LibreOffice won't open files I don't own

[fokram]

Hi, I’m running LibreOffice on Linux (Debian), and recently it’s started not letting me open files that I am not the owner of. This crops up when I try to open files that are on my Windows partitions, as they are always owned by root. Even though I have full access permissions, LibreOffice says “Access to … was denied”.

If I copy these files to my home folder, I can replicate these results. If I am the owner of the file it will open up, but if I change it to a different user/root it will show that error (even if I have full permissions). Changing the group has no effect.

This problem only exists with LibreOffice, e.g. I can open up a csv file that I don’t own in my text editor but not in LibreOffice Calc.

I’ve upgraded my system fully, and have completely removed and re-installed LibreOffice and its dependencies, but it didn’t fix anything.

Edit: Also tried via command line (libreoffice and socalc/sowriter) still getting the errors, also no useful debug information

[khanson679]

Just a guess, but perhaps the problem is related to the containing directory. Perhaps you could try opening the file on the command line to see if you get a more descriptive error message.

[fokram]

Nothing’s coming out, I tried with -o, --view and --nolockcheck but it fails every time and doesn’t put any information in the shell.

Same results if I try libreoffice vs localc or lowriter.

[petermau]

When you open a LibO file, for example a .odt writer file, LibO writes a lock file to the folder that contains the original file. If you are using a windows folder, used by WINE, I cannot check with a straight Windows partition, you must have full access to that folder. That is to say, read and write access to the file is not enough. You must have the ability to create a new file. This is a folder property, not a simple file property. Have you given the folder create file access?

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LibreOffice now writes its document #lock file to the same folder as the file you are editing. This means that the user must have FOLDER / CREATE options. It is not enough to have READ / WRITE access to the document in question. A way to check this is to open LibO on one file on one of your own folders, then create a new writer file and save the file using SAVE AS to the folder that you are currently having problems with. Does this work?

Make certain that there are no other applications running in the Wine/Windows partition that could be owning the folder and are stopping full access to the folder in question.

[fokram]

“If I copy these files to my home folder, I can replicate these results. If I am the owner of the file it will open up, but if I change it to a different user/root it will show that error (even if I have full permissions). Changing the group has no effect.”