Files will not open

[Snowhog]

The command is libreoffice --writer Chapter\ 1--2023.odt

[Schwarzer Kater]

Does LibreOffice Writer open the document with libreoffice Chapter 1--2023.odt at all?

If you have spaces in your file names you have to put a "\" in front of them in the command line interface:
libreoffice Chapter\ 1--2023.odt or
libreoffice --writer Chapter\ 1--2023.odt

That's one reason why I prefer using "_" instead of spaces in file names, like A_file_name.txt .

[wtb32141]

Schwarzer Kater asks: Does LibreOffice Writer open the document with libreoffice Chapter 1--2023.odt at all?

My answer: I saw no sign at all of Chapter 1 being opened.


I'll try again with the advice I've gotten today from Snowhog and Schwarzer Kater.

[wtb32141]

Snowhog, you say, "The command is writer 1--2023.odt". Are you sure? That command does not make much sense to me.

[Snowhog]

Claydoh, I decided to try "libreoffice" with all small letters. Here's the result:

bb@bb-Precision-3520:~/Documents/My 5 Books/paper_book_files/Writer_files/Einstein book--2023$ libreoffice Chapter 1--2023.odt

Using the above, the correct command to issue to open this document in Libreoffice Writer from the command line (assuming you are in the directory that contains the document) is:

libreoffice --writer Chapter\ 1--2023.odt

The escape character ( \ ) precedes the space after Chapter. This is required when ever a space/spaces occur within a file name.

[Snowhog]

Snowhog, you say, "The command is writer 1--2023.odt". Are you sure? That command does not make much sense to me.

I corrected the command in the post.

[claydoh]

If this is happening only on some files, I suspect a corruption, especially if there never has been any sort of backup or anything.
Or the slight possibility of drive issues - this would likely show other symptoms, though.

At the bottom of the screen appears a horizontal progress bar that moves from left to right at a snail’s pace to indicate progress. Ditto when I save a file

I'd *really* like to see a screenshot of this

To toss another idea that may help, if the file is corrupted, might be worth it try opening the 'bad' file, then copy the text into a new document, and see how that new one behaves.

[claydoh]

I don't know how much this affects things, but I just noticed a version of my resume on ODT format is 73Mb (!!?!!) for some reason. Most job sites don't take this format, but all have a size limit (2-5Mb) that this file vastly surpasses. My .doc version is under 2Mb, and the PDF is 48Kb
This has been a somewhat heavily updated, edited, and corrected document, and it seems to have embedded fonts. I wonder if the stored data, such as edit history, font embedding, etc are just 'clogging' things.

So, how large are your files?

I don't easily see a way to clean up the file, other than extracting and manually messing with the raw XML stuff inside.
I did manage to cleanup up my bloaty resume by going to File >> Properties >>Fonts, then UN-checkking all the options, then saving the file.

That reduced it down to 57Kb, a vast reduction in size.
I then re-enabled font embedding, but only checking the "only embed fonts that are used in documents" and the Latin fonts option, and saved the file again. The size stayed the same. smaller size.
I don't know if this is relevant in your case, though it probably isn't unless your files are massively huge in size. But could be info worth collecting.

Do you use any custom plugins or addons for Libreoffice? I wonder if that might be a contributor as well, maybe?


(off-topic: you can open a Libreoffice document with Ark, since they are just a compressed collection of files, and see things like this. Such as the 92Mb worth of fonts in that bloated resume)

[wtb32141]

I entered the following command in the terminal part of Dolphin:

bb@bb-Precision-3520:~/Documents/My 5 Books/paper_book_files/Writer_files/Einstein book--2023$ libreoffice --writer Chapter\ 1--2023.odt

I was in the right directory (all of the book's 40 chapters are in that Einstein book--2023 folder), and I executed the command that Snowhog advised me to execute. I hit Enter, and nothing happened beyond the cursor moving to the beginning of the next line. None of us is perfect; I have looked that command over carefully several times, and I see no error.

[Snowhog]

Show us the listed contents of your ~/Documents/My 5 Books/paper_book_files/Writer_files/Einstein book--2023 directory:

ls -la

[claydoh]

and nothing happened beyond the cursor moving to the beginning of the next line.

