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I have been using LibreOffice writer without any trouble until today. With no warning it simply refuses to open any documents with writer. All other suites are working fine, I can open calc fine, but as soon as I try a text document, the whole thing crashes. If I start with Writer it gives me a splash screen and then nothing, not even a crash report.

No other issues with OS. I have Lubuntu with latest updates. Very old laptop but has never been slow enough to cause crashes

Mateo B.
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  • did you try to start libreoffice.writer from a terminal in order to see if you get some useful error message? – Andrea Borga Jun 24 '17 at 20:52
  • I did, that's what's puzzling. No output, good or bad. It simply launches the splash screen and then returns to prompt after program crashes. Where would the error logs be for libreoffice? – Mateo B. Jun 24 '17 at 22:45
  • The problem may be with linux kernel - linux-image-4.4.0-81-generic (in Xenial) contains a fix for the Stack Clash vulnerability but break user-space programs. Have you tried with newest kernel update? I have linux-image-4.4.0-83-generic installed, and I can run libreoffice --writer normally. – N0rbert Jul 03 '17 at 15:20

1 Answers1

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I had the same issue on Arch linux (32bit xfce) https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=227597

I've managed to solve it by turning off Java in Libreoffice>

First, start Libreoffice, click on Tools, click on options and under Libreoffice section click on Advanced. Deselect "Use a Java runtime environment" and problem solved.

I don't think this a good solution, but considering I don't use Java in Libreoffice it's good enough for me.

Shadowphoton
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  • You rock! This fixed the issue and is my accepted answer since it had the details. Even though there is likely a better answer to fix LO with java this will do for now. – Mateo B. Jun 25 '17 at 20:11
  • Worked like a charm. Thanks. Why is LO using Java in the first place? – Abid H. Mujtaba Jul 21 '17 at 09:40
  • This is a known issue in the kernel/JVM code. Bug #1699772 tracks the issue. Until this is properly fixed, the best workaround is to turn off java in libreoffice, indeed. – Olivier Tilloy Sep 14 '17 at 12:27
  • Same symptoms as OP. I think a reinstalled Libreoffice 3 times, deleted the profile files 42 times, and this is the only bullet proof solution. Thank you ! – Laurent W. Mar 03 '19 at 16:04