Linux 18.2 with OpenOffice 4.1.0 base crashes when trying to scroll.
 

I downloaded and installed OpenOffice 4.0 and everything seemed to be working well with my database. Then there were some updates and after those updates OO base crashes as soon as i try to scroll down. So I tried to put the latest update of OpenOffice but still having the same issues. Is there anyway to go back from the updates or is there a fix to this bug?
Thanks Steve Kotsiris

Hi Steve, and welcome to LQ.

Which version of OpenOffice is it that you're using (the thread title says 4.1.0, the post says 4.0)?

OpenOffice 4.1.0 was published on 29 Apr 2014 (https://wiki.openoffice.org/wiki/Product_Release). I would recommend that you update to the latest version 4.1.3 (http://www.openoffice.org/download/) to see if what you're experiencing is a bug that has been resolved.

I started with 4.0 and all worked well, then there was an update that took it to like 4.0.3 I believe and that's when it started crashing. I tried updating to the 4.1.3 Crashed, removed 4.1.3 and installed what I thought was 4.0 but it's telling me it's 4.1.0 that still crashed. I don't think it will allow me to go back to 4.0. Plus I'm not sure if it was something from Linux that go updated that is causing the crashes.
thanks, Steve Kotsiris

I'm sorry you've been having all those problems!

Personally in your situation I would completely remove OpenOffice from your system, rename your personal OpenOffice config folder, and reinstall the latest version, try that to see if it works and, if not, completely remove it again and reinstall the older version.

Alternatively, LibreOffice seems to be getting more support and development than OpenOffice these days, so that move may be worth considering.

If the problem appeared recently, and you have a fairly accurate knowledge of when this was, then another thing we can do is check your package manager log file to see what was installed around that time.

Your call. If you want to completely remove OpenOffice then please let us know how you installed it, and also paste the results from:

and

For the future, it's always a good idea to make regular system backups or images so that you have the option of reverting to a previous backup in case something like this happens.

Haven't looked at OpenOffice since the Oracle takeover fiasco of the original product.
Perhaps you might want to look at the fork that was created at that time, it might be more actively maintained - LibreOffice. If that "18.2" refers to Mint, it should be in the standard repos I would guess.

Edit: Ahh, asleep at the wheel again - see above ... :redface:

I rename the conf file and tried a clean install with the latest and the 4.0 that previously worked fine for me but still crashing. Seems like it's an update on Linux. How do I get the the package manager log file? I find where I can get the update history, but can't select copy and past it in its format. I'm not at the computer with Linux install right now other wise I'd include the results from the code you provided for me. Ran out of time yesterday.
Thanks Steve Kotsiris.

Because you're experiencing the problem that you have been having, it's probably important to properly purge the old Openffice, including all its component packages and orphan dependencies, and both system and personal configurations, before a clean install of another version. To do that you need to work out which installed packages are related to OpenOffice and throw apt-get purge packagename at each one, followed by an apt-get autoremove and a rename of any personal configuration files and folders. That's why I'm trying to determine which packages you have installed (you might have in fact remains from more than one of the various versions you have installed).

/var/log/apt/history.log - is that the log you're talking about too?

Wow didn't think it was so complicated, I'll send you the info you requested as soon as I get back to the computer. Thanks for all your help.
Steve Kotsiris

Sorry if I made it sound so complicated.

In essence, because we don't know where the problem is, and because you've installed various versions of OpenOffice at different times, it's better to try to get back to a clean slate before installing it again.

Here is what the code you asked me to run returned.

One thing I just noticed is that I can go into my database and input data in the tables, run queries, and reports without it crashing. The only time it crashes is when I open up a form and click anywhere on the form. I use the forms to input all the data for my database. Hoping this helps diagnosing my crashing issue.
Thanks Steve Kotsiris.

Given this information, just in case this isn't actually an OpenOffice problem, per se, I would try deleting and recreating the form that is crashing. Perhaps some incompatibility crept in with a recent update (I know - it shouldn't - but no software is perfect ..).

If this accomplishes nothing, you can go back to troubleshooting the OpenOffice installation.

Cheers - don't give up !

I took and created a new form with the wizard and I opened the new form and clicked on a field to fill.... CRASHED. The databases forms work fine on my other laptop with OpenOffice windows xp platform, and it worked fine on this one with Linux 18.2 until the update. Seems like some txt editor is in conflict with the forms part of OpenOffice.

Have you tried testing your database in LibreOffice, to validate compatibility ? As mentioned by other members here, LibreOffice is more supported than OpenOffice in recent years. It may be a workaround.

Cheers.

Thanks for that listing.

Mea culpa. I should have mentioned that if you maximise your terminal window before running dpkg -l then you don't get as much truncation of the package names in the resultant output.

My other mistake was in not asking you to grep filter the dpkg results so that all those non-installed packages weren't listed (this in fact also solves the first mistake as the package names are now listed in full):

So, bearing that in mind, could you run:

followed by

(these two commands can in fact be combined into sudo apt-get --purge autoremove openoffice if you so desire)

Then
and

so that we can see what's left.


Just for interest
-----------------
For anyone reading who's interested in the above two commands, dpkg -l '*package*' uses the asterisks (*) around the packagename fragment to search for any packages in the local package database that have that name fragment anywhere in their name. The inverted quotes (') are used to force bash to treat that name fragment as a string argument to dpkg rather than using it as a glob to match against the files in the current directory.

The -v flag in grep -v '^un' is a negate flag, essentially saying "match the inverse of the string that follows", while '^un' matches the output from dpkg where the package is marked (on the first two letters of its line, hence the ^ which means start of line) as un (not installed).