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This page is part of the debugging series — pages with debugging details for a variety of Ubuntu packages.

Contents

Contents

Introduction
What is not considered a bug?
1. package libreoffice-common (not installed) failed to install/upgrade: trying to overwrite '/usr/bin/soffice', which is also in package openoffice-debian-menus
2. Apache OpenOffice / OpenOffice.org bugs
How to file a bug
1. Bug reporting template
Debugging
Triaging LibreOffice bugs
Links

Introduction

Please do not report a LibreOffice bug without first reading this wiki article and performing all the relevant actions mentioned here. Also, please do not complain about how long it takes to release a patch, the severity of your bug is high so it should be fixed immediately, "I cannot believe it's not fixed...", etc. This type of behavior is nonconstructive, irritating to others who read your comment, and does not incentivize developers to want to fix your problem. We all want to see every bug fixed as soon as possible! Naturally, bugs being fixed is limited to reproducibility and clarity of the bug report, the actual impact the bug has on the community, and available developer resources.

What is not considered a bug?

package libreoffice-common (not installed) failed to install/upgrade: trying to overwrite '/usr/bin/soffice', which is also in package openoffice-debian-menus

If you have a crash, and a window pops up asking to report to Launchpad something like:
package libreoffice-common (not installed) failed to install/upgrade: trying to overwrite '/usr/bin/soffice', which is also in package openoffice-debian-menus

Please do not file this as a bug report. It's not a bug, and will be marked Invalid. Instead, please remove the package openoffice-debian-menus first before upgrading.

Apache OpenOffice / OpenOffice.org bugs

Apache OpenOffice (AOO) / OpenOffice.org (OOo) is not supported in Ubuntu. This is due to how:

LibreOffice is the default office productivity suite in Ubuntu.
LibreOffice releases are fast, timely, and on a scheduled maintenance cadence.
Historically, AOO has had a long time lag in releasing new versions, features, bug fixes, and security updates.
AOO has not announced a precise, and consistent release schedule for their software.
Against the consensus of the OOo community, OOo was forced to incur an unnecessary, and largely unwanted licensing and branding change into AOO.

Hence, an appropriate triaging response is:

Thank you for reporting this and helping make Ubuntu.

However, there are no new official Apache OpenOffice / OpenOffice.org releases in Ubuntu, as the Ubuntu project has transitioned to LibreOffice. Hence, the status of this report is being marked as Won't Fix.

You are welcome to test for this problem in LibreOffice. If reproducible, please click the button:
Also affects distribution

Distribution: Ubuntu
Source Package Name: (Optional) libreoffice

For more on installing LibreOffice please see https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LibreOffice.

Thank you for your understanding.

How to file a bug

First, please make sure you remove all AOO/OOo packages first, then install the full LibreOffice suite to avoid package split collateral damage, by executing at a terminal:

sudo apt-get -y install libreoffice

Please file all your LibreOffice bugs by executing at terminal:

ubuntu-bug <PACKAGE>

where <PACKAGE> is the specific package you found the problem in. For example, if you have a document import issue with Writer:

ubuntu-bug libreoffice-writer

Bug reporting template

$Warning /!\$ Please note 1) and 2) are terminal commands to execute, and post the results of when initially filing your bug report. As well, you may need to install the package apt-show-versions.

1) lsb_release -rd

2) apt-cache policy <PACKAGE>

apt-show-versions -r libreoffice*

3) What is expected to happen in Writer is <PRECISE, STEP-BY-STEP INSTRUCTIONS TO REPRODUCE ONE PROBLEM>.

4) What happened instead is...

I have the following extensions installed: lo-menubar...

WORKAROUND: Perform the following steps:...

Debugging

Move ~/.config/libreoffice

Try moving .libreoffice and ~/.config/libreoffice. If you installed any extensions, remove them and see if the problem is reproducible. Comment on the results of performing these techniques in your report. Please keep these directories around -- if moving the profile helps you, developers might be interested in it to find out what was wrong with it.

Bug importing a non-MS Office document

If you are reporting about importing a non-MS Office document, please attach the document to the bug report before opening in LibreOffice or in any other program in Ubuntu. As well, please post a screenshot of how it looks in LibreOffice with a specific description about how it should look.

Bug exporting to MS Office

If you are reporting about how a document looks different exporting to MS Office, please attach the document to the bug report immediately after saving via LibreOffice, but before opening in MS Office. As well, please post a screenshot of how it looks in LibreOffice and then how it shows in MS Office.

Bug importing from MS Office

If you are reporting about how a document looks importing from MS Office, please save the file in MS Office, then before opening in any other program, attach the document to the bug report. As well, please post a screenshot of how it looks in LibreOffice and then how it shows in MS Office.

Bug exporting PDF to Adobe

If you are reporting about how a document looks exporting to Adobe Reader, please attach the file to the bug report before and after exporting to PDF. As well, provide screenshots of how it looks in LibreOffice and Adobe Reader.

