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  • Libreoffice writer won't launch - Problem with fonts?

LibreOffice Writer won't launch, and when I try manually from the terminal, I get the following error:

/usr/lib64/libreoffice/program/soffice.bin: symbol lookup error: /usr/lib64/libreoffice/program/libskialo.so: undefined symbol: FT_Get_Color_Glyph_Layer

Any ideas?

    why do you start LibreOffice Writer with the terminal why don't you start it normally with me it does what it should

    Sounds to me like an installation with Flatpak or Snap. These installations always cause problems.

    @putzerstammer The app crashes when launching normally. I did through the terminal to capture the output message.

    @HPF-84E it's the installation from the Solus repos. I actually had to install from Flatpak to get a working version.

    I can only recommend you to purge the version from the repo. This will also delete the config files in the root directory and therefore has good chances for a bug free version. Your profile in Home is not deleted.

    sudo eopkg rm --purge libreoffice-common
    and a new installation with
    sudo eopkg it libreoffice-common

      HPF-84E That will break libreoffice and uninstall all of the libreoffice applications (writer, calc, etc.). You can very easily reinstall packages on Solus with a simple sudo eopkg it --reinstall <names of packages>.

      Linuxephus This isn't related to font cache at all. It's trying to access a symbol in a shared library that it can't find. This is usually a sign of an incomplete upgrade on Solus.

      @DataDrake, @Linuxephus thanks for the suggestions, but still no dice.

      user@solusbox ~ $ sudo eopkg rm --purge libreoffice-common
      The following list of packages will be removed
      in the respective order to satisfy dependencies:
      libreoffice-writer libreoffice-common 
      Do you want to continue? (yes/no)y
      Removing package libreoffice-writer
      Removed libreoffice-writer
      Removing package libreoffice-common
      Removed libreoffice-common
       [✓] Syncing filesystems                                                success
       [✓] Updating dynamic library cache                                     success
       [✓] Updating mimetype database                                         success
       [✓] Updating icon theme cache: hicolor                                 success
       [✓] Updating desktop database                                          success
       [✓] Updating manpages database                                         success
      
      user@solusbox ~ $ sudo eopkg it libreoffice-common
      Total size of package(s): 160.03 MB
      Downloading 1 / 1
      Package libreoffice-common found in repository Solus
      libreoffice-common-7.0.1.2-113-1-x86_64.eopkg [cached]
      Installing 1 / 1
      libreoffice-common-7.0.1.2-113-1-x86_64.eopkg [cached]
      Installing libreoffice-common, version 7.0.1.2, release 113
      Extracting the files of libreoffice-common
      Installed libreoffice-common
       [✓] Syncing filesystems                                                success
       [✓] Updating dynamic library cache                                     success
       [✓] Updating mimetype database                                         success
       [✓] Updating icon theme cache: hicolor                                 success
       [✓] Updating desktop database                                          success
       [✓] Updating manpages database                                         success
      
      user@solusbox ~ $ sudo eopkg it libreoffice-writer
      Total size of package(s): 284.00 KB
      Downloading 1 / 1
      Package libreoffice-writer found in repository Solus
      libreoffice-writer-7.0.1.2-113-1-x86_64.eopkg [cached]
      Installing 1 / 1
      libreoffice-writer-7.0.1.2-113-1-x86_64.eopkg [cached]
      Installing libreoffice-writer, version 7.0.1.2, release 113
      Extracting the files of libreoffice-writer
      Installed libreoffice-writer
       [✓] Syncing filesystems                                                success
       [✓] Updating mimetype database                                         success
       [✓] Updating icon theme cache: hicolor                                 success
       [✓] Updating desktop database                                          success
       [✓] Updating manpages database                                         success
      
      user@solusbox ~ $ libreoffice writer
      /usr/lib64/libreoffice/program/soffice.bin: symbol lookup error: /usr/lib64/libreoffice/program/libskialo.so: undefined symbol: FT_Get_Color_Glyph_Layer

      I ran eopkg check | grep -v OK and it returned no broken packages. I also tried eopkg delete-cache and then tried all the above again, but it still throws the error.

      As I mentioned, I'm getting by with the snap version, so if this can't be resolved without a whole reinstall, it's fine. If it matters, I'm using KDE and not Budgie.

      sudo eopkg up -y
      eopkg li | grep libreoffice | awk '{print $1}' | xargs sudo eopkg it --reinstall

      Have you tried using safe mode? It creates a new profile and configuration...

      libreoffice --writer --safe-mode

      I had problems before and safe mode helped me a lot.