Documents Not Opening On External Drive

users
#1

I'm using LibreOffice 3.4.3 on a Windows 7 Ultimate machine. All my work is
saved on the same hard drive as the installed copy of LibreOffice, F:\ All
works well there.

From time to time I manually copy the files stored on my internal drive F:\

to a network attached storage (NAS) hard drive for backup purposes. When I
double click the file on the NAS drive it will not open. The right click
context menu will only open some files; most will not open. The menu bar
File/Open... option likewise will open a few files but not all of them.

I would like to be able to open all my LibreOffice documents stored on my
NAS by simply double clicking on them. Does anyone have an idea how to do
this?

#2

Do you get an error message? What is it?

#3

Hi Yogi,

From time to time I manually copy the files stored on my internal drive F:\

to a network attached storage (NAS) hard drive for backup purposes. When I
double click the file on the NAS drive it will not open. The right click
context menu will only open some files; most will not open. The menu bar
File/Open... option likewise will open a few files but not all of them.

Is your NAS a SMB mounted ? (probably, I think that's what most are by default).

There are known issues with reading/writing to SMB shares with current versions of LibO, these are already in the bug reporting system, but the cause appears difficult to pin down precisely.

Alex

#4

Do you get an error message? What is it?

No error messages. After clicking on the target file the LibreOffice splash
screen appears but then shuts down without ever opening the document.
ES Champ wrote:

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ES Champ wrote:

#5

Alexander Thurgood wrote:

#6

SMB/CIFS more or less the same (Microsoft renamed Server Message Block
protocol to Common Internet File System). The point is, does your NAS
drive use the CIFS protocol to allow access to files stored on it ?

Alex

#7

SMB/CIFS more or less the same (Microsoft renamed Server Message Block
protocol to Common Internet File System). The point is, does your NAS
drive use the CIFS protocol to allow access to files stored on it ?

Alex

Yes, CIFS is one of the supported network protocols.
I'm using Synology's DS109
http://www.synology.at/us/products/DS109/spec.php
http://www.synology.at/us/products/DS109/spec.php

#8

Thanks, but that doesn't tell me what yours is actually running, merely
what it supports (quite a lot, which is pretty good). What we don't know
is which network protocol the NAS is offering your Windows client - my
guess would be CIFS, but like I said, its just a guess.

If it is CIFS, then there are these known issues :

https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=35751

https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=36157

https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=38419

https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=40038

https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=39093

https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=36349

https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=40898

As examples of just some of the problems plaguing users trying to
open/save/modify files in LibO via SMB/CIFS shares...

If it is NFS, there are yet again other bug issues, and the likewise yet
others for AFS, and WebDav, sigh.

Alex

#9

Hi :slight_smile:
Ahh, this explains some problems i was having. I thought it was just because i had been relegated to the duff machine at work while i was doing all the installing and defragging on the others. So many problems that magically didn't happen on the newer machines.
Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

#10

Alexander Thurgood wrote:

#11

Hi :slight_smile:
Ahah, i was wondering what happens if you copy the files that don't work from the NAS back onto the machine you are using? Do they work when they are back on your machine? - using the NAS as back-up and storage but not for working on files actively?

I don't know if there is a Windows command or something that would identify whether you are using cifs or smb or something else. It's vaguely possible that by knowing the model of the router we might be able to find out what it's defaults are but i'm not sure i would want to state that sort of thing this publicly.
Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

#12

Tom wrote:

Hi :slight_smile:
Ahah, i was wondering what happens if you copy the files that don't work
from the NAS back onto the machine you are using? Do they work when they
are back on your machine? - using the NAS as back-up and storage but not
for working on files actively?

I don't know if there is a Windows command or something that would
identify whether you are using cifs or smb or something else. It's
vaguely possible that by knowing the model of the router we might be able
to find out what it's defaults are but i'm not sure i would want to state
that sort of thing this publicly.
Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

Tom: The files that do not open on the NAS work fine when I copy them back
to the Windows desktop. You are correct in that the NAS is simply being
used for backup, although it does have capability to do a lot more.

I don't see a problem with an open discussion about how to find out what
protocol is being used by default. I would think that should be common
knowledge, but apparently it's not.

#13

Hi :slight_smile:
+1
I agree that it would be nice to get a bit more of it's potential working but it is a relief to hear that there is no data-loss or data-corruption going on!
Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

#14

Fellows,

I think you're mixing apples and oranges. Yogi's problem has nothing to
do with his DHCP service and is unlikely to be a router issue.

SMB (Server Message Block) and CIFS (Common Internet Files System) are
the same Microsoft controlled specifications.

