Posted: Sun Apr 11, 2010 3:00 am Post subject: Writer crashes during saving
Hello. This is actually the first recurring problem I've had with NeoOffice. Right now I'm using OpenOffice.org to keep up with my work and it is *not* showing similar problems with the same document. Therefore, I think it's a bug in NeoOffice code, not OpenOffice.
Anyway, I'm doing a heavy revision on a 50-page technical handbook, recording all the changes and inserting a lot of notes, using NeoOffice 3.0.2 patch 3. The original text was written 15 years ago in a MS Word 6 for Windows 3.1, but this document is lost. The book was set using some DTP tool on a PPC Mac 8 or 9 years ago and exported to PDF from there. Then it was exported from PDF into a .doc format using Adobe Illustrator (or something like that), opened by MS Word 2007, saved into .odt, and then I started working on it.
Everything was working fine for first 12-13 pages. After that, the Writer just crashed after one intermittent save operation (I hit cmd-s quite often, whenever I stop to think). Document recovery didn't do much because I'm saving more often than autorecovery so I got more back by just opening the normal document.
Anyway, I repeated 2 more times, making less and less new changes, crashed 2 more times, than the third time it saved successfully after just changing one single letter. Then I rebooted the machine and it continued working fine for 2 more pages. After that the problem re-occured but this time the reboot didn't help any more.
Then I downloaded and installed OpenOffice.org, tried with it, and it's working fine. Furthermore, after saving once with OO.o, I can use Neo again for 1 or 2 paragraphs before it crashes again (alwas during save operation).
The crash log is in the attachment.
I guess the problem is document-specific (I've used record changes before, but never on a document so large), but it's copyrighted material and I'm reluctant to post it here. If it's absolutely necessary, I can mail it to a private address or upload it to a restricted access server.
I noticed from your crash log that you have the following system hack installed on your machine. System hacks inject their code into all running applications and we have found that bugs in some system hack can cause applications like NeoOffice to hang or crash in unexpected places in the code:
To disable this system hack, move the above folder to your Desktop and reboot. You can find the folder by double-clicking on the main volume icon on your desktop and, in the Finder window that appears, navigating down through the Library and InputManagers subfolders.
After moving the folder and rebooting, does NeoOffice still crash when you open your document?
Yes, it still crashes. As expected, I might add. The "hack" you spotted is actually a Logitech bluetooth mouse driver (needed for horizontal scrolling) which I use for as long as this computer.
However, just to make sure, I moved it to Trash, rebooted, tried & crashed NeoOffice again. It took me 2 paragraphs, as usual.
Thank you for the new crash log. Without the system hack, I can definitely see the location of the crash more clearly.
The crash is happening in NeoOffice's underlying OpenOffice.org code. Since you say that OpenOffice.org does not crash, I assume that you are using a recent version of OpenOffice.org. Since NeoOffice 3.0.2 is based on the older OpenOffice.org 3.0.1 code, I would like to see if this bug occurs in NeoOffice 3.1.1 Beta (NeoOffice 3.1.1 Beta is based on the much newer OpenOffice.org 3.1.1 code).
OK, I'll try. But, since, as a rule, I avoid using betas, I do hope I can install it without disrupting the "normal" NeoOffice installation in any way?
Because - although I have this problem, I don't have any problems with 99% of other daily jobs I do with it. And "beta" is a word suggesting that I might have many other problems instead of this one.
OK, I'll try. But, since, as a rule, I avoid using betas, I do hope I can install it without disrupting the "normal" NeoOffice installation in any way?
Because - although I have this problem, I don't have any problems with 99% of other daily jobs I do with it. And "beta" is a word suggesting that I might have many other problems instead of this one.
I understand you concern so here are the steps for installing the Beta version without overwriting your existing NeoOffice 3.0.2 installation:
1. Quit NeoOffice
2. In the Finder, go the /Applications folder and rename the NeoOffice application. For example, on my machine I have renamed it "NeoOffice-3.0.2"
3. Install NeoOffice 3.1.1 Beta. NeoOffice 3.1.1 Beta will be installed as the "NeoOffice" in the /Applications folder.
4. Explicitly open one version by dragging a file or double-clicking on that version's icon in the /Applications folder
There it goes again. After about 8 pages it crashed again (the beta version), and once again (tried again, just in case).
The first crash log is in the attachment. After that one, i removed the Logitech driver again and then tried again, it crashed again, but there is no crash report ?! There was no crash dialog after the crash, and I can't find the crash log neither in /Library/Logs/CrashReporter nor in ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports.
I'll try again and post another crash log if I manage to get one.
OK. Since you say that this only occurs with a specific document and you can share that document publicly, I will have to use an alternate method to troubleshoot and fix this bug.
But first, can you disable native text highlighting by selecting the NeoOffice :: Mac OS X Options :: Disable Mac OS X Text Highlighting menu? Does that stop the crashing?
If that stops the crashing, then that tells me that the bug is in our native text highlighting code and the next step is that I will give you a test patch that will print out lots of debugging data that I can use to isolate exactly which line of NeoOffice code the crash is occurring in.
If that stops the crashing, then that tells me that the bug is in our native text highlighting code and the next step is that I will give you a test patch that will print out lots of debugging data that I can use to isolate exactly which line of NeoOffice code the crash is occurring in.
So if disabling native text highlighting stops the crashing, can you install the following test patch, launch NeoOffice 3.1.1 Beta, reenable native text highlighting by unchecking the NeoOffice :: Mac OS X Options :: Disable Mac OS X Text Highlighting menu, and run NeoOffice 3.1.1 Beta until it crashes:
Installing this test patch will not stop the crashing. But it will make the crash log have significantly more detail about where in our code the crash is occurring. Hopefully, that extra detail will provide enough information for me to locate and fix the bug.
OK, I'll try. But, tell me, Dr. Spock , wouldn't it be more logical to try and switch off the QuickLook support? I mean - QL support actually embeds a simplified PDF into the document, and it does that during save operation, no? On the other hand, native text highlighting would be more likely to cause the crash while some text is highlighted. Which is not the case here. Or is my reasoning incorrect in some way?
Well, it crashed again, with native highlighting switched off. Crash log in the attachment. Now I'll try to switch off QL support.
OK. Before you turn off Quick Look support, can you install the test patch and run it until you generate a new crash log? The last crash log does not have the extra detailed data that I need to start fixing the bug.
Once you get a crash log after installing the test patch, turning of Quick Look support should bypass the code that causes the crash so that you can use NeoOffice without crashing while I work on fixing the bug. Note, however, that if you export a file to PDF, you are still liking to run into the crashing bug so be sure to also save before exporting to PDF.
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?! There was no crash dialog after the crash, and I can't find the crash log neither in /Library/Logs/CrashReporter nor in ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports.
, wouldn't it be more logical to try and switch off the QuickLook support? I mean - QL support actually embeds a simplified PDF into the document, and it does that during save operation, no? On the other hand, native text highlighting would be more likely to cause the crash while some text is highlighted. Which is not the case here. Or is my reasoning incorrect in some way?