Reports Libre Base

users
#1

I run Libre Office on Ubuntu. I store all of my financial data in a LibreBase data base.  When this was first set up I defined a number of reports. These worked properly until this year. Now if I run areport or try to define one the data base crashes. While it recovers without loss of data. I cannot get any of the reports to work. Some thing is obviously missing of broken. Apart from reports the database works normally.  I assume the database produces an error report when I try to work with reporting. Where do I look for this?

Any help greatly appreciated.

Regards

Peter Goggin

#2

Peter,

May be a daft question, but did you rely on the package libreoffice-report-builder, and is that still installed?

Regards,
Tony.

#3

Hi Peter,

It might help us more to know which version of LibreOffice you are using
and on which version of Ubuntu or Ubuntu-based distribution.

Alex

#4

Libre Base 1:5.1.6~rc2-0ubuntu1~xenial2

Ubuntu 16.4

When I first found the problem I removed LibreBase and reinstalled it but the problem with reportsremained the  same.

Peter

#5

Some weeks ago, under Ubuntu 17.10 I struggled with an old report, I had eventually to kill.

There is two possibilities to build reports (as proposed by the query contextual menu)

Report Builder

Assistant Rapport

There was also an old device

  Oracle Report Builder

        Message d'avertissement

This extension was not updated recently. It might not work with latest versions of OpenOffice.
I attributed my difficulties to the previous build with Oracle which was, if I remember well, an extension. It seems to be no longer installed on my computer

Je la 27/11/2017 16:04, Peter skribis :

#6

Hi Peter,

Libre Base 1:5.1.6~rc2-0ubuntu1~xenial2

Ubuntu 16.4

When I first found the problem I removed LibreBase and reinstalled it
but the problem with reportsremained the  same.

This is a special Ubuntu-version of LO. Have a look into your
packagemanager. Did you install all packages for the
libreoffice-report-builder? Have heard there isn't only one package,
which should be installed for reports with the Ubuntu-version of LO.

Regards

Robert

#7

I reinstalled Libre Office  Base from the Ubuntu repository. I assumed that this wouls automatically install all necessary packages. a=There is nothing that I can find in the__Ubuntu Software Repository that appears to relate to reports for LibreBase.  How can i find out what packages I have installed and what packages are required forreports to work.  I have an old data base which has not been uses since January 2015 which I tried to open today. This will no longer open for any thing , no forms or views or tables can be opened.

Peter

#8

Peter,

I don't know about *buntu, but I download, repackage and install the standard Linux LibreOffice from the LO website for my Slackware Linux system and it includes the report builder already bundled into it. There is no separate report builder plugin package to install. I am using the LO 5.3.4.2 report builder and it works fine out of the box. For the record, OpenOffice does not bundle the report builder and still uses a 3rd-party plugin for that function. If that plugin is not installed, OO will pop up a message about it not being available. That said, I am pretty sure that the LO report builder uses Java. Could your problem be a Java (JRE) issue?

Did you "register" the old database in the new LO?
Use Tools > LibreOffice Base > Databases and "New" to register it if it is not in the list.
You may also have to setup your new Base, especially if you are using an external database server (aka "back-end"). I assume you are using the internal database engine, which I cannot help with. I am using the external Mariadb (MySQL) server.

Girvin Herr

#9

I use Ubuntu 17.04 also, including the Libreoffice packages installed directly from Ubuntu. The default install excludes Base, and if you can't open a database, it seems like you don't have Base installed. sudo apt install libreoffice-base should fix that,

For reports the packages you need are libreoffice-report-builder and libreoffice-report-builder-bin. Use sudo apt install libreoffice-report-builder* and they should install.

Keith

#10

Base is installed and for my financial database the only problem I have is reports. I followed the advice and installed the packages. This made no difference. When I open the data base and select a previously defined report the data bases crashes. If  I use the report creation facility when I select the report wizard again the data base crashes.

Does base log these failures and if so where can I look at it?

My fishing data base opens but I cannot open fofms , tables , queries etc.

This problem with Base has occurred in the last 12 months.

Any suggestions on what to do next will be gratefully received.

Peter

#11

Hi Peter,

install all what begins with libreoffice-report . This will install the
report-builder. I haven't installed any Ubuntu-version here, only SUSE.

Regards

Robert

#12

Peter,

What indication do you have that LO crashes?
Does it lock up or disappear (a hard crash)?

If the former, LO may just be taking a long time to process something. Patience is a virtue. I have some reports that search on database string fields that are quite slow to process the report. I can go out and have a cup of coffee and maybe it will be done when I return.

