Libreoffice7.2 will not start and broke previous versions

Flagman · January 24, 2022, 7:49pm

I am running Linux Mint 18 and I installed libreoffice7.2. It not only will not start, but now the previously installed libreoffice7.1 and 7.0 will not start. When I run libreoffice7.2 in a terminal, I get:

(soffice:3017): Gtk-WARNING **: Theme parsing error: :1:354: ‘min-height’ is not a valid property name

(soffice:3017): Gtk-WARNING **: Theme parsing error: :1:368: ‘min-width’ is not a valid property name

(soffice:3017): Gtk-WARNING **: Theme parsing error: :1:696: ‘min-height’ is not a valid property name

(soffice:3017): Gtk-WARNING **: Theme parsing error: :1:710: ‘min-width’ is not a valid property name
/opt/libreoffice7.2/program/soffice.bin: symbol lookup error: /opt/libreoffice7.2/program/libvclplug_gtk3lo.so: undefined symbol: gtk_widget_path_iter_set_object_name

I get similar errors from 7.1, and an error from 7.0 indicating a folder could not be created. I tried
export SAL_USE_VCLPLUGIN=gen
per a previous response to a similar question here, but then I get a different error:

terminate called after throwing an instance of ‘com::sun::lang::WrappedTargetRuntimeException’
Unspecified Application Error

I tried re-installing gtk-3 and rebooting, but that didn’t help.

Any ideas?

Wanderer · January 25, 2022, 8:00am

My usual idea would be to purge LibreOffice via apt, after saving my profile, bit you wrote you had 2 Versions of LO before. So my first question is: You had 2 Versions at the same time? And if this is true: How are they installed?

Usually a newer version replaces the old one, only keeping your profie and files. So, if the new one fails, the other versions can’t work either…

Flagman · January 25, 2022, 5:22pm

Hi Wanderer,
T install I download the .deb packages from libreoffice.org and install them via the dpkg command (dpkg -i ./*.deb). It installs the new version in its own directory in /opt and puts a link to it in /usr/local/bin (i.e., /usr/local/bin/libreoffice7.2), and doesn’t appear to change the previous versions. I’ve had libreoffice 7.0, 7.1, 7.2 and even 5 installed at the same time, and until I installed 7.2 they all worked. Afterward, none of them worked, including 7.2.

After seeing your message, I used apt to remove and then purge all the versions, then did an apt autoremove. Then installed 7.2. But I still get the same undefined symbol error. Seems like some sort of Gtk/libreoffice incompatibility. Any ideas?

Villeroy · January 25, 2022, 5:24pm

Get a terminal and try this:

SAL_USE_VCLPLUGIN=gen /opt/libreoffice7.2/program/soffice

Flagman · January 25, 2022, 5:31pm

Here’s what happens:

$ SAL_USE_VCLPLUGIN=gen /opt/libreoffice7.2/program/soffice
terminate called after throwing an instance of ‘com::sun::lang::WrappedTargetRuntimeException’
Unspecified Application Error

Villeroy · January 25, 2022, 5:46pm

Since you are running Linux, I guess you do regular backups.
Be sure that no office is running. (killall soffice.bin)
Restore the profile directory ~/.config/libreoffice/4/user/ from the last time where your older office suite used to work.
If you don’t have any backup, rename that folder to user.bkp or something.

Then try out LO 7.2 with its own profile:

sudo edit /opt/libreoffice7.2/program/bootstaprc

and change the profile path from ~/.config/libreoffice/4 to ~/.config/libreoffice/7
With this modification LO7.2 will create its own profile folder.

Flagman · January 25, 2022, 5:57pm

That worked! After editing bootstraprc per Villeroy’s note, it works as long as SAL_USE_VCL_PLUGIN=gen is set. Thank you both very much.

Is there somewhere I can find out what SAL_USE_PLUGIN does? A bit of googling didn’t help…

Villeroy · January 25, 2022, 6:03pm

That setting uses the built-in graphic toolset ignoring any gtk and kde stuff. You can make this permanent by adding the following to the start script /opt/libreoffice7.2/program/soffice

export SAL_USE_VCL_PLUGIN=gen

Minor glitch: Every minor upgrade will replace the 2 files bootstraprc and soffice.
From the your old user profile you may want to import templates, spell check dictionaries, macros. Walk throught the options dialog to restore your most important preferences and install the latest versions of the few extensions you actually need.