OpenOffice 3.2 doesn't open or save dBase files

it's available on mine.
it may have been stripped out when openoffice was packaged for ubuntu.
you can always download the latest version from the openoffice site and install it yourself.

Hi Jerry

You have reported two problems. The other is

https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/openoffice.org/+question/138685

Have these problems just started? Or have they been there for a while? It may be that your OOo installation has become corrupted in some way. To help us, please give us details of the full version details of your OpenOffice.org (from Help > About) and your Ubuntu version.

On Wednesday, December 22, 2010 05:31:03 am you wrote:

> Your question #138686 on openoffice.org in ubuntu changed:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/openoffice.org/+question/13868
> 6
>
> Tony Pursell proposed the following answer:
> Hi Jerry
>
> You have reported two problems. The other is
>
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/openoffice.org/+question/13868
> 5
>
> Have these problems just started? Or have they been there for a while?

I only need to use .dbf files to create labels and I only need to create labels
once a year in December for our annual Christmas Card mailing.

Last year I tried creating labels in Open Office and was almost successful. I
don't remember exactly why, but I finally had to give up and create them using
DeScribe, an old OS/2 word processor with a Win32 version, which I run with
Wine. DeScribe uses .dbf files for merging.

This year when I tried to open Labels in Open Office Writer, it crashed. When I
tried to save my Open Office Calc address list as a .dbf file it gave me an error
message. I also couldn't open an old .dbf file. Fortunately, I found I could
save the address list as a .csv file and DeScribe could use it.

I'd really like to be able to do the whole job in Open Office -- I'm trying to
get to the point of doing nearly everything in native Linux apps.

> It may be that your OOo installation has become corrupted in some way.
> To help us, please give us details of the full version details of your
> OpenOffice.org (from Help > About) and your Ubuntu version.

I'm currently using OpenOffice.org 3.2.0 OOO320m12 (Build:9483) ooo-build
3.2.0.10, Debian 1:3.2.0-7ubuntu4.1, Thu Jun 3 01:58:32 UTC 20
Operating system is Kubuntu 10.04 AMD64.

Last year I was on an older computer running whatever was the current OO
version on either Kubuntu 8:04 or 9.10 - i386.

Thanks for the quick response.

 -Jerry
=============================================
Jerry Lapham
Monroe, OH 45050
<email address hidden>
=============================================
Walk to Emmaus: Fueling station for a spirit-filled church

Jerry

I don't know why it crashes when you open labels or you get an error when you try to save to .dbf. I use the next version 10.10 of Ubuntu which brings with it OOo v3.2.1 but I had none of these problem with previous versions of either. The main difference between you and me is that you use Kubuntu. And am I right in thinking that with a 64 bit processor, you are using the 64 bit version of Kubuntu?

Can you describe what you mean by 'crash' - does OOo just close, or hang? Is there any error message? Is this straight after you select New > Labels.

Can you tell me what the error message is when you save to .dbf. I just get two dialogues - the standard warning you get when you do not save to the OOo default ODF format and a dialogue that asks me which character set to use for the .dbf export. Do you get either of these?

Did everything work OK with your older version (32 bit?)

Tony

OK, it might be that this now works in a different (and wierd) way (I don't do a lot of database work, luckily).

You now have to connect to the dbase file, and then save the connected database as ODF. At least I was able to create an empty file "test.dbf" and connect to it as a DBASE (dbf) file; the result appeared as a table in my database.

You have to install openoffice.org-base.

@mycae

I think Jerry is saying he wants to save to dbf, not connect to dbf. He has the data in OOo Calc format, but it crashes when he tries to produce labels. If he can get labels working, I can tell him how to do labels, if he needs that, including registering the data source, etc.

Tony

tony:
If you connect, then dump back to another format, you can probably get the data back in an open-able form. The simple "open" option does indeed appear to have been removed between 3.1 and 3.2 (I can see it in 3.1, but not 3.2), though from a quick peruse I couldn't find this change in the OOO changelogs (which was impenetrable -- their website is 404 land).

I suspect that the ooBase people have been re-arranging their loading filter backend a little, and this might be the core of the problem...

On Wednesday, December 22, 2010 05:38:06 pm you wrote:

> Your question #138686 on openoffice.org in ubuntu changed:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/openoffice.org/+question/13868
> 6
>
> Status: Open => Answered
>
> Tony Pursell proposed the following answer:
> Jerry
>
> I don't know why it crashes when you open labels or you get an error
> when you try to save to .dbf. I use the next version 10.10