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For some users, LibreOffice 3.5.3 will not run at all, even after allowing the Visual C++ runtimes to install. This is the topic for that bug.
Fix 2: Fixes fonts and VC runtime
First, please try LibreOfficePortable.exe launcher fix 2. Download and replace your current launcher in the LibreOfficePortable directory. It has correct detection of an installed VC runtimes and fixes the font issue of some apps not responding to windows messages (like Chrome's plugin container).
OS: Windows 7 32-bit
Install path for Platform: X:\apps
Actual install path for LibreOffice: X:\apps\PortableApps\LibreOfficePortable
It was an upgrade from 3.5.2 (which was working fine). Then it was a fresh install.
Please follow the additional steps in the main topic and see if they work. Report your results, please.
Win 7 64 bit. Install Path x:\PortableApps\LinreOfficePortable\
Tried installing manually from the vcdist86.exe in the App\libreoffice folder. Then uninstalled that and tried with the one downloaded from the Microsoft website link. Neither work.
Tried both with an upgrade, then renamed the LibreOfficePortable folder and installed fresh - this did not work either.
Did not try the experimental remove languages.
I can still run Libreoffice from the scalc.exe, sbase.exe, in the App\libreoffice\program folder, and I am currently running this way until a fix is found.
Please let me know if I can provide any further information.
Andy.
Can you try deleting your LibreOfficePortable\Data folder and then rename LibreOfficePortable\App\DefaultData to DefaultData2 and then running?
No, still does not work. I moved the \Data folder out of the X drive, then renamed DefaultData to DefaultData2. Reran LibreOfficePortable.exe.
It has recreated the \Data\PortableApps.comLauncherRuntimeData-LibreOfficePortable.ini, and has promptly hung again with exactly the same symptoms as previously.
Andy.
Not sure if this is going to be a help or not, but if I rename LibreOfficePortable\App\DefaultData2 back to App\DefaultData, then delete LibreOfficePortable\Data folder again, then try running LibreOfficePortable.exe, I get a lot more disk activity - as if it is getting further before hanging - than when the DefaultData folder had been renamed to DefaultData2.
OS Win 7 Starter
msvcr90.dll at C:\Windows\winsxs\x86_microsoft.vc90.crt_1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b_9.0.30729.4926_none_508ed732bcbc0e5a
previous versions worked fine. Tried update and all described above then fresh install and all described above. Doesn't work. Even no start of scalc.exe possible. In the Task Manager it's shortly shown (processes) that LibreOffice starts but that disappears immediately and nothing is started.
What to do now?
Looks like the problem was not C++ 2008 but the virusprotection. What it never did before it deleted automatically soffice.bin.
Both Jotti and Virus Total say everyone says it's clean.
Norton Internet Security in the latest version and up to date virus database. The SONAR protection was set to automatically delete high risks. Setting it to 'Ask' and then say 'Okay' during installation of LibreOffice when the security warning pops up solved this issue (at least now it works). Afterwards I set SONAR back to 'Automatic'.
Unless you're doing high-risk things all the time, you should keep it as Ask. It won't let it install until you say it is OK and should quarantine. Automatic just means that it'll randomly break your apps here and there as Norton has fairly regular issues with false positives.
Hi John,
you are absolutely right. It did it again and deleted soffice.bin. I was working in LOCalc and when I went to a menu function LOCalc was closed and soffice.bin deleted. I'll set it to ask as for 'high-risk' things I normally use Sandboxie or a virtual machine.
Are you using the latest definitions? According to Jotti and VirusTotal, Norton calls it clean.
I do. Definitions are automatically loaded several times a day e.g. now the latest is just 6 minutes old.
As Norton via online calls it clean, you'll need to post a false positive report to Norton so they can fix it.
Or are you using their 'heuristics' mode in connection with automatic. That will be wrong a lot.
W7 32b. Default install path (x:\PortableApps\LibreOfficePortable\)
Installation: fresh (from a file, not PA updater) over existing LOP 3.5.2 installation.
