Bug 135520 - new install of 7.0.0 causes endless restarts
Summary: new install of 7.0.0 causes endless restarts
Status: RESOLVED INSUFFICIENTDATA
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Installation (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
7.0.0.3 release
Hardware: x86-64 (AMD64) Windows (All)
: medium normal
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks: Installer-Windows
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Reported: 2020-08-07 07:30 UTC by cbolin
Modified: 2021-04-18 03:49 UTC (History)
1 user (show)

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Crash report or crash signature:


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Description cbolin 2020-08-07 07:30:43 UTC
Description:
I'm not sure which component to report this under.   I installed 7.0.0 x64 over 6.4.5 on Windows 10 Pro - fully updated as of today.  I restarted my computer and then ran Writer.  It came up and the first thing I did was try to change the theme.  I did nothing else.  It crashed before the theme dialog appeared.  I restarted Writer and chose to delete the recovered document.  The LibreOffice splash screen appeared and the progress bar gets about 2/3rds the way through and then disappears and reappears over and over, endlessly.  I had to manually kill the processes.   I reboot and then did a full uninstall.  Rebooted.  Reinstalled using full/all defaults.   After another reboot I tried to invoke Writer and it tried to open a recovered document.  I elected to discard it and it immediately crashes.  It offered to open in safe mode which I declined.  Now the endless splashscreen loop starts again.   I am unable to use LO at all.  I've used it for years without problems.

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Happens every reinstall - I'm not changing or doing anything
2.
3.

Actual Results:
repeated crash loop

Expected Results:
to be able to run Writer


Reproducible: Always


User Profile Reset: Yes



Additional Info:
I can't even invoke LO so I can't get Help - About information
Comment 1 cbolin 2020-08-07 07:45:26 UTC
UPDATE:  I reinstalled a 4th time, every time it tries to recover a document even though I do a FULL uninstall every time.   I reset all settings/profile to factory default and I can again restart. 

Shouldn't a full uninstall remove previous settings?
Comment 2 Mike Kaganski 2020-08-07 07:49:51 UTC
(In reply to cbolin from comment #1)
> Shouldn't a full uninstall remove previous settings?

No. User settings must stay intact on updates/reinstalls etc.
What you saw (corrupted profile) might be a coincidence, or a bug, but it is not an indication that profiles should be cleared; that would be a major disruption in general.
Comment 3 cbolin 2020-08-07 08:55:08 UTC
Respectfully, I disagree.  I'm not talking about reinstalls or upgrades.  

The way it is now there is no way for a user to remove all LibreOffice?  Isn't that what a full uninstall in any context means?

In any case there should be the *option* for a complete uninstall.  Perhaps a checkbox.  Clearly there are times when someone would want to completely remove any product.  

How is that in any way a disruption?
Comment 4 Mike Kaganski 2020-08-07 09:34:28 UTC
(In reply to cbolin from comment #3)
> Respectfully, I disagree.  I'm not talking about reinstalls or upgrades.  
> 
> The way it is now there is no way for a user to remove all LibreOffice? 
> Isn't that what a full uninstall in any context means?
> 
> In any case there should be the *option* for a complete uninstall.  Perhaps
> a checkbox.  Clearly there are times when someone would want to completely
> remove any product.  
> 
> How is that in any way a disruption?

Again, no. User settings in LibreOffice are completely separate from the program itself. And it would be even impossible to remove the settings.

User profile is *not* created by installation. It is created by the *program* (typically on its first start). So installer can't remove what it didn't create.

The default placement of the settings (under the user's profile, i.e. AppData) is just a default. User may create a program profile anywhere user wants; and start LibreOffice using a command line to use that different profile. So user profile is kind of data created by LibreOffice, in a sense like documents it creates. (And note that that includes user customizations, like dictionaries or templates; the profile of LibreOffice is way more complex than any typical thing of other programs, with its thousands settings, and even more things like extensions, etc. The profile complexity is what makes it prone to corruption, unfortunately). No program that I know has an option to remove documents; and for LibreOffice, this is the equivalent to removing documents.

The profile is specific to user. There may be several users on system; and uninstall will be run on behalf of one user, so it will even be unable to know where all the profiles could be created, or access them - because of permissions. And when uninstalled, there would be nothing on system that could remove the files after those users log on.

All in all, there is no way to remove profiles on program removal, and that would be unreasonable task. I don't think we should even try to invent that mechanism, because it is absolutely incompatible with the profile concept in LibreOffice, no matter how it might look similar to some other programs (which anyway necessarily suffer from at least part of mentioned problems btw).
Comment 5 Mike Kaganski 2020-08-07 09:41:03 UTC
Anyway, what I wrote only relates to the proposal to (add an option to) remove user profile. The issue here is the problem with the profile itself, not with installer, and so I didn't address that specific part. I suspect that this might get closed eventually WORKSFORME or something like that, as cleaning up the profile had expectedly fixed the problem (and we never suggest to start reinstalling the program in cases of these problems; everywhere the profile resetting is mentioned; and we have special menu entries for safe mode to help with that).

Of course, if you have a reproducible scenario which user actions lead to the profile corruption, that would be immensely helpful here, to find where the bug is, that might be fixed.
Comment 6 Telesto 2020-08-07 11:58:25 UTC
1.  Launch LibreOffice in safe-mode search libreoffice safe-mode
2.  Second bullet in the safe-mode dialog -> Configure -> Disable Hardware acceleration
3. Apply & Restart

Assume the initial crash be a Skia Vulkan issue
The process still running after a crash is bug 133770
Comment 7 Telesto 2020-08-07 12:00:29 UTC
(In reply to Telesto from comment #6)
> 1.  Launch LibreOffice in safe-mode search libreoffice safe-mode
> 2.  Second bullet in the safe-mode dialog -> Configure -> Disable Hardware
> acceleration
> 3. Apply & Restart
> 
> Assume the initial crash be a Skia Vulkan issue
> The process still running after a crash is bug 133770

So, sorry missed comment 2
Comment 8 BogdanB 2020-09-18 20:11:31 UTC
Cbolin, try to instal 7.0.1.2 and try this:

Help - Restart in Safe Mode - check that 2 options from Factory Settings.

Please came back and comment if this helped you.
Comment 9 QA Administrators 2021-03-18 04:19:25 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete)
Comment 10 QA Administrators 2021-04-18 03:49:28 UTC
Dear cbolin,

Please read this message in its entirety before proceeding.

Your bug report is being closed as INSUFFICIENTDATA due to inactivity and
a lack of information which is needed in order to accurately
reproduce and confirm the problem. We encourage you to retest
your bug against the latest release. If the issue is still
present in the latest stable release, we need the following
information (please ignore any that you've already provided):

a) Provide details of your system including your operating
   system and the latest version of LibreOffice that you have
   confirmed the bug to be present

b) Provide easy to reproduce steps – the simpler the better

c) Provide any test case(s) which will help us confirm the problem

d) Provide screenshots of the problem if you think it might help

e) Read all comments and provide any requested information

Once all of this is done, please set the bug back to UNCONFIRMED
and we will attempt to reproduce the issue. Please do not:

a) respond via email 

b) update the version field in the bug or any of the other details
   on the top section of our bug tracker

Warm Regards,
QA Team

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