If running it as root ends with no errors, try running the full commandline – with ‘-headless’ etc as root.

If that seems to run OK (you could check the process list), then it sounds like it might be a problem starting openoffice as a non-root user.

Not sure what packages you have installed – maybe there’s other ones you need?

http://www.openvpms.org/documentation/install-openoffice-headless-service-ubuntu

Might be worth checking in the Apache error log too – in case there’s anything in there.

I can only speak of my experiences with libreoffice on RHEL. If you can’t run OO from the commandline, I think that’s the problem that need to be resolved.

Cheers,

John

Okay I changed the openoffice path back to reference soffice.bin, and my paths look right.

There is no openoffice.pid file in the ~/var/ dir, but eprints does not have problems writing to the log. The /var/ dir is CHMOD 775, so the user can write.

"Starting OpenOffice
OpenOffice process died, restarting...
...
(repeated 10 times)
...
Starting OpenOffice
Tried 10 times to start OpenOffice in the last 15 secs. Something is wrong, leaving now"

Is added every time I try to start it, but "Something is wrong" doesn't really help much.

Running soffice.bin as eprints without parameters still gives me 'Permission denied". Running it as root without parameters produces no output in terminal, so I guess that means, it should be running?

I noticed soffice.bin is CHMOD 755, so the user can't write to it, but should be able to execute it. Should I try to change that, or will I mess things up?

Thanks for the tip on the indexer by the way, I will be sure to restart it, if I ever get OpenOffice running.

/All the best!
Jacob

Hi,

You’re right, I got the log file path wrong.

Do you also have an openoffice.pid file in the ~/var/ directory?

Is the ownership on that directory OK for the user to create a file in there (e.g. can the pid file get created)?

I *think* you need to reference the soffice.bin directly.

 

I have:

$c->{executables}->{openoffice} = '/usr/lib64/libreoffice/program/soffice.bin';

$c->{executables}->{python} = '/usr/bin/python';

$c->{executables}->{uno_converter} = "$c->{base_path}/bin/DocumentConverter.py";

 

I think that python is only needed for uno_converter.

 

If you just run openoffice without other parameters, does it start OK?

If not, can you run it as root?

 

Cheers,

John

 

From: eprints-tech-bounces@ecs.soton.ac.uk [mailto:eprints-tech-bounces@ecs.soton.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Jacob Wenzel
Sent: 19 May 2014 13:29
To: eprints-tech@ecs.soton.ac.uk
Subject: [EP-tech] Re: OpenOffice failed to start

 

Thanks again!

I also got /usr/bin/python from ‘which python’ so I have used that.

I ran ‘which openoffice.org’  that points to the same directory so I changed my paths to:
$c->{executables}->{openoffice} = '/usr/bin/openoffice.org';
$c->{executables}->{python} = '/usr/bin/python';
(removing the direct link to /program/soffice.bin)

Does your paths look similar? Everything seems fine in the Admin pages, until I try to start OpenOffice.

I have no ~/archives/ARCHIVEID/var/opennoffce.log but ~/var/opennoffce.log is owned by eprints and in the www-data group.

Running:
> /usr/lib/openoffice/program/soffice.bin "--accept=socket,host=localhost,port=8100;urp;StarOffice.ServiceManager" --norestore --nofirststartwizard --nologo --headless
and:
> /usr/lib/openoffice/program/soffice.bin "-accept=socket,host=localhost,port=8100;urp;StarOffice.ServiceManager" -norestore -nofirststartwizard -nologo -headless

both give me "permission denied". I think double-hyphen for this old version of OpenOffice is the correct usage.

I noticed the owner for 'openoffice.pl' was www-data, so I changed that to eprints, but that didn't make any difference.

I guess it must be a permissions problem. What could prevent eprints from being able to run OpenOffice?

Should I try changing every file folder and subfolder in the prints3 directory to the eprints user and the www-data group, or could it be a CHMOD problem?

I really appreciate your help, I have been at a dead end for days, and it seems I am finally making a bit of progress.

On 19-05-2014 13:07, John Salter wrote:

As the user ‘eprints’ what does the command ‘which python’ give?

