strace shows the startup waiting forever on /tmp/OSL_PIPE_1000_SingleOfficeIPC_…
(for me the … is a930c748addbc56223641f5026c8323a but I assume this is just a randome selection to avoid collisions between instances)
This is very reliable, if I wait long enough, now getting on past 10 minutes, it finally pops into life.
What on earth is this all about? Who or what is it waiting for?
Either a user config issue, or your hard drive may have a bad sector on it. If your system is older I say the drive is the cause. Easy to find out, exit LO, locate the user config for LO and rename the directory and restart. see if the issue persists, if it does the drive is likely to be the culprit.
Open a terminal and execute libreoffice --safe-mode. If that starts within seconds, your user profile is corrupt and use the same command to restart in Safe Mode again but now choose to [o] Reset to factory settings -> [x] Reset entire user profile
Thanks for the suggestion, sadly the problem has completely disappeared as quickly as it arrived so I no longer can try it. It has been present for about 2 weeks, sometimes worse sometimes not so annoying as I was able to somehow provoke it into starting. My best guess now is that it was some form of deadlock, possibly as a result of a sensitivity to the vagaries of Gnome. Yesterday an update to F32 replaced large swathes of display components and today the problem has disappeared entirely. Whatever the problem is, it is still going to be present and if Gnome provokes it again, I’m sure it will return. It can’t be anything to do with my profile, I have three platforms running F32 and at least the 2 exhibited this problem. Anyway, thanks for the suggestion and goodbye for now.
I guess I should complete this issue by saying that an update to graphical components yesterday MAY have fixed the problem. I think it is a deadlock caused by an interaction with the desktop environment which in my case is the default, Gnome3. I can’t be sure, just that yesterday it wasn’t launching and today it is and within seconds, as it should. This on 2 platforms with independent profiles so not that.