If the latter, there is a known security fix problem with Linux kernels later than about 4.4.75 and Java. This problem affected LibreOffice, but not OpenOffice, from my experience. There is a fix, but it is technical, regarding stack frame gap size settings. The fix is to add a kernel boot parameter to your booter (Lilo or Grub or whatever). If you updated your *buntu since LO last worked, this may be your problem.

HTH.
Girvin Herr

#13

Definitly a hard crash. When restarted it goes into a recovery process.  If I install Open Office will it work with the Lire Base data bases or would I need to export the data and recreate new data bases?

Peter

#14

Generally I allow all updates that come through.  How do I add the kernal boot parameter? Is there any documentation that will guide me through this process?

Peter

#15

Hi Peter,

Definitly a hard crash. When restarted it goes into a recovery process. 
If I install Open Office will it work with the Lire Base data bases or
would I need to export the data and recreate new data bases?

If you are using the internal HSQLDB (and not Firebird!) it will be no
problem to change between LO and AOO. Hope you haven't made something
with macros, specially dates and reading values from listboxes - this
will be a problem. Also it could be a problem to read reports with
charts ...

But before changing to AOO: You use the packages from Ubuntu at tis
moment. In lifetime of LO very old packages, together with Base and
Report-Builder Ubuntu isn't very user-friendly during the installation.
Try the packages, which are original supported by LO:
http://downloadarchive.documentfoundation.org/libreoffice/old/5.3.7.2/deb/
(or if you prefer newer versions you could search this path upper way:
/old/5.4.3.2/deb/)

Regards

Robert

#16

Peter,

First, I have both Apache OpenOffice (AOO) and LibreOffice (LO) installed on my Slackware Linux computer. I mostly use AOO, but when I do my database reports, I open up LO to process them with the LO Base Report Builder. I do this because AOO does not have a stable Report Builder (see below) and LO does. So far, in more than a decade of use, I have not had any document compatibility problems between the two apps. We can thank the Open Document people and how strongly the app writers conform to the Open Document standards for that.

In my experience, the database support file (the .odb file) that contains all the app support stuff and gui definitions for the database is compatible between the two apps. So, there should be nothing to do in your Base gui to switch. Actually, I copied my .odb file from AOO to use with LO when I installed LO and I keep them both in separate sub-directories, just to be sure either does not get corrupted from the other app. I makes a good backup too.

That said, I have no experience with the LO or AOO internal database server (aka "engine", "back end", etc.). I use the external Mariadb (MySQL) server for my databases, so switching the clients (AOO and LO) is not a problem for me. If you are using the internal database server, I would strongly suggest saving your database first and then opening it on AOO to see if it works. You can always restore the database with your saved database if things go terribly wrong.

Keep in mind that OpenOffice does not have a Report Builder bundled in like LibreOffice does. There is an old extension (Oracle Report Builder) available that is advertised as compatible up to AOO 3.x, but is claimed by some to still work with the latest AOO 4.x version. I have not tried it yet and even then, it may not be as stable or up-to-date as the one bundled in with LO.
https://extensions.openoffice.org/en/project/oracle-report-builder

HTH. Good luck.
Girvin

#17

Peter,

Here are some links to the threads I posted on LinuxQuestions.org about this matter. The thread title is (in case you want to search for it instead of logging into LinuxQuestions):

*Problem with the 4.4.75 kernel security upgrade dated 26 June 2017 (SSE 2017-177-01)*

https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/slackware-14/problem-with-the-4-4-75-kernel-security-upgrade-dated-26-june-2017-sse-2017-177-01-a-4175610351/

And somehow this one got separated from the main thread:
https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/slackware-14/problem-with-the-4-4-75-kernel-security-upgrade-dated-26-june-2017-sse-2017-177-01-a-4175610351/page2.html#post5771382

The fix, as stated in the response from "bormant" on the 08-07-17, 11:25 AM posting, is to add
"stack_guard_gap=6" to the LILO "append=" statement. If you are not using Lilo, then this may look differently. The idea is to pass this statement to the kernel when it boots. The second link is from a *buntu user and has a link to a ubuntu answer to adding this argument to Grub, the *buntu boot loader.
https://askubuntu.com/questions/19486/how-do-i-add-a-kernel-boot-parameter/19487#19487

There is one caveat to this fix I should have mentioned in my first response. The problem only shows up on 32-bit Linux, not 64-bit. So, if you are running 64-bit Linux, this may not help. The alternate solution would be to switch to 64-bit Linux, but then that could open up another can of worms. I have been sticking to 32-bit because of the 32-bit apps that I rely on.

I said it was technical.

HTH.
Girvin

#18

Hi Peter and all:

I suggest to run LibreOffice Base from Terminal (of Ubuntu), and run the report that you want to do. When it crash, looks the Terminal and usually there you can see what happen.

I hope this help,

Jorge Rodríguez