[Solved] Fatal Error on opening OpenOffice

[miller84]

Hello, dear community.
I have an issue with the AOO on a Linux machine.
When I launch it from the console using soffice command, I get an error message "OpenOffice 4.1.10 - Fatal Error - The application cannot be started. A general error occurred while accessing your central configuration."
It only happens when using a non-root user. With root, it opens without any issues.
Launching AOO from the GUI (Applications menu) works with root and non-root users.
I believe it has to do something with permissions as it works with root and not with a regular user?
The error message:


Your help will be appreciated.
Thank you in advance,

Michael.

[Villeroy]

~/.openoffice/ must be readable and writable by the user. This is the user's configuration, templates, scripts, dictionaries etc.
The program folder /opt/openoffice4/ must be world readable.

[miller84]

~/.openoffice/ must be readable and writable by the user. This is the user's configuration, templates, scripts, dictionaries etc.
The program folder /opt/openoffice4/ must be world readable.

Thank you for your reply.
I checked the ~/.openoffice folder, it has rwx permissions for the user. I even renamed it to .old and tried to launch OpenOffice, the folder was re-created but the error still persist.
I also check the /opt/openoffice4 folder. It had rwxr-xr-x root:root, I changed to rwxrwxrwx root:domain users and the error still pops up.

[Hagar Delest]

If it works fine from the GUI and not from the shell, then the smoking gun may be in the shell configuration. Any issue with another application launched from the shell?
Note: can't see the screenshot due to corporate filtering. Uploading it would be better.

[miller84]

Hi Hagar
No, I haven't encountered any problems with other applications.
The only way it works from the shell is when I launch OpenOffice with the root user or run as root (sudo soffice).
I uploaded the screenshot of the error message.

Thanks.

[Hagar Delest]

So, if I understand correctly, when you launch other applications from a shell, they work.
I don't see what could be wrong, I haven't found any topic related to a "central configuration" issue in the Linux section of the forum.
Have you tried the Red Hat forums?

[miller84]

Yes, they work without any problem. Tried to launch FileZilla, Chrome, Firefox, no issues.
No, I didn't try the Red Hat forum yet...
Could it be related somehow to the VNC Viewer I'm using for the GUI interface?
Maybe a session display or something...

[Hagar Delest]

I ran another search and found 2 interesting links:
- [Solved] General error occurred accessing central config
- The application cannot be strarted (adapt it to AOO)

[miller84]

I ran another search and found 2 interesting links:
- [Solved] General error occurred accessing central config
- The application cannot be strarted (adapt it to AOO)

You are the BEST!!!
Unsetting the $DATA variable did the trick!!
The variable was DATA=/data and now it's DATA=
Not sure why and how it affects OpenOffice but you cannot argue with facts
I'm sure this thread will be useful for others as well.

Thanks again!
Michael.