WritingTool extension not working at LibreOffice Flatpak install - lack of 'libreoffice-java-common'?

AndréLuiz1 · May 16, 2025, 2:52pm

I have just installed the latest version of LibreOffice and the newest version of WritingTool extension (meant as an offline grammar and orthographic checker, instead of using LanguageTool online feature).
Although with WritingTool extension active and the buttons appearing in the toolbar and the file bar, clicking on any buttons do nothing. The dependency of Java active seems to make the extension slow to respond, and prone to crashes… My LibreOffice install specifications are:

Version: 25.2.2.2 (X86_64) / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: 7370d4be9e3cf6031a51beef54ff3bda878e3fac
CPU threads: 4; OS: Linux 6.12; UI render: default; VCL: gtk3
Locale: pt-BR (pt_BR.UTF-8); UI: pt-BR
Flatpak
Calc: threaded

I have the package ‘libreoffice-java-common’ installed from the repositories of my Linux distro (MX Linux 23.6), but apparently LibreOffice Flatpak install doesn’t ‘recognise’ it… And, unfortunately, libreoffice-java-common isn’t available at Flatpak repositories (neither flathub nor flathub-verified …)

Supposing that, in my case, the trouble is due to absence / non-recognition of package libreoffice-java-common, any tip on how to do it to make it work?…

bantoniof · May 17, 2025, 8:22am

LibreOffice needs Java for some functions such as the base report generator and especially for extensions with Java code.
In Windows, Java’s installation / connection seems to work without problems.
In Linux and Mac this is not so easy because it depends on how the program is compilated by the distribution, and the necessary permits.

If your distribution is based on Debian the recommendation is to install the *.deb packages of the official LibreOffice website and possibly the Open-java package of your distribution.
Some other linux portable version is appImage
And you can explore the issues of the WritingTool extensión for recomendations

Villeroy · May 17, 2025, 9:16am

Download Donate to LibreOffice | LibreOffice - Free and private office suite - Based on OpenOffice - Compatible with Microsoft
Open a terminal
cd ~/Downloads
tar -xzvf LibreOffice_25.2.3_Linux_x86-64_deb.tar.gz
cd LibreOffice_25.2.3_Linux_x86-64_deb/DEBS
sudo dpkg -i *.deb

Download the Brazilian user interface https://download.documentfoundation.org/libreoffice/stable/25.2.3/deb/x86_64/LibreOffice_25.2.3_Linux_x86-64_deb_langpack_pt-BR.tar.gz and repeat steps 4, 5 and 6 with that package.

AndréLuiz1 · May 18, 2025, 8:18pm

I use Flatpak installation of LibreOffice, and I don’t intend to install it through deb packages (I could, but it isn’t as easy as with Flatpak, and it doesn’t update automatically when new releases are made available…). The current issue is one needed package, package ‘libreoffice-java-common’, isn’t available at Flatpak repositories. I have already installed that package from my distro Repos, but it seems it’s not recognised by Flatpak’s LibreOffice installation, which is kept ‘isolated’ into their own directory with all dependencies…

Wanderer · May 18, 2025, 9:45pm

You describe perfectly how flatpak or snap is supposed to work…

AndréLuiz1 · May 20, 2025, 12:25am

Yeah… And, any tip about how to solve the current issue? I need the package ‘libreoffice-java-common’ working together my Flatpak install; re-installing LibreOffice from deb files isn’t a valid solution either to me.

Wanderer · May 20, 2025, 7:05am

I would use the invalid solution, so there is no issue.
.
You could try two ways: The correct approach would be to provide the package INSIDE the flatpack. As I don’t know, if a “install inside package” (maybe via a changed root) is possible this may require to re-build the flatpack.
In simple cases, where just the access to folders is the problem you might find a way changing the rights of the flatpack. I guess the tool is named Flatseal…

AndréLuiz1 · June 29, 2025, 8:59pm

Returning to this topic, after a while. Well, since so far I’ve got no solutions to my very question, how to make the package libreoffice-java-common ‘work’ with my LibreOffice install through Flatpak, I decided to give a try, again, to LibreOffice installed from my Distro’s repositories (actually, backports, where there are newer releases of LibreOffice). However, the aforementioned extension ‘WritingTool’ didn’t work at all! Its icons are added to menu bar, but clicking on them do nothing! Or, worse: in case I manage to configure spell and grammar checking to use the extension rather than Lightproof, the program eventually crashes!.. Very frustrating…!