Bug 138032 - LibreOffice doesn't start when you try insert OpenDocument spreadsheet as OLE in MS Excel, MS Excel shows some error message instead
Summary: LibreOffice doesn't start when you try insert OpenDocument spreadsheet as OLE...
Status: NEW
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Calc (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
7.0.3.1 release
Hardware: All All
: medium normal
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks: OLE-Object-Interoperability
  Show dependency treegraph
 
Reported: 2020-11-06 09:46 UTC by silvio
Modified: 2025-08-20 21:41 UTC (History)
5 users (show)

See Also:
Crash report or crash signature: ["mergedlo.dll"]


Attachments
Bug 138032 - attachment 2025-08-20 (72.47 KB, application/pdf)
2025-08-20 21:39 UTC, silvio
Details

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Description silvio 2020-11-06 09:46:13 UTC
This bug was filed from the crash reporting server and is br-fbe0f467-75a7-4b50-96e2-ed9db71efd6e.
=========================================
Steps processed:
Open Excel -> menue "insert" -> object -> from tab "create new" select "OpenDocument spreadsheet" -> LibreOffice crashes
Comment 1 Julien Nabet 2020-11-06 20:49:40 UTC
I supposed you meant "LO Calc" instead of "Excel".
For the rest, I don't see "from tab "create new""

On Calc if I click Insert/Object, I've got 3 choices:
- Formula...
- QR Code...
- OLE Object...
Comment 2 silvio 2020-11-06 23:09:20 UTC
I meant what I wrote:
- start Microsoft Excel of Microsoft 365
- insert object
- create new
- select "OpenDocument spreadsheet"
- LibreOffice is starting in the background and 1 second later crashing
- Microsoft Excel returns a message like "Not possible to open source application with the enbedded object"

I'm a user not a software developer.
Comment 3 QA Administrators 2020-11-07 04:12:06 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete)
Comment 4 Xisco Faulí 2021-07-07 10:52:59 UTC
Hello Silvio,
Could you please try to reproduce it with the latest version of LibreOffice from https://www.libreoffice.org/download/libreoffice-fresh/ ?
I have set the bug's status to 'NEEDINFO'. Please change it back to 'UNCONFIRMED' if the bug is still present in the latest version.
Comment 5 silvio 2021-07-07 11:38:08 UTC
Tested same steps with LibreOffice 7.1.4.2.

Result: LibreOffice is not crashing. 
A new MS Excel error message pops up: 
"the source application of the embedded object cannot be started"


Version: 7.1.4.2 (x64) / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: a529a4fab45b75fefc5b6226684193eb000654f6
CPU threads: 16; OS: Windows 10.0 Build 19043; UI render: Skia/Raster; VCL: win
Locale: de-CH (de_CH); UI: de-DE
Calc: CL
Comment 6 Roman Kuznetsov 2022-10-25 17:50:15 UTC
(In reply to silvio from comment #5)
> Tested same steps with LibreOffice 7.1.4.2.
> 
> Result: LibreOffice is not crashing. 
> A new MS Excel error message pops up: 
> "the source application of the embedded object cannot be started"
> 
> 
> Version: 7.1.4.2 (x64) / LibreOffice Community
> Build ID: a529a4fab45b75fefc5b6226684193eb000654f6
> CPU threads: 16; OS: Windows 10.0 Build 19043; UI render: Skia/Raster; VCL:
> win
> Locale: de-CH (de_CH); UI: de-DE
> Calc: CL

I confirm the problem, but I'm not sure it's the LibreOffice's problem.

Mike, could you please look at it and give us your opinion. Thanks
Comment 7 Mike Kaganski 2022-10-26 07:57:52 UTC
I didn't debug it; yet, I am sure it's LibreOffice's fault.
I don't believe that we can really assume our COM implementation to be reliable enough to assume it's MS fault - we should assume the opposite, until proven wrong ;)

The debugging requires registering the debug build's COM server in system (e.g., building the MSI package, and installing it with WRITE_REGISTRY=1, making sure to uninstall normal LibreOffice (and OpenOffice) installation to avoid conflicts); changing DllMain in embedserv/source/inprocserv/dllentry.cxx to have some infinite loop like "static volatile int i = 1; while (i);" to allow attaching debugger (or maybe just attaching the debugger to Excel, and putting a breakpoint to the function); and then starting the problematic sequence.
Comment 8 Roman Kuznetsov 2022-10-26 08:22:59 UTC
Set to NEW by Comment 7
Comment 9 QA Administrators 2025-08-19 03:12:37 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete)
Comment 10 silvio 2025-08-20 21:39:55 UTC
Created attachment 202417 [details]
Bug 138032 - attachment 2025-08-20
Comment 11 silvio 2025-08-20 21:41:29 UTC
Dear QA Team

I've tested with the newest LibreOffice version:
Version: 25.8.0.4 (X86_64)
Build ID: 48f00303701489684e67c38c28aff00cd5929e67
CPU threads: 16; OS: Windows 11 X86_64 (build 26100); UI render: Skia/Raster; VCL: win
Locale: de-CH (de_CH); UI: de-DE
Calc: CL threaded

Similar to my comment 2 from 2020-11-06 23:09:20 UTC I did:

1) start Microsoft Excel of Microsoft 365
2) insert -> object
3) create new:
4) select "OpenDocument spreadsheet"
5) after 4 seconds Excel is blocked (Windows cursor is spinning) and 2 LibreOffice tasks appear in the windows task manager:
   -> see screenshot A) in attached document
6) after ca. 1 minute 30 seconds an Excel message appears:
   -> see screenshot B) in attached document
7) click on button "OK" (not "cancel") leads to a new Excel message after a few seconds:
   -> see screenshot C) in attached document
8) click on button "OK" and Excel is available again and nothing happens. Only 1 LibreOffice task is active in the windows task manager and disappears after a few minutes:
   -> see screenshot D) in attached document


Best regards
Silvio