can't save a document

Janice_Chandler · February 11, 2012, 5:51pm

I am running LibreOffice on Ubuntu 11.10, Asus netbook, w/2g RAM. I use the
word processor extensively.

Frequently, when working on a document in Writer, I get a "cannot write to
disk" error. Subsequently, I cannot save in any other program. For example,
if I open a text editor and copy the text to a new file, I get the same
error message. This happens more often when operating on battery power than
when using A/C. If I do not reboot right away, I will get a total system
failure. If that happens before exiting Writer, the document I am working
on becomes corrupted.

This only happens when I am using LO in Ubuntu. This never happens in WinXP
or Win7. I haven't observed this trouble in any of the "live distros" I've
played with. Much to my dismay, I have noticed that Win can be a little
more forgiving of some hardware issues than Ubuntu. I don't have Win on
this netbook, but I never had any problems when it was installed.

How can I tell if this problem is related to LO, Ubuntu or hardware?

Thanks,

Jan

Tom_Davies · February 11, 2012, 6:15pm

Hi
Is the Ubuntu side full-up? If you open a folder to look at the documents inside then the menus at the top of the file-browser allow you to tick

View - "Status bar"

Then the status-bar at the bottom of the window shows how much empty space there is on the Ubuntu drive/partition that you are trying to save the file into. It might be worth emptying the wastebin and if you open your email client then empty the wastebin in there to. Also which folder are you trying to save into? It should be fine in "Documents" or another suitable folder but some system folders are protected.
Regards from
Tom

Don_C_Myers · February 11, 2012, 7:06pm

Hi Jan,

I've not had any problems with LibreOffice on Ubuntu 11.10. I've had Ubuntu 11.10 installed since it came out, and have it on 4 different computers, but no netbooks. I running LibreOffice 3.4.5.

What version of LibreOffice are you running? Are you using the version in the Ubuntu repositories, or using the one directly from LibreOffice?

Don

Janice_Chandler · February 11, 2012, 8:32pm

Yes, I have a full install of Ubuntu. I have a 160 gig HD and it does not
have partitions, except for a small swap area. I still have more than 130
gig available.

I learned several years ago to save all files of any importance to an
external drive. Right now I use a 16 gig ssd, which is about half full. I
have tried to "save as" to a different area, such as the home documents
folder, but get the same error message.

Jan

Janice_Chandler · February 11, 2012, 8:48pm

Hi Jan,

I've not had any problems with LibreOffice on Ubuntu 11.10. I've had
Ubuntu 11.10 installed since it came out, and have it on 4 different
computers, but no netbooks. I running LibreOffice 3.4.5.

What version of LibreOffice are you running? Are you using the version in
the Ubuntu repositories, or using the one directly from LibreOffice?

Don

\~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**~~~*

Hi Don,

I am using the LO from the Ubuntu repository, 3.4.4. Generally speaking, I
don't use an external source unless a program is not available from the
repository.

My biggest worry is that this is a hardware problem. Like so many others, I
am unemployed and I can't just go out and buy a replacement.

Jan

planas · February 11, 2012, 9:24pm

Hi Jan,

Hi
Is the Ubuntu side full-up? If you open a folder to look at the documents
inside then the menus at the top of the file-browser allow you to tick

Hi Tom,

Yes, I have a full install of Ubuntu. I have a 160 gig HD and it does not
have partitions, except for a small swap area. I still have more than 130
gig available.

I learned several years ago to save all files of any importance to an
external drive. Right now I use a 16 gig ssd, which is about half full. I
have tried to "save as" to a different area, such as the home documents
folder, but get the same error message.

Jan

I have not seen any problems with LO causing a hang and searching I have not found any reports that seemed to fit the problem.

Space is not a problem, Ubuntu needs maybe 5 - 8 gig for most people.

I use Mint 12 (Ubuntu 11.10) plus but use a libreoffice ppa instead of the Ubuntu repository. You can install the ppa using:

/To add the PPA and install LibreOffice add 'ppa:libreoffice/ppa' to your software sources or run the command below in a new Terminal session: -

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:libreoffice/ppa

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install libreoffice /

sudo will ask for your user password (logon password)

Spencer_Graves1 · February 11, 2012, 9:29pm

Just to ensure I have read this thread correctly, the problem happens only on one computer and only on different drives attached to that computer.

Have you noticed other problems on that computer? If no, then I think it is probably corruption in the installation of LibreOffice. For that, I suggest you do the following:

1. Make sure you have all your personal data backed up. I think you said you did, but I just want to make sure: One possible source of this problem could be a weak component in your computer, which could get worse at any minute. I don't think this is likely from what I've read of your case, but it's wise to be prepared.

2. Confirm where LO is installed. This may not be necessary if you have only one hard drive on that computer, and all software is installed on that hard drive.

