO to do work, so I couldn't wait for the 'best' or 'approved' way.

[Goeroeboeroe]

I've seen this thread too late. I've had this problem once too. Not sure if this had solved it, but if anybody reads this having this problem, it's worth a try.
The .lock file in /.config/libreoffice/4 is to protect against twice opening (and editing) a file etc. As soon as you open a file in LibreOffice, it appears and it is removed when the file is closed the normal way.
If LibreOffice crashes or something like that, the .lock file is not removed. Normally, if you start LibreOffice again, you get a dialogue with something like 'Do you want to repair the ... (name of last edited file) ...'. If you click Yes, the file is checked and you can start working again.
I've had once that .lock file wasn't removed, and LibreOffice closed right after starting it, just like you described. After removing the .lock file by hand, everything worked again as it should.
If this problem occurs, it's worth a try. It certainly is much less work to remove the .lock file compared to reinstalling. Of course I did check the file I was editing when LibreOffice crashed, because it's possible the file is damaged.

[GreyGeek]

Well, I fixed it. .....
... Then I rebooted, I installed LO via Discover, which didn't work, so I tried it from the command line using apt, but said that LO was already installed. So I installed it using snap, and now everything is tickety boo.
.....

I'm surprised that running "sudo apt install ..." wouldn't give you a working installation of LO, and neither would Discover. Nor, I assume, would muon. But, snap worked. That doesn't pass the smell test. (Not you or your efforts, but the necessity of using snap). I'm going to be watching for this with other applications.

[claydoh]

If you manually deleted executable, libraries, and other system files, apt's database still think it is installed. Logical if you think about it.

[SamCaine]

I'm surprised that running "sudo apt install ..." wouldn't give you a working installation of LO, and neither would Discover. Nor, I assume, would muon. But, snap worked. That doesn't pass the smell test. (Not you or your efforts, but the necessity of using snap). I'm going to be watching for this with other applications.

Yep, it surprised me too, but I'm just content that I have a working LO and I can now continue with my work and not have to revert to Windows after 20+ years of hardly ever using it.

[SamCaine]

For some reason I'm unable to view beyond the first page of this thread.