Bug importing PDF

If you are reporting about how a PDF document looks importing into Draw, please attach the file to the bug report before importing into Draw. As well, provide screenshots of how it looks in Draw and Adobe Reader.

Printing problems

For issues printing from LibreOffice please report this against cups first via a terminal:

ubuntu-bug cups

It could end up being an issue with LibreOffice, but it's best to start with cups in order to rule it out. As well, please follow all debugging steps noted in https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingPrintingProblems.

LibreOffice crashes but system still functional

This is when LibreOffice crashes, but one may still continue to use the OS.
1. Please make sure the LibreOffice debug symbol packages are installed:
  - libreoffice-dbg
  - uno-libs3-dbg
  - ure-dbg
2. Please file a new crash report via the apport process. Instructions on this are available from https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Apport.
3. If the crash happened while a particular document was open or you were manipulating the document in a certain way, please attach that document to the new bug report you created with detailed, click-for-click steps on how to reproduce the crash.
4. For suspected GUI/desktop environment driven crashes (ex. reproducible in Kubuntu but not Xubuntu), please remove the following packages and comment on if this changes anything:
  - libreoffice-gtk
  - libreoffice-gnome
  - libreoffice-gtk3
  - libreoffice-kde

The Whole system hangs or boots to the login screen

For instances when you are using LibreOffice and either the system hangs requiring a hard reset or you are booted to the login screen, this may be a bug in either the X.Org suite or the linux kernel. Please follow https://help.ubuntu.com/community/DebuggingSystemCrash. Also, if this happened while a particular document was open or you were manipulating the document, please attach that document to the bug report with detailed, click-for-click steps on how to reproduce the crash.

Bibisecting regressions

For regressions, it is helpful to perform a binary bisect ("bibisect") to narrow down which commit specifically caused the problem. For instructions please see http://sweetshark.livejournal.com/7683.html.

Triaging LibreOffice bugs

Requesting a document

Many bugs are dependent on the document. Hence, it is vital the original reporter provide a minimal test case that demonstrates the issue. An example triaging statement:

Thank you for reporting this and helping make Ubuntu better.

Could you please attach uncompressed/untarred to this report a document that reproduces this problem? Please ensure that:
1) If a concern of privacy exists due to the sensitive information in the document, it needs to be removed. Please do not directly e-mail anyone the sensitive document as this puts an undue burden on the other person to ensure a secure chain of custody.
2) Please reduce the document so that it has the least amount of content possible, but still demonstrates this problem. The bigger the document, the harder it is for a developer to quickly review it, and provide a fix.

Thank you for your understanding.

Writer and Calc

For bugs in Writer, it is helpful to check to see if the problem exists in AbiWord. For bugs in Calc, it is helpful to check to see if the problem exists in Gnumeric. Sometimes, AbiWord and Gnumeric give the bug reporter a usable workaround to the problem (and vice versa). If a workaround is found, feel free to document it in the report. As well, while not quite apples and oranges code wise, it gives LibreOffice developers code to base a patch on.

LibreOffice Packaging PPAs

While PPAs are by definition not supported in Ubuntu, for those who use the PPAs provided by the LibreOffice Packaging team, courtesy support is extended to help them. As a triager, it is helpful to add in the report the tag ppa in the tags field, and triage as normal.

Wishlist reports

For Wishlist reports, these typically are requests to implement a new feature in LibreOffice not currently supported. A broad but good rule of thumb is if you want LibreOffice to do something that MS Office does, as LibreOffice intends compatibility with MS Office, please document how specifically MS Office does it, then how LibreOffice does not or does not do well that which you desire. Please keep in mind, pocket cases exist where LibreOffice intentionally does not do what MS Office does (ex. leap year implementation). For Wishlist reports, they would typically be marked Won't Fix Wishlist. This is due to how Ubuntu diverts very little from the LibreOffice upstream source release, and upstream's rapid maintenance cadence. An appropriate Won't Fix Wishlist reply:

Thank you for reporting this and helping make Ubuntu better. Regarding this report:
- This is a clearcut upstream issue. Could you please send this to the developers of the software by following the instructions at http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/BugReport? Please provide a URL of the upstream bug, so a bugwatch may be added that will advise about its status.
- Marking LibreOffice Packaging and libreoffice (Ubuntu) => Won't Fix Wishlist. This does not mean the issue will not be cared about, but if it is cared about (even by Ubuntu/Canonical contributors), it is done upstream at LibreOffice.

Thank you for your understanding.

How to forward bugs Upstream

Once marked Triaged, a bug that is reproducible in the upstream release would want to be filed upstream following their instructions from here, or in the old fashioned way here. Once a remote bug watch has been added to a bug report, it is helpful to append [Upstream] to the beginning of the bug title. This helps in searching for bugs reports by title. Please do not append this unless a remote bug watch has been added to the report as this creates confusion on which bugs have been reported upstream and which have not.