3. Run "fsck" on that drive (http://linux.die.net/man/8/fsck). If this identifies no errors, I'd uninstall and reinstall LO; with luck, this should fix it. If it finds errors, is the computer still under warranty? If yes, I might take it for a warranty repair, Alternatively, if the number of errors it finds and fixes is small, you might be able to get away with uninstalling and reinstalling LO -- and possibly a few other pieces of software you have not yet noticed were corrupted. This might not fix it if the problem is in some portion of the operating system used by LO but not often by other software that you If it finds many errors, that suggests you will want to do something major with the hard drive. The cheapest option might be to reformat the hard drive and reinstall the operating system and all software from scratch. However, that might fix this LO problem, but you still might have other problems not too far identified; or if the hard drive is generally weak, it could fail in another month. The option, I think, with potentially the least work on your part is to replace the hard drive with a new one, and install the operating system and software from scratch. This could be an attractive option if you could configure your current hard drive as a second drive. With this, you might not need to do all the installation work at once.

Hope this helps.

Spencer
p.s. You might want to add the things you do to fix this to your resume When I was laid off in 2009, I resolved to not buy any software if I could find an acceptable open source alternative. Since then I've learned a lot about computers I didn't know before.

Don_C_Myers · February 11, 2012, 10:57pm

Hi Jan,

I've had very, very good luck with LibreOffice, and prior to that, OpenOffice, by using the direct downloads rather than the version in the repositories. Disk space doesn't seem to be a problem. I've never used a SSD, but I've read where they have a finite number of times that they can be written to. What I would suggest you try is to install the version of LibreOffice from their site. I assume with it being a netbook you are running 32 bit. If so, you can do the following if you wish to give this a try:
1. Download the current LibreOffice version 3.4.5 from here:
http://www.libreoffice.org/download/#
Make sure you get the Linux x86 (deb) version for a 32 bit system.
Download this file to your desktop, or copy it to your desktop once you have it downloaded.

2. Right click on the downloaded folder and extract it to your desktop. You will then have a folder called LibO_3.4.5rc2_Linux_x86_install-deb_en-US on your desktop.

3. Run the following three commands in the terminal:
sudo apt-get remove libreoffice*.* This will remove your current LibreOffice version from your system. You will still have your preferences that you presently use.

sudo dpkg -i ~/Desktop/LibO_3.4.5rc2_Linux_x86_install-deb_en-US/DEBS/*.deb This does the basic install.

sudo dpkg -i ~/Desktop/LibO_3.4.5rc2_Linux_x86-64_install-deb_en-US/DEBS/desktop-integration/libreoffice3.4-debian-menus_3.4-502_all.deb This installs your menus.

I've never bothered with the help files which are a separate download. Once you have done the above steps, you can easily add the portions of LibreOffice in the Launcher bar by clicking on the Dash button (top button on the launcher bar), and typing libre. All of the applications will show up. Simply left and hold the button down the ones you want and drag the icon to where you want it in the launcher.

If you should happen to be running 64 bit, I can send the instructions for it.

I don't know if there might be an issue with your configuration file being corrupted. I've never had that happen, but some folks have. I don't have those instructions, but others on this board do.

Good luck!

Don

Tom_Davies · February 11, 2012, 11:24pm

Hi
Ahh, you can "get back to factory defaults" by renaming your User-Profile. That gets all the configurations and settigns back to defaults
http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Documentation/UserProflie

Regards from
Tom

Tom_Davies · February 11, 2012, 11:47pm

Hi
Home is a bit confusing on Ubuntu. The system might well not be happy with you trying to save there. On most Gnu&Linux systems (including Ubuntu) you get a folder called

/home

that you can see in the root / folder of the file-system. It's a system-folder that you can't really save stuff in as a normal user. Inside /home is a folder for each user-name that can login to the system. Ubuntu has a "Places" menu that refers to something it calls "home" but is really the

/home/user

folder which you might not always be allowed to save to as a normal user. Ok, maybe not hugely confusing but imprecise enough to cause a mis-step sometimes. So,

/home/user/Documents

is really the best place to try saving to. LiveCds don't mind if you really mess up their system because they assume that you can't write to the Cd so when you reboot you get a fresh system. So they happily drop you in as a SuperUser/RootUser/SystemAdministrator. If you then login to a proper install as a normal user then you can open files written but not save over the top of them because you don't have elevated permissions anymore. It will allow you to save the same file under a different name. I add v1 at the end of the file-name or change v1 to v2.

Err, i have made that about as clear as mud! Sorry!
Regards from
Tom

Don_C_Myers · February 12, 2012, 1:25am

Hi,

I didn't have any luck with Tom's link. I did a little research. In Ubuntu, this user file is at:
/home/<user name>/.libreoffice/3/user

In Ubuntu, if you are using Unity, click the home folder in the launcher bar (normally just under the Dash button) , then move your mouse to the top bar where the menus appear. Then click view, then show hidden files. When you look again at the files and folders, you will see .libreoffice. In Linux, a . before a folder or file name means it is a hidden file or folder. Go to the user folder name, and rename it to something like userbackup. Then when you open LibreOffice the next time, it will create a new user folder. I everything works in there, then you can copy back the contents from the contents of the backup file until the corrupt portion of the backup file starts the problem again.

Don