OpenOffice times out when opening on Leopard

[pchall]

I just installed OpenOffice on Leopard and it seems to work - mostly. When I open it, a window opens with -xterm in the title bar and bash-3.2$ in the window. A black-and-white beachball spins a while and then I get a message "Command timed out". When I click OK on that, the beachball resumes and the OpenOffice opens. The -xterm window also remains open and X11 is in the dock.

1. How do I eliminate the timing out?

2. Can I get the -xterm window to open/run minimized?

3. Can I get X11 to NOT appear in the dock?

I'm new to both the Mac and OpenOffice so I apologize if these are questions I should know about.

[ASK]

I am looking for answers to the same exact questions.

I looked into hiding the dock icon, as I've done it in the past, but when I looked up how to do it, it didn't apply.

http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php? ... 1191518268
In order to get rid of the dock icon, you must modify the file named 'Info.plist' inside the Application's package (i.e. Sherlock.app/Contents/Info.plist). Open this file in your favorite text editor and add the following section (if it's already present simply change the 0 to a 1 in the string tag:

Code: Select all

<KEY>NSUIElement</KEY>
<STRING>1</STRING>

However, the code I found was this:

Code: Select all

<key>LSUIElement</key>
<string>1</string>

So it said LSUI, not NSUI, and the value was already set to 1. I tried setting it to 0, but it had no effect. I also tried to add a new section with NSUI... but no luck either.

[JasonN]

I had the same problem on my new Leopard iMac this weekend. The problem lies with Java on Leopard. All you have to do is disable Java (in OpenOffice) to make the timeout error go away.

Start OpenOffice
Let it error out (timeout)

Select Tools/Options/Java
Uncheck Use Java runtime environment

Quit OpenOffice
Now OpenOffice should fire right up without the timeout errors.

If you need Java then your SOL unless you download NeoOffice instead. It's my understanding that an Aqua native version of OpenOffice (one that does not require X11) is in the hopper and slated for fall of 2008.

[ericb]

If you want to test OpenOffice.org Aqua, they are snapshots available.

Please have a look at the other threads.

The official website (builds outdated)
http://porting.openoffice.org/mac/download/aqua.html

More recent builds, but unofficial and without any guarantee (developers snapshots)

INTEL :
http://ftp.cusoo.org/MacOSX/INTEL/snaps ... mber_27th/

POWERPC :
http://ftp.cusoo.org/MacOSX/POWERPC/sna ... mber_28th/



@jasonN : you are plain wrong: NeoOffice is not OpenOffice.org.

[dustrho]

1. How do I eliminate the timing out?

2. Can I get the -xterm window to open/run minimized?

3. Can I get X11 to NOT appear in the dock?

Okay, so it looks like question #1 has been resolved, but what about the other two questions? I'm experiencing the same thing on my new Macbook Pro with Leopard, and I hate that damn X11 window not automatically minimizing itself.

And for the record, I tried the Aqua flavor of OO and it is way too buggy and ugly to look at right now for me to use it, so I'm sticking with this X11 flavor for the time being.

[dweissma]

I have the same problem everyone else is having. I'm running OpenOffice 2.3 with Leopard on a new MacBook. If I start OpenOffice by clicking on its icon, I get a "command timed-out" box. If I start the X11 application first, and then click on OpenOffice, it starts fine.

I tried the tip of deselecting a Java Runtime Environment in Tools-Options-Java, but that didn't change anything for me. Any other ideas?

As for getting rid of the xterm window, there's a document on the Web:
porting.openoffice.org/mac/Howto_OOo_2.0_MacOSX_english.pdf

that offers the following advice (I haven't tried it myself):

In the starting Xterm, type the following command line :
sudo nano /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc
go to the line that contains " xterm & ", and add a " # " at the beginning. Which gives :
before :
xterm &
after :
# xterm &
after the change :
CTRL-O to validate the change, folowed by CTRL-X to quit the Nano editor
-> effect : on the next launch of OpenOffice.org, the Xterm won't show up again.

[SheWolf]

well, I'm sort of relieved I'm not the only one with issues...

okay, mine is a bit of a twist on what's already here. I HAD installed OO and it worked fine (I just disregarded the whole X11 thing. didn't really care). however it recently stopped working. what happens is that I launch OO from my dock, get the usual time out error, then I used to be able to launch OO again either by clicking it in the dock or launching my OO document I needed and it would all come up.

now when I do that I get the "openoffice.org" menus at the top (near the apple?) but the app itself doesn't launch. nothing comes up. and I have to force quit it to get out. I uninstalled and reinstalled, I restarted. nothing doing.

the only change to my system I can think of recently is that I installed a new all-in-one printer that needed drivers and such... Epson RX595 with "print CD" application (which isn't working either but that's for a different forum). any ideas?