I believe this just means the LO is not having any errors itself, or with the file, at the moment.

[wtb32141]

Claydoh, Chapter 33 treats Einstein's general theory of relativity. It's probably the longest chapter in the book. That chapter's file size is 267.4 KB! I have no add-on's or things like that.

[Schwarzer Kater]

[…]
I was in the right directory (all of the book's 40 chapters are in that Einstein book--2023 folder), and I executed the command that Snowhog advised me to execute. I hit Enter, and nothing happened beyond the cursor moving to the beginning of the next line. […]

Nothing happened?
The document did not open in LibreOffice Writer?

[…]
To toss another idea that may help, if the file is corrupted, might be worth it try opening the 'bad' file, then copy the text into a new document, and see how that new one behaves.

And did you try that?

[wtb32141]

Claydoh, I posted earlier in this thread text that addresses the corrupt-file issue. That text (in quotes here) is:

"I have some new and interesting info about the long times it sometimes takes to open or save a Writer file on my laptop that’s running Ubuntu 22.04; Libre Office version 7.3.7.2. I began this morning with 3 files open in Writer. The computer had been asleep overnight. Each file is a chapter in a 40-chapter book on A. Einstein that I’ve written with Writer. Chapter 37 has 14 pages. I changed “A. Sommerfeld” to “Arnold Sommerfeld”; then I told Writer to save the file. It took Writer more than 20 minutes to save the file! I timed it with my phone’s stopwatch. Then I rebooted the laptop. I then reopened Chapter 37, and I changed “Arnold Sommerfeld” back to “A. Sommerfeld”, and I saved that change. The length of time it took to save that change was normal (no more than a second). That interesting info tells me that the file containing Chapter 37 is not corrupt—that the file is not the source of the long times it sometimes takes to open or close a file. Unfortunately, it doesn’t tell me the source of the problem, but I’m a step closer to identifying the real problem."

If that file were corrupt, rebooting the computer is not going to fix the corruption!

I have some insurance matters I must attend to now; so I'll be offline for a while. My next job is to get the directory listing that Snowhog requested.

[wtb32141]

Snowhog, here's the listing you requested:

bb@bb-Precision-3520:~/Documents/My_5_Books/paper_book_files/Writer_files/Einstein_book--2023$ ls -la
total 5012
drwxrwxr-x 2 bb bb 4096 Jul 19 13:32 .
drwxrwxr-x 9 bb bb 4096 Jul 19 13:39 ..
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 86406 Jul 16 12:08 '3-col_index--Paper Book file--2023.odt'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 40506 Jul 14 04:20 'Chapter 10--2023.odt'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 36066 Jul 5 17:14 'Chapter 11--2023.odt'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 65656 Jul 10 11:44 'Chapter 1--2023.odt'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 54177 Jul 5 17:11 'Chapter 12--2023.odt'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 52923 Jul 5 17:11 'Chapter 13--2023.odt'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 44613 Jul 5 17:12 'Chapter 14--2023.odt'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 65494 Jul 5 17:01 'Chapter 15--2023.odt'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 41559 Jun 11 10:57 'Chapter 16--2023.odt'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 73464 Jul 4 03:58 'Chapter 17--2023.odt'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 47115 Jun 18 12:44 'Chapter 18--2023.odt'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 46810 Jul 5 17:08 'Chapter 19--2023.odt'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 41331 Jun 30 05:38 'Chapter 20--2023.odt'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 40564 Jul 5 17:04 'Chapter 21--2023.odt'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 56269 Jul 8 16:51 'Chapter 2--2023.odt'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 53960 Jul 1 19:43 'Chapter 22--2023.odt'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 45618 Jun 14 08:40 'Chapter 23--2023.odt'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 48362 Jul 3 03:00 'Chapter 24--2023.odt'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 48536 Jul 5 16:18 'Chapter 25--2023.odt'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 69851 Jul 3 04:31 'Chapter 26--2023.odt'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 42451 Jul 5 16:02 'Chapter 27--2023.odt'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 152444 Jul 1 19:46 'Chapter 28--2023.odt'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 39467 Jul 5 17:08 'Chapter 29--2023.odt'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 123089 Jul 6 00:53 'Chapter 30--2023.odt'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 51599 Jul 5 16:05 'Chapter 31--2023.odt'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 46666 Jul 5 17:06 'Chapter 3--2023.odt'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 193824 Jul 5 17:09 'Chapter 32--2023.odt'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 267427 Jul 5 16:55 'Chapter 33--2023.odt'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 51923 Jul 5 17:05 'Chapter 34--2023.odt'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 764620 Jul 8 04:17 'Chapter 35--2023.odt'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 42506 Jul 5 09:57 'Chapter 36--2023.odt'
-rwxrwxrwx 1 bb bb 80627 Jul 17 05:29 'Chapter 37--2023.odt'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 49026 Jun 26 12:40 'Chapter 38.odt'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 65709 Jul 1 13:41 'Chapter 39--2023.odt'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 61725 Jul 14 20:57 'Chapter 40--2023.odt'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 41523 Jun 9 21:43 'Chapter 4--2023.odt'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 1307960 Jul 5 17:10 'Chapter 5--2023.odt'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 59119 Jul 2 03:49 'Chapter 6--2023.odt'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 50390 Jul 3 02:03 'Chapter 7--2023.odt'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 44276 Jul 5 17:12 'Chapter 8--2023.odt'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 59374 Jun 22 05:05 'Chapter 9--2023.odt'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 86534 Jun 18 21:30 'FM--Einstein book--11-26-2022.odt'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 86528 Jul 9 01:57 'FM--Einstein book--2023.odt'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 18552 Jul 16 03:22 'Just xxx.odt'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 77 Jul 16 15:17 '.~lock.3-col_index--Paper Book file--2023.odt#'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 77 Jul 5 17:14 '.~lock.Chapter 11--2023.odt#'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 77 Jul 19 13:32 '.~lock.Chapter 1--2023.odt#'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 77 Jul 5 17:11 '.~lock.Chapter 13--2023.odt#'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 77 Jul 5 17:12 '.~lock.Chapter 14--2023.odt#'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 77 Jul 5 17:01 '.~lock.Chapter 15--2023.odt#'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 77 Jun 18 12:44 '.~lock.Chapter 18--2023.odt#'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 77 Jul 5 17:08 '.~lock.Chapter 19--2023.odt#'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 77 Jun 30 05:38 '.~lock.Chapter 20--2023.odt#'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 77 Jul 5 17:04 '.~lock.Chapter 21--2023.odt#'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 77 Jul 1 19:43 '.~lock.Chapter 22--2023.odt#'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 77 Jul 3 03:00 '.~lock.Chapter 24--2023.odt#'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 77 Jul 5 16:18 '.~lock.Chapter 25--2023.odt#'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 77 Jul 3 04:31 '.~lock.Chapter 26--2023.odt#'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 77 Jul 18 06:25 '.~lock.Chapter 27--2023.odt#'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 77 Jul 16 15:17 '.~lock.Chapter 28--2023.odt#'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 77 Jul 5 17:08 '.~lock.Chapter 29--2023.odt#'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 77 Jul 6 00:53 '.~lock.Chapter 30--2023.odt#'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 77 Jul 5 16:05 '.~lock.Chapter 31--2023.odt#'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 77 Jul 5 17:09 '.~lock.Chapter 32--2023.odt#'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 77 Jul 8 04:17 '.~lock.Chapter 35--2023.odt#'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 77 Jul 5 09:57 '.~lock.Chapter 36--2023.odt#'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 77 Jul 17 09:18 '.~lock.Chapter 37--2023.odt#'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 77 Jul 18 05:48 '.~lock.Chapter 40--2023.odt#'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 77 Jul 2 03:49 '.~lock.Chapter 6--2023.odt#'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 77 Jul 5 17:12 '.~lock.Chapter 8--2023.odt#'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 77 Jun 22 05:05 '.~lock.Chapter 9--2023.odt#'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 77 Jul 6 06:13 '.~lock.sources--Einstein book 2023.odt#'
-rw------- 1 bb bb 0 Jul 17 05:16 lu2311iby.tmp
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bb bb 63731 Jul 6 06:13 'sources--Einstein book 2023.odt'
bb@bb-Precision-3520:~/Documents/My_5_Books/paper_book_files/Writer_files/Einstein_book--2023$