I’d try that as a first option – on our RedHat system, it’s /usr/bin/python

 

Check the user/group for the ~/archives/ARCHIVEID/var/opennoffce.log file too – this might have been created as the www-data user?

 

Cheers,

John

 

From: eprints-tech-bounces@ecs.soton.ac.uk [mailto:eprints-tech-bounces@ecs.soton.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Jacob Wenzel
Sent: 19 May 2014 11:40
To: eprints-tech@ecs.soton.ac.uk
Subject: [EP-tech] Re: OpenOffice failed to start

 

Thanks a lot for your reply!

I've actually tried fiddling with several versions of LibreOffice and OpenOffice and finally reverted to OpenOffice from the main lucid repository (i've made sure to purge old installs before trying new ones), because all had the same behaviour.

I had to change the paths in ~/lib/cfg.d/openoffice.pl, because I initially saw the error "OpenOffice is not installed on your system".

I could easily search for soffice.bin and change the path to:
/usr/lib/openoffice/program/soffice.bin

$c->{executables}->{openoffice} = '/usr/lib/openoffice/program/soffice.bin';

However there is no "python" in the same folder, and searching for it gives me several locations, because there is no file extension, so I am not sure which location to choose.

Am I looking for a file or a folder, and are there any clues, that might point me to the right path?

Running:
~/archives/ARCHIVEID/bin/openoffice-local.pl ARCHIVEID start

Gives me "Permission denied". User and group for openoffice-local.pl is www-data. I've tried changing the user to eprints, but still "permission denied".

The log file is now appended to, but unfortunately it is not very helpful:
"...
OpenOffice process died, restarting...
Starting OpenOffice
Tried 10 times to start OpenOffice in the last 15 secs. Something is wrong, leaving now"

Thanks again for you help. I guess I'll try all the "python" locations just to make sure, but I have no idea what to do about the permission denied error.

Med venlig hilsen/Best regards

JACOB WENZEL
Projektleder

ENERGIAKADEMIET
Strandengen 1
8305 SAMSØ
+45 60 61 15 97
jw@energiakademiet.dk
www.energiakademiet.dk

On 19-05-2014 11:19, John Salter wrote:

Try running it from the commandline:

~/archives/ARCHIVEID/bin/openoffice-local.pl ARCHIVEID start

 

I’d have a look at the following:

~/lib/cfg.d/openoffice.pl

and check all the paths are OK – it may be that Ubuntu installs them elsewhere. I had to tweak it slightly as we use LibreOffce.

 

I think that by default, the openoffice log is overwritten, not appended to (this may have changed since I last looked at it though). Look in ~/lib/plugins/EPrints/Plugin/OpenOffice.pm, at the ‘new’ sub – you might want to change:

if( open( $fh, "+>".$self->logfile() ) )

to

if( open( $fh, ">>".$self->logfile() ) )

 

If you’re using OpenOffice for coversheets, it’s also worth knowing that the indexer (that process’ the events) uses it’s own copy of the EPrints stack – so any changes to the config of a reo require the indexer to be restarted before they are picked up.

 

Cheers,

John

       

 

 

From: eprints-tech-bounces@ecs.soton.ac.uk [mailto:eprints-tech-bounces@ecs.soton.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Jacob Wenzel
Sent: 19 May 2014 07:23
To: eprints-tech@ecs.soton.ac.uk
Subject: [EP-tech] OpenOffice failed to start

 

In EPrints v3.3.12 on Ubuntu Server 10.04.04: Whenever I press "Start OpenOffice", EPrints displays the message: "OpenOffice started".

But when I refresh the page or click somewhere else and go back, a red error message is displayed reading "Failed to start OpenOffice".

"Openoffice.log" in "/usr/share/eprints3/var" is completely empty, even though it seems to be edited every time I try to start OpenOffice from EPrints.

This is driving me nuts, please help me solve this puzzle. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

--

Med venlig hilsen/Best regards

JACOB WENZEL
Projektleder

ENERGIAKADEMIET
Strandengen 1
8305 SAMSØ
+45 60 61 15 97
jw@energiakademiet.dk
www.energiakademiet.dk

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