[SheWolf]

well, I'm sort of relieved I'm not the only one with issues...

okay, mine is a bit of a twist on what's already here. I HAD installed OO and it worked fine (I just disregarded the whole X11 thing. didn't really care). however it recently stopped working. what happens is that I launch OO from my dock, get the usual time out error, then I used to be able to launch OO again either by clicking it in the dock or launching my OO document I needed and it would all come up.

now when I do that I get the "openoffice.org" menus at the top (near the apple?) but the app itself doesn't launch. nothing comes up. and I have to force quit it to get out. I uninstalled and reinstalled, I restarted. nothing doing.

the only change to my system I can think of recently is that I installed a new all-in-one printer that needed drivers and such... Epson RX595 with "print CD" application (which isn't working either but that's for a different forum). any ideas?

ok, that's just weird. I did yet another restart on the mac and tried to launch it again... and it worked! it recovered my documents and it seems fine... weirdness. I guess I'll just put my head in the sand and pretend nothing happened untill it happens again.

happy new year everyone!

[dustrho]

I used OO on a Windows laptop for several years with almost no problems whatsoever. OO worked brilliantly for me. However, for the Mac OS, it's a piece of shit. It has to be the flakiest program I have used so far on my new Macbook Pro, and I've already purchased and installed Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac on my MBP. If OO becomes as good as its Windows' counterpart, then perhaps I'll play with OO again.

[smsm1]

I have the same problem everyone else is having. I'm running OpenOffice 2.3 with Leopard on a new MacBook. If I start OpenOffice by clicking on its icon, I get a "command timed-out" box. If I start the X11 application first, and then click on OpenOffice, it starts fine.

I tried the tip of deselecting a Java Runtime Environment in Tools-Options-Java, but that didn't change anything for me. Any other ideas?

As for getting rid of the xterm window, there's a document on the Web:
porting.openoffice.org/mac/Howto_OOo_2.0_MacOSX_english.pdf

that offers the following advice (I haven't tried it myself):

In the starting Xterm, type the following command line :
sudo nano /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc
go to the line that contains " xterm & ", and add a " # " at the beginning. Which gives :
before :
xterm &
after :
# xterm &
after the change :
CTRL-O to validate the change, folowed by CTRL-X to quit the Nano editor
-> effect : on the next launch of OpenOffice.org, the Xterm won't show up again.

Please note that this information may be out of date for Leopard.

[dustrho]

I downloaded NeoOffice instead and it's working great for me. So I'll be using that for now.

http://www.neooffice.org/neojava/en/download.php

Thanks OpenOffice!

[pix]

I get a similar thing but different.

Since I updated to Leopard, if I try to open OpenOffioce, I get the timeout, without any X11 in the Dock, but without any functionality at all, in fact there is only a FIle and an Edit menu (and the OpenOffice menu) and the only thing on the file menu is Use Startup Screen, but that's grayed out. The edit menu has Undo, Cut, Paste and copy, all grayed out as well, and Edit Script which is *not* grayed out. If you go About OpenOffice.org 2.4 from the OpenOffice2.4 menu it says:

This is an executable script saved as an application. You can view or edit this script by chosingEdit Script from the Edit Menu, except that you can't - you just get the frozen black and white ball. THis is on a iMac 10.5.4 maxed out RAM 96 GBavailable on HD.

I trashed it, went back to the Site and downloaded a fresh copy, making doubly sure I did not press any wrong buttons, reinstalled it, reinstalled X11 from the MacOS CD, but the same thing happens.

Not smooth.

Pix

[lgusaas]

I get a similar thing but different.

Since I updated to Leopard, if I try to open OpenOffioce, I get the timeout, without any X11 in the Dock, but without any functionality at all, in fact there is only a FIle and an Edit menu (and the OpenOffice menu) and the only thing on the file menu is Use Startup Screen, but that's grayed out. The edit menu has Undo, Cut, Paste and copy, all grayed out as well, and Edit Script which is *not* grayed out. If you go About OpenOffice.org 2.4 from the OpenOffice2.4 menu it says:

This is an executable script saved as an application. You can view or edit this script by chosingEdit Script from the Edit Menu, except that you can't - you just get the frozen black and white ball. THis is on a iMac 10.5.4 maxed out RAM 96 GBavailable on HD.

I trashed it, went back to the Site and downloaded a fresh copy, making doubly sure I did not press any wrong buttons, reinstalled it, reinstalled X11 from the MacOS CD, but the same thing happens.

Not smooth.

Pix

See my post at http://user.services.openoffice.org/en/ ... 198#p38469
That should solve your porblem.