As a practical matter affecting LibreOffice use, what is variable is the
OS hosting and the implementation of the network file system resource.
CIFS is the native Windows flavor (slight differences each release from
Windows NT to Windows Server 2008 R2) while SAMBA is the reverse
engineered FOSS implementation of SMB/CIFS (again differences with each
implementation of Server or NAS operating system).

The question earlier and examples of problems Alex referenced were
mostly related to file locking issues on SAMBA implementations (on
multiple *nix flavors). I think there was an NFS locking issue as well.
Several referenced running the SAMBA instance with the -NORBL flag (No
Record Blocking) as a work around.

So the question to be answered by Yogi might be: what is the OS base of
your NAS--Windows (native CIFS and few issues) or a *nix hosted SAMBA?
And, what release for the service/daemon? Also, for the problem data, is
the partition mount set read/write in the related share configuration or
smb.conf and how is the lock mechanism handled. Providing those details
and perhaps other about the NAS server, coupled with details on the
client experiencing access or stability issues would be more likely to
provide useful response and dialog.

Regards,

Stuart

#15

==Posted from the Nabble Web Interface==

Yogi,

So reading into it, your Synology DS109 should be a Linux 2.6. based kernel.
Your Windows "shares" are coming to you from the NAS as SMB/CIFS from a
Samba 3.2.x package under Linux.

So you are going to be subject to some of the file locking issues mentioned.

It looks like there have been a number of upgrades to the NAS's OS and
firmware, I'd go ahead and login to it and perform the upgrade to the latest
OS release Disk Station Manager 3.2 (
http://forum.synology.com/enu/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=41034 ).

Synology's Linux OS implementation provides a command line interface. The
configuration files for the SAMBA service can be directly edited (
http://forum.synology.com/wiki/index.php/How_to_add_additional_directories )
to accomodate account permissions and file/record locking needed to make
content of the SMB/CIFS shares fully editible from Windows 7.

In addition to the Synology provided OS updates, there is a robust community
of "modders" that actively integrate FOSS packages into the Synology Disk
Station Manager NAS environment.

Suggest you'll do well to do some reading in the Synology forums. You might
be interested in the iSCSI support as an alternative to SMB/CIFS.

Regards,

Stuart

#16

V Stuart Foote wrote:

==Posted from the Nabble Web Interface==

Yogi,

So reading into it, your Synology DS109 should be a Linux 2.6. based
kernel. Your Windows "shares" are coming to you from the NAS as SMB/CIFS
from a Samba 3.2.x package under Linux.

So you are going to be subject to some of the file locking issues
mentioned.

It looks like there have been a number of upgrades to the NAS's OS and
firmware, I'd go ahead and login to it and perform the upgrade to the
latest OS release Disk Station Manager 3.2 (
http://forum.synology.com/enu/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=41034 ).

Synology's Linux OS implementation provides a command line interface. The
configuration files for the SAMBA service can be directly edited (
http://forum.synology.com/wiki/index.php/How_to_add_additional_directories
) to accomodate account permissions and file/record locking needed to make
content of the SMB/CIFS shares fully editible from Windows 7.

In addition to the Synology provided OS updates, there is a robust
community of "modders" that actively integrate FOSS packages into the
Synology Disk Station Manager NAS environment.

Suggest you'll do well to do some reading in the Synology forums. You
might be interested in the iSCSI support as an alternative to SMB/CIFS.

Regards,

Stuart

=-=-=
V Stuart Foote
Systems Analyst
Geological Sciences
The University of Texas at San Antonio

First of all I want to thank you Stuart for your assistance. I upgraded the
Synology DSM and that resolved the issues I was having. In the past I've
hesitated to do this for fear of jeopardizing the integrity of the data on
the hard drive. But, fortunately, the transition was seamless and
effective.

I've yet to find the CLI to access Linux on Synology's server. Fortunately
I have not had to modify permissions or configuration files in order to
solve this problem. This kind of basic information does not seem to be part
of their documentation.

One last comment on my entire experience with LibreOffice is that overall
for my purposes it is superior to Open Office or the Microsoft product.
However, I am very concerned that it takes a System Analyst to understand
why a very elementary task cannot be performed. The average LibreOffice
user is only interested in having the application work. They do not want to
learn about networking or software engineering in order to read a file off a
hard disk. I admit that I may not be running the average home computer
system, but this is the first time I've knowingly run into a network
protocol problem when trying to read a backup copy of a letter.

Thanks again Stuart.

#17

Yogi,

Glad you got it sorted.

However, I am very concerned that it takes a System Analyst to

understand

why a very elementary task cannot be performed. The average

LibreOffice

user is only interested in having the application work...

I would not say the skill set needed is average, but in choosing to
operate a NAS, the configuration is just a bit more challenging and so
demands a bit more sophistication on a users part.

As the adage holds--to get the most from any resource, one should invest
some time in studying its capabilities.

Warm regards,

Stuart