Bug 169668 - LibreOffice Flatpak crashes immediately on Steam Deck when opening; fails to load with missing libraries (libxml2.so.16, libicuuc.so.77) and ignores environment overrides.
Summary: LibreOffice Flatpak crashes immediately on Steam Deck when opening; fails to ...
Status: UNCONFIRMED
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Writer (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
25.8.3.2 release
Hardware: x86-64 (AMD64) Linux (All)
: medium normal
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard: regression; flatpak; steamdeck; runti...
Keywords: difficultyMedium, haveBacktrace, notBibisectable, perf
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2025-11-24 19:49 UTC by jonas.hoffmann.mannheim
Modified: 2025-11-27 03:38 UTC (History)
0 users

See Also:
Crash report or crash signature:


Attachments
ull terminal output of LibreOffice Flatpak launch on Steam Deck, including error messages and GTK warnings. Captured with stdout and stderr redirected to a file. (299 bytes, text/plain)
2025-11-24 20:00 UTC, jonas.hoffmann.mannheim
Details

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Description jonas.hoffmann.mannheim 2025-11-24 19:49:13 UTC
Description:
Launching LibreOffice installed via Flatpak on Steam Deck causes an immediate crash. The loading screen appears briefly and then the application closes. Attempts to run in safe mode or with environment overrides (e.g., SAL_USE_VCLPLUGIN=gen, QT_QPA_PLATFORM=xcb) do not prevent the crash.

Error messages observed include missing GTK modules:
Failed to load module "canberra-gtk-module"
Failed to load module "colorreload-gtk-module"
Failed to load module "window-decorations-gtk-module"

Attempts to override the runtime or force using older Freedesktop/KDE runtimes result in additional missing library errors:
/app/libreoffice/program/javaldx: error while loading shared libraries: libxml2.so.16: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
/app/libreoffice/program/soffice.bin: error while loading shared libraries: libicuuc.so.77: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory


Steps to Reproduce:
1.flatpak install flathub org.libreoffice.LibreOffice
2.flatpak run org.libreoffice.LibreOffice
3.Observe immediate crash after splash screen.

Actual Results:
Splash screen opens then closes immediately.
GTK warnings printed:
Gtk-Message: Failed to load module "canberra-gtk-module"
Gtk-Message: Failed to load module "colorreload-gtk-module"
Gtk-Message: Failed to load module "window-decorations-gtk-module"
Running with --safe-mode or SAL_USE_VCLPLUGIN=gen has no effect.
Using --runtime=org.freedesktop.Platform//23.08 triggers missing libraries: libxml2.so.16, libicuuc.so.77.

Expected Results:
LibreOffice should start normally and display the main window.


Reproducible: Always


User Profile Reset: Yes

Additional Info:
Tested after clearing Flatpak config (rm -rf ~/.var/app/org.libreoffice.LibreOffice/config/libreoffice).

Issue appears specific to Flatpak on SteamOS / Arch-based systems.

Attempts to override runtime (flatpak override --user --runtime=…) failed due to unknown options.

Clearing the LibreOffice Flatpak config directory did not resolve the crash.

I have already reset the user profile and tested launching in Safe Mode. The crash persists, so this is not caused by a corrupted profile.
Comment 1 jonas.hoffmann.mannheim 2025-11-24 19:50:55 UTC
Likely related to missing runtime libraries in the Flatpak build on Steam Deck/Arch-based systems.
Comment 2 jonas.hoffmann.mannheim 2025-11-24 19:51:22 UTC
Likely related to missing runtime libraries in the Flatpak build on Steam Deck/Arch-based systems.
Comment 3 jonas.hoffmann.mannheim 2025-11-24 20:00:15 UTC
Created attachment 204261 [details]
ull terminal output of LibreOffice Flatpak launch on Steam Deck, including error messages and GTK warnings. Captured with stdout and stderr redirected to a file.

This file shows the immediate crash and missing library errors (libxml2.so.16, libicuuc.so.77) when running LibreOffice Flatpak on Steam Deck. User profile reset and safe mode were tested; issue persists.
Comment 4 fpy 2025-11-24 23:25:20 UTC
same after an ubuntu upgrade to 25.10

workaround: 
  sudo ln /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libxml2.so.16 /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libxml2.so.2
Comment 5 jonas.hoffmann.mannheim 2025-11-26 16:17:43 UTC
(In reply to fpy from comment #4)
> same after an ubuntu upgrade to 25.10
> 
> workaround: 
>   sudo ln /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libxml2.so.16
> /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libxml2.so.2

Issue was observed after the LibreOffice Flatpak update on 2025-11-24, causing immediate crashes due to missing runtime libraries (libxml2.so.16, libicuuc.so.77). This appears to be a regression introduced with commit 3b58f0f274c3b491130f73b53303d0940e1ececa4de6a8f161002f07a835ad6a.

As of 2025-11-26, after runtime updates (org.gnome.Platform, org.gnome.Platform.Locale), LibreOffice launches successfully again on Steam Deck.


Given that the crash no longer reproduces after the runtime update, the bug may be considered regression-resolved, though it could remain relevant for users who have not updated.
Comment 6 QA Administrators 2025-11-27 03:38:43 UTC
[Automated Action] NeedInfo-To-Unconfirmed