[de-discuss] installation of LibreOffice in Linux network environments - "Javaldx failed" error after installation

Dear All,

installing LibreOffice 4.4.5.2 as a network installation for users using 
Linux cluster nodes via a network seems to be tricky.

What is intended:
A central LibreOffice installation on a network file system which is to 
be mounted by several LINUX installations.
Multiple users should be able to extend their environment by loading an 
appropriate LibreOffice "module" using the "module" command.
It was planned to provide two or three LibreOffice versions (e.g. a 
traditional, latest stable, and newest available version) in parallel 
and let the user choose.

What has been done:
On the network file system a mount point 
/afs/.../amd64_sles11/os/opt/libreoffice4.4 and a disc quota for the 
corresponding network volume to be mounted was defined.
The network volume and the file tree including the mount point are owned 
and writable by the network administrator (not by root).
While the network file system is always mounted as a whole under /afs/ 
the usual method to make tree branches available to clients is to create 
cross links from the client file system into the mounted network file 
system. In our case this is a link /opt/libreoffice4.4 -> 
/afs/.../amd64_sles11/os/opt/libreoffice4.4
(Similar steps to be done for the other LibreOffice versions.)

Running the libreoffice installation as the network administrator 
(without root privileges) having write access through the link into the 
network volume is straight forward.
./install . /
installs all RPMs into /opt/libreoffice4.4    (The RPM_DATABASE_PATH in 
the install script was changed to redirect the RPM database also into 
/opt/libreoffice4.4.)

However, now *as an ordinary user having only read access to the network 
file system* calling /opt/libreoffice4.4/programm/soffice yields the error

*[Java framework] Error in function createSettingsDocument (elements.cxx).**
**javaldx failed!**
**Warning: failed to read path from javaldx*

Using "strace"  on the libreoffice binary one can find out what fails:

12332 open("/afs/.../amd64_sles11/os/opt/libreoffice4.4/program/../program/bootstraprc", 
O_RDONLY|O_EXCL) = 3
12332 fstat(3, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0644, st_size=192, ...}) = 0
12332 pread(3, "[ErrorReport]\nErrorReportPort=80"..., 4096, 0) = 192
12332 close(3)                          = 0
12332 
access("/afs/.../amd64_sles11/os/opt/libreoffice4.4/program/../../UserInstallation/user/config/javasettings_Linux_X86_64.xml",
 F_OK) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
12332 
mkdir("/afs/.../amd64_sles11/os/opt/libreoffice4.4/program/../../UserInstallation/user/config", 
0777) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
12332 mkdir("/afs/.../amd64_sles11/os/opt/libreoffice4.4/program/../../UserInstallation/user", 
0777) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
12332 mkdir("/afs/.../amd64_sles11/os/opt/libreoffice4.4/program/../../UserInstallation", 0777) = 
-1 EROFS (Read-only file system)
12332 futex(0x3299415af0, FUTEX_WAKE_PRIVATE, 2147483647) = 0
12332 write(2, "[Java framework] Error in functi"..., 74) = 74
12332 write(2, "javaldx failed!\n", 16) = 16
12332 futex(0x7f450701644c, FUTEX_WAKE_OP_PRIVATE, 1, 1, 0x7f4507016448, {FUTEX_OP_SET, 0, 
FUTEX_OP_CMP_GT, 1}) = 1

This seems to be an undocumented behavior. Resolving the ..'s and the 
links an attempt is made to write into /opt/UserInstallation. Why does 
libreoffice try to write into this strange location?

The README says about the RPM installation package:
/This "stand-alone" LibreOffice installer is provided for users in need 
of previews, having special needs, and for out-of-the-ordinary cases./

Also the README says about using "install":
/Alternatively, you can use the 'install' script, located in the 
toplevel directory of this archive to perform an installation as a user. 
The script will set up LibreOffice to have its own profile for this 
installation, separated from your normal LibreOffice profile. Note that 
this will not install the system integration parts such as desktop menu 
items and desktop MIME type registrations.//

/So apparently LibreOffice is configured in this case to put the users 
profile at a strange and undocumented place.
Why not in the users HOME? Why not at a special place below ~/.config?
Why not asking the user or letting him decide via looking for a 
documented environment variable?
Such an environment variable could be set by the "module" command 
sweetly allowing configuration for system administrators.

OK, I see the behavior has already been changed for LibreOffice 5.0. But 
is there any documentation? Is the new behavior compatible to what I 
described a network administrator would need?

What do you think? Is this a request for enhancement worth to be considered?

Regards,

Karl

P.S.: Diskussionsbeiträge gerne auch auf Deutsch.
Ich  hab's mal in Englisch geschrieben, weil's vielleicht doch in einem 
größeren Kreis diskutiert werden muss.

Karl



--
Dr. Karl Behler 
CODAC & IT services ASDEX Upgrade
phon +49 89 3299-1351 fax 3299-961351


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