Exp. rem. lang.: on and off
VC RT: installed, yet tried manual installation
After installation LOP simply doesn't start. It starts its process, but nothing happens. All solutions given here don't work. Killing the process and removing PortableApps.comLauncherRuntimeData-LibreOfficePortable.ini (otherwise LOP launcher warns about another instance starting) doesn't help.
Reinstalled LOP many times, used ELR and not. No change.
Please help - working LOP is crucial to me.
Have you tried a fresh install instead of an upgrade? You said you installed fresh, but then you said it was over LOP 3.5.2. You can install it alongside as LibreOfficePortable_Copy_2 for example.
I said "fresh" as contrary to PA updater. So, in fact, it wasn't true fresh, since there was previous LOP version.
I changed existing LOP folder name, installed LOP 3.5.3 and it works fine. Now I'm wondering what was wrong with the upgrade...
So, I installed Windows 7 in virtual machine (using standard Windows Virtual PC), installed all updates, copied my PortableApps Platform directory there and tried to run LibreOffice Writer there. It started with no problems (I got a message about VC runtime, tho, but after hitting No application started). So, I started experimenting. I checked if I had some services disabled on host machine, there were some, but enabling them back didn't help (I rebooted ofcourse). Turning DEP off didn't help either. Changing UAC settings did not help as well. I even tried to set process affinity to 1 core on host to match VM environment, but even that did not help. After few more hours of trying different tricks, I started Process Explorer and noticed that PortableAppsPlatform.exe and all it's child processes are running as jobs on host machine, while they are running as regular processes inside VM. I guess this could be a key.
PS: Host system is almost as clean, as guest system. I did not install any foreign drivers (got some drivers via Windows Update tho) and the only programs installed are Windows Virtual PC, foobar2000, Firefox and Chrome.
They don't show up as processes? What if you run PortableAppsPlatform.exe directly (it's in the PortableApps\PortableApps.com directory)?
They show up as processes, but special processes - Jobs. Process Explorer highlights them if you check it in Options / Configure colors. If I rightclick on PortableAppsPlatform.exe and select Properties, there is additional tab Job which is not shown in properties of regular processes. It's empty, though.
It doesn't matter how I run them, even if I run putty.exe directly from the depths of PA directory, it's running as job on my system.
Nevermind, looks like it's unrelated. Almost everything I run from Explorer ends up running as job. But if I start same application from cmd, it's running as regular process. So, I started PA from cmd and it did not help, LibreOffice Writer did not run.
I guess it will be much easier to find out what's going on, using a debug version of LibreOfficePortable.exe, because problem is not with LibreOffice itself.
Ok, this is how I solved it.
I created new user on my machine, logged on, started PA platform, downloaded LOP, started it - worked like a charm. Logged back to my user account, started LOP - worked like a charm again.
Disregard that, I finally cracked it. The source of problem is Google Chrome. When it's running, LOP fails to start. When it's not running, LOP starts with no problems.
I don't know if this makes any sense, but I installed Chrome system-wide via "alternate installer for all user accounts" (http://www.google.com/chrome/eula.html?system=true&standalone=1).
It does seem to be Chrome that is the problem. If I stop Chrome, LO will start perfectly. Restart Chrome, and the problem comes back.
Andy
I know Chrome breaks VirtualBox and some other apps as well (whether you install it for yourself or all users). That's why I ditched it from my home machine. Though it was the Google Chrome crash detector in that case, so it broke VirtualBox entirely, whether or not Chrome was running.
Does this happen with local and portable Chrome?
It is happening with ChromePortable - I don't have Chrome installed locally.
Andy.
This is weird. I just started Chrome Portable, then started LO Writer and it worked fine. I'll try few more times to make sure..
Ok, that was an easy one. If I just run Chrome, local or portable - doesn't matter, LOP starts fine. If I open some page that uses flash, Chrome spawns process, a plugin container, which breaks LOP. But, funny thing is, if I start LOP, then kill that single chrome process, LOP finally starts.
