Bug 91314 - LO hangs loading .ods when multiple Chrome tasks are running on Vista 64-bit
Summary: LO hangs loading .ods when multiple Chrome tasks are running on Vista 64-bit
Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Calc (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
4.4.2.2 release
Hardware: x86-64 (AMD64) Windows (All)
: medium major
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard: needsWindowsVista(x64)
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2015-05-15 23:01 UTC by Richard A Blaine
Modified: 2016-07-06 06:01 UTC (History)
4 users (show)

See Also:
Crash report or crash signature:


Attachments
Typical .ods file (9.19 KB, application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.spreadsheet)
2015-05-17 14:26 UTC, Richard A Blaine
Details

Note You need to log in before you can comment on or make changes to this bug.
Description Richard A Blaine 2015-05-15 23:01:50 UTC
Vista Home 64 all updates installed

For the past  3-4 releases of LO (six months or so) and after a few days/weeks of use LO hangs while loading file - primarily .ods.  The Windows task manager does not show LO as a task but shows the  soffice.bin and soffice.exe processes as active (two of each if I use QuickLoad).  The screen is white - no headers or information of any kind.  I can close LO or kill the processes.  This happens form Explorer as well as open from LO.

I can start LO but as soon as I try to open an ods file, LO hangs loading.

The only way I can regain the the use of LO is to restart windows (or reinstall LO).  Thereafter LO runs fine for a few days or a week and then the problem starts again.

In the previous release (4.3) this would occur with several open document foundation files but not with MS Office files.
Comment 1 tommy27 2015-05-16 00:06:16 UTC
did you tried to reset the user profile?
https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/UserProfile
Comment 2 Richard A Blaine 2015-05-17 01:23:48 UTC
NO I did not reset the profile.  Since restarting Windows is the temporary fix, the profile must be ok!
Comment 3 raal 2015-05-17 08:12:57 UTC
Hello,

Thank you for reporting the bug. Please attach a sample document, as this makes it easier for us to verify the bug. 
I have set the bug's status to 'NEEDINFO'. Please change it back to 'UNCONFIRMED' once the requested document is provided.
(Please note that the attachment will be public, remove any sensitive information before attaching it. 
See https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/QA/FAQ#How_can_I_eliminate_confidential_data_from_a_sample_document.3F for help on how to do so.)
Comment 4 Richard A Blaine 2015-05-17 14:26:00 UTC
Created attachment 115679 [details]
Typical .ods file

When the problem occurs (every week or so) all .ods files fail to load.
Attached is one of these.
Comment 5 MM 2015-05-18 22:47:39 UTC
No problem loading with v4.4.3.2 under windows 7 x64.

Maybe the config file becomes corrupt somehow after a few days/weeks.
Comment 6 Buovjaga 2015-05-19 10:20:00 UTC
In addition to renaming the user profile, you could try to get a backtrace of the hang: https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/How_to_get_a_backtrace_with_WinDbg

I had no problem with the example file.

I will set to needinfo while we wait for further results.

Win 7 Pro 64-bit Version: 5.0.0.0.alpha1+
Build ID: 158b50763962f66515062300e265839828463efa
TinderBox: Win-x86@39, Branch:master, Time: 2015-05-19_00:28:31
Locale: fi-FI (fi_FI)
Comment 7 Richard A Blaine 2015-05-19 14:30:26 UTC
I repeat -  this problem occurs every few days or weeks on all .ods files and not just the sample I attached.  I do not rename or in any way change the profile.  Just restarting Windows clears the problem for a while.  This makes debugging much more problematic.  I will try to get the backtrace but the mini-dump looks more likely.  Thanks for your support.
Comment 8 MM 2015-06-03 23:54:58 UTC
(In reply to Richard A Blaine from comment #7)
> I repeat -  this problem occurs every few days or weeks on all .ods files
> and not just the sample I attached.  I do not rename or in any way change
> the profile.  Just restarting Windows clears the problem for a while.

Well, why wouldn't you rename the profile ? You can always rename it back afterwards. And sometimes it does strangely enough fixes a problem.
Comment 9 Richard A Blaine 2015-07-25 18:00:28 UTC
I know you are going to find this hard to believe but I have found the cause of this problem and verified it 4-5 times.

This failure to load (open) a ods spreadsheet file occurs whenever I have multiple Chrome tasks running (does not happen with xls or several other but not all other types).  As soon as I close all Chrome tasks the problem disappears and I am able to load any file type.

In addition I have discovered that open Chrome tasks cause problems with mailmerge processing.  Specifically the Print dialog box (with the label layout sheet open) does not appear.  Once I close all Chrome tasks the Print dialog box does appear.

