Troubleshooting OpenOffice.org

These are some general steps for troubleshooting OpenOffice.org. Troubleshooting is between an art and a science, so may take a little patience and several steps. Often there is a solution nearby.

These are general troubleshooting steps for a variety of problems.

• Make sure you are running the latest vanilla OpenOffice.org from http://download.openoffice.org . If you are running Linux, there is a high chance you aren't running a vanilla edition, so you more likely need to switch.
• Search the Issue Tracker in case it is a known bug.

Resetting your OpenOffice.org application profile is useful if you suspect your profile may be corrupt.

This procedure will reset your profile, so you will lose settings including extensions, custom words in your spell checker dictionary, toolbar settings, anything listed in the Tools - Options menu, macros listed in My Macros, etc. However, once you solve or identify your problem, you may reverse the procedure.

Follow these steps in order:

1. Close all OpenOffice.org windows.
2. Exit the OpenOffice.org Quickstarter (if applicable).
3. Rename the user configuration directory.
   1. Windows XP
      1. Navigate to the directory beneath the user configuration directory. Normally this is C:\Documents and Settings\{username}\Application Data\
      2. Rename Openoffice.org2 to another name such as Openoffice.org2.backup
   2. On Linux, run a command such as mv ~/.openoffice.org2 ~/.openoffice.org2.backup
4. Start OpenOffice.org

First, temporarily disable any antivirus software.

Second, search OOoSearch and/or Google with the verbatim error message. Because these errors are caused by the Windows Installer designed by Microsoft, you may find solutions describing non-OpenOffice.org applications.

Here are some specific solutions

• Error 1304: Error writing to file policy.1.0.cli_cppuhelper.dll: install .NET Framework 2.0
• Error 1305: make installation directory readable
• Error 1311: copying installation files to new location
• Error 1316: A network error occurred while attempting to read from the file C:\WINDOWS\Installer\openoffice24.msi.
• Error 1714. The older version of OpenOffice.org 2.4 cannot be removed. Contact your technical support group.: edit registry
  • Also see OpenOffice.org defect #86380
• Error 1935. An error occur during the assembly installation : di_types,publicKeyToken="ce2cb7e279207b9e", version="1.1.11.0",culture="neutral".: rename a file
• Error 1935 'policy.1.0.cli_ure, publicKeyToken="ce2cb7e279207b9e", version="8.0.0.0," culture="neutral: install Microsoft .Net
• Error 1935: disable Comodo antivirus
• Erro 1935 on Vista: special Microsoft .NET upgrade

You may wish to try installing in Windows Safe mode. To do that, reboot. During the bootup, press the F8 key. Then, choose Safe Mode. (Do not choose Networking or Command Line.)

These can be run independently in any order.

• Kill any running OpenOffice.org processes, which are named soffice.bin or soffice.exe.
  • In Windows, use the Windows Task Manager
  • In Linux, from a terminal run the command killall soffice.bin
• Reboot your computer.
• Make sure you are using the latest vanilla edition
• Windows: Temporarily disable any firewall.
• Windows: Temporarily disable any anti-virus.
• Reset your application profile.
• Linux: Use a standard GNOME or KDE theme.
• Linux: Start in terminal and watch terminal for error messages.
• Linux: Disable SELinux or change it to permissive mode.
• Linux: Use the 32-bit version of OpenOffice.org instead of 64-bit.
• Linux: Remove any 64-bit Java. (You can restore it once you have identified the problem.)
• Linux: For troubleshooting, run the command strace -f openoffice.org2.4 &>/tmp/ooo.log. Then, read the last lines of the log.
• Linux: Uncomment SAL_NOOPENGL=true; export SAL_NOOPENGL in /opt/openoffice.org2.4/program/soffice (or equivalent path).
• Fedora: See OpenOffice.org potted workarounds.
• Windows: Uninstall Webroot Desktop Firewall.

There are multiple ways to start OpenOffice.org. If one does not work, try another.

If you get this error on Windows, see phil447's solution based on Microsoft Knowledgebase article Error Message: "Access Is Denied" When You Try to Open NTFS File System Folders.

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Sometimes OpenOffice.org crashes, but usually there is an easy solution.

1. Read the general troubleshooting section. In particular, make sure you are using the latest vanilla version.
2. Reset the application profile.
3. Uninstall. Then, reboot. Then, reinstall.
4. Check your operating system's drivers. In particular, check video drivers.
5. Try to figure out what triggers the problem.
   1. Does the problem happen with all documents of the same type (for example, all .odt documents)?
   2. Does it happen with documents of other types (such as .odt, .doc, .xls)?
   3. Does it happen every time?
6. Linux: Disable Compiz.
7. As a final option, report a bug to the Issue Tracker.

If you are having installation or profile problems, this forceful procedure removes most traces of OpenOffice.org so you can have a clean start.

1. Disable antivirus
2. Quit OpenOffice.org all Windows including Quickstarter.
3. Uninstall OpenOffice.org.
4. Optional: Follow the steps to reset application profile.
5. Windows only: optional: run the Windows Installer CleanUp Utility if OpenOffice.org is still listed in the Control Panel under Add/Remove Programs.
6. Windows only: optional: run a registry cleaner such as CCleaner.
7. Reboot
8. Reenable antivirus
9. Reinstall

If OpenOffice.org show you documents can be recovered, you click Start recovery and then get a message that “Recovery failed,” just delete the file user/registry/data/org/openoffice/Office/Recovery.xcu in your user profile directory.

When OpenOffice.org (or any software) gives you an error message, search for it in Google. Put quotation marks around the text. It is important to use the original error message verbatim, but you may search for part of the error message at a time. Here are some examples:

Notice in the second example that “ID” could be replaced with any column name, so the query is split into three parts to remain generic.

• Troubleshooting Common Problems (some parts are outdated)
• [[Warning! The column “ID” could not be changed. Should the column instead be deleted and the new format appended?|