Need help installing LibreOffice 4.4 on Ubuntu 15.04

From a new Ubuntu 15.04 install: When launching any application of the LibreOffice suite the LibreOffice splash screen starts with the following error box:

LibreOffice 4.4 - Fatal Error

The application cannot be started.

User installation could not be completed.

I have un-installed using:

sudo apt-get remove --purge libreoffice-core libreoffice-common
sudo apt-get autoremove --purge

and re-installed from ppa:

sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:libreoffice/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
sudo apt-get install libreoffice

after a reboot I am still getting the same error. If I start from terminal ~$ libreoffice the same error boxes are displayed as stated above and the program hangs with no further output. if I start using ~$ gksu libreoffice the program starts without errors. If I click on a .odt document the same above errors apear and libreOffice does not start.

Solution 1:

TL;DR: In ~/.config, rename libreoffice to libreoffice.old.

Often a bug or other problem that keeps a big, complicated application (like LibreOffice or Firefox) from starting correctly is triggered by something in the profile of the user who runs it, that is, in user-specific configuration files. When this happens, you can rename the folder that contains these files (or delete it), which effectively clears the profile and causes a new one to be automatically generated, usually without the problem.

Most graphical applications store their user-specific configuration data in a folder inside the .config folder which is itself in your home directory:

1. Press Ctrl+H in Nautilus (this also works in most other file browsers) to show files and folders whose name start with ..
2. Go into the .config folder in your home folder.
3. Find the folder (inside .config) named libreoffice.
4. Make sure LibreOffice is not running. In this specific case it appears to be exiting completely after giving you the error, so you don't have to do anything for this step.
5. Rename this libreoffice folder to libreoffice.old.

Or if you prefer a console way:

1. Open a Terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T).
2. Make sure LibreOffice is not running.
3. Rename the profile folder with the command:
   cd ~/.config && mv libreoffice libreoffice.old

It appears from your comments that moving the libreoffice user profile folder aside like this has worked for you. In cases where you don't still need to use any information from the old profile, this is a complete solution. (In other cases, this is a workaround or partial solution.)

If you don't need your old LibreOffice settings, words added to spell-checking dictionaries, or any other user-specific configuration data for LibreOffice, then this solution is all that you need.

More generally, this technique is especially likely to work when there is an indication that the problem is user-specific. In your case, troubleshooting revealed:

• LibreOffice ran successfully when you logged in as a Guest.

• LibreOffice ran successfully when launched with gksu, which ran it as root. While sometimes this succeeds by overcoming permissions problems (when it does, this should be considered a workaround rather than an ultimate solution except for utilities that do actually require root privileges), often this succeeds simply because it uses a different user account with a different profile.

  Unlike running it with straight sudo (which should not be done), gksu libreoffice, gksudo libreoffice, sudo -H libreoffice, or sudo -i libreoffice make libreoffice use the LibreOffice profile in the root user's home folder (/root), creating it if it doesn't already exist.

  Of course, you should not run LibreOffice to do actual work with it, as it is best to avoid running programs--especially large graphical programs that may contain security vulnerabilities due to their compexity--as the root user.