This started about 6 months ago - Vista, Chrome and LO are always at their current maintenance/release level.
Comment 10 tommy27 2015-07-26 08:08:44 UTC
(In reply to Richard A Blaine from comment #9)
> ...
> 
> This started about 6 months ago - Vista, Chrome and LO are always at their
> current maintenance/release level.

would you please tell the exact version you started seeing the bug?
you can also test with older portable releases from here:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/winpenpack/files/X-LibreOffice/releases/

once you have done, modify the version field to the "earliest" release you see the bug.

> ...
> In addition I have discovered that open Chrome tasks cause problems with
> mailmerge processing.  Specifically the Print dialog box (with the label
> layout sheet open) does not appear.  Once I close all Chrome tasks the Print
> dialog box does appear.
> ...

please open a separate bug report about this issue and put the new link it under "See also"
Comment 11 Buovjaga 2015-07-26 11:43:21 UTC
By Chrome tasks do you mean tabs?
I opened 6 Chrome tabs, navigated to various websites in them and could open your test.ods just fine.

Win 7 Pro 64-bit, Version: 4.4.4.3
Build ID: 2c39ebcf046445232b798108aa8a7e7d89552ea8
Locale: fi_FI
Comment 12 tommy27 2015-07-26 11:54:49 UTC
maybe a Vista 64 specific bug?
Comment 13 Richard A Blaine 2015-07-26 17:20:35 UTC
(In reply to tommy27 from comment #10)
> (In reply to Richard A Blaine from comment #9)
> > ...
> > 
> > This started about 6 months ago - Vista, Chrome and LO are always at their
> > current maintenance/release level.
> 
> would you please tell the exact version you started seeing the bug?
> you can also test with older portable releases from here:
> http://sourceforge.net/projects/winpenpack/files/X-LibreOffice/releases/
> 
> once you have done, modify the version field to the "earliest" release you
> see the bug.
> 
> > ...
> > In addition I have discovered that open Chrome tasks cause problems with
> > mailmerge processing.  Specifically the Print dialog box (with the label
> > layout sheet open) does not appear.  Once I close all Chrome tasks the Print
> > dialog box does appear.
> > ...
> 
> please open a separate bug report about this issue and put the new link it
> under "See also"

I have updated the earliest version number and will post the 2nd problem.
Thanks for your interest.
Comment 14 Richard A Blaine 2015-07-26 17:23:20 UTC
(In reply to Beluga from comment #11)
> By Chrome tasks do you mean tabs?
> I opened 6 Chrome tabs, navigated to various websites in them and could open
> your test.ods just fine.
> 
> Win 7 Pro 64-bit, Version: 4.4.4.3
> Build ID: 2c39ebcf046445232b798108aa8a7e7d89552ea8
> Locale: fi_FI

While it is true that every tab has its own chrome task, I really mean tasks.  Crome spawns taks for just about everything it does.  In fact, sometimes the "load" problem happens immediately after restarting Windows and prior to my opening Chrome; I frequently still fine 6-8 chrome tasks running!
Comment 15 Richard A Blaine 2015-07-26 17:26:40 UTC
(In reply to tommy27 from comment #12)
> maybe a Vista 64 specific bug?

Given the lack of other similar bug reports I do believe that this problem is the result of a specific Vista-64/Chrome/LO interaction and not intrinsically a bug in LO.
Comment 16 Nancy Hockley 2015-12-15 18:48:01 UTC
I am not a tech and have limited knowledge in the behind the scenes working of Libre Office. Is it possible to go back to the previous version?
Comment 17 tommy27 2015-12-15 19:07:42 UTC
@Nancy
your last edits to this report are invalid.

first, you should not change the version field to a later version since it has to indicate "earliest affected" release the bug is reproduced.

second, the status can be set as NEW only after an independent confirmation from another user, and that's not clear from your latest message

regarding your question you can find old LibO releases here:
https://downloadarchive.documentfoundation.org/libreoffice/old/

if you want to downgrade just uninstall then reinstall an old release
Comment 18 Joel Madero 2016-07-06 05:55:13 UTC
I suggest this be closed as WONTFIX. Vista has been killed by Microsoft for ages and it's not realistic that we continue supporting it.
Comment 19 Buovjaga 2016-07-06 06:01:45 UTC
(In reply to Joel Madero from comment #18)
> I suggest this be closed as WONTFIX. Vista has been killed by Microsoft for
> ages and it's not realistic that we continue supporting it.

Yep, Chrome support on Vista was actually dropped almost a year ago: https://chrome.googleblog.com/2015/11/updates-to-chrome-platform-support.html

If Richard still gets this on Windows 7/8/10, we can revisit.