This is a command line of the process, which causes problems:
"C:\Program Files\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe" --type=plugin --plugin-path="C:\Program Files\Google\Chrome\Application\18.0.1025.168\gcswf32.dll" --lang=en-US --channel="2068.3.1280623506\683699570" --flash-broker=1192 /prefetch:4
But this is not all. There is also another process spawned with PID=1192 in this case (see --flash-broker=1192 on previous command line):
C:\Windows\system32\rundll32.exe "C:\PROGRA~1\Google\Chrome\APPLIC~1\180102~1.168\gcswf32.dll",BrokerMain browser=chrome
If I kill this process, LOP starts, and Chrome still can play flash stuff without even noticing something happened. This rundll process is never spawned again. At least it didn't spawn within 20 minutes or something while I was running different flash sites with videos and apps.
PS: If I kill chrome plugin container, both processes die, but Chrome notices that plugin crashed and restarts both processes on loading any flash-enabled page.
I just fired up Google Chrome Portable and loaded a flash game within. I then started LibreOffice (local install) and it worked as expected. I then started LibreOfficePortable.exe and it hung. The launcher itself is being hung up by Google Chrome's plugin container.
I figured it was the Visual C++ runtime check, but it appears to be the new font code. I am investigating further.
Yeah, exactly. But to be more correct, it's not plugin container, but rundll.exe process causing problems.
There is a temporary solution to this. I just disabled Chrome's built-in Flash plugin, so Chrome has to run system Flash plugin instead. And it runs it without this rundll.exe mess. And LOP works fine.
I've added in a fixed launcher that should alleviate the issue with Google Chrome's plugin container. Please give it a try.
For the technically curious, NSIS's SendMessage routine doesn't accept a TIMEOUT of 0 and instead hangs when awaiting responses from all running windows that fonts have been added or removed from the system. Google Chrome's plugin container is one of those broken windows that never responds. Setting the TIMEOUT to 1ms makes it work just fine.
Nice. There are some more PA launchers affected, I believe, because I saw them hanging like this before.
No other apps use this portable fonts technique. Hmm, actually Geany may use some version of this, I'll check as it's in pre-release now. It is an issue we ran into before, but it was in the platform, which is why I knew to ensure it had no timeout to avoid waiting for broken windows like Chrome's plugin container. What I didn't know was that setting it to 0 didn't work in NSIS (it assumes it is blank and uses the default).
How do I use the fixed launcher? Do I just re-install LO?
Andy.
No. You "Download and replace your current launcher in the LibreOfficePortable directory", as stated in top post. There is a download link in top post as well.
Thanks. I can confirm that it has sorted the problem for me.
Hi,
I have Win 7 prof. 64 bit, path is c:\portable\PortableApps\LibreOfficePortable, German version, upgrade from 3.5.2.2. Extra Languages are removed, a portable Chrome is installed but not running.
When LO crashes or gets killed by the task manager, the normal console appears and all is fine.
But, when I shut down the computer with LO open, the next LO launch is aborted with "Another instance of LO is shutting down".
EDIT: The launcher fix 1 seems to work - it just did anyway. Thanks!
Best wishes, Helli
This is normal behaviour. You should never shut down your computer with any portable apps running, as they can, and likely will, lose settings.
An updated fix has been posted. While the font fix is the same as fix 1, the VC runtime fix issue has been updated. Please ensure the font fix is still working for you in this thread. Thanks!
I just backed up my functional version and updated to the newest version. Then I added your fix. Libreoffice portable is now working. 
Thanks for helping
This is fixed in 3.5.4 with improved message broadcasting to other windows that may not respond like Chrome's plugin container.
Platform: Windows 7 Ultimate 32 bit
Visual Basic is installed.
01. On installing LOP and then running, the message Visual Basic 8 not present message is displayed. Google Chrome Portable was installed and running.
02. Closed Google Chrome Portable and re-ran LOP. Still got the same error message, but saying "No" to installing Visual Basic 8 prompt, then allowed LOP to run.
03. Closed LOP and then re-ran it with Google Chrome closed and LOP ran perfectly.
04. Re-opened Google Chrome Portable and then opened LOP and (guess what), it ran fine.
Don't get it. Tried Fix 1 and Fix 2, but neither made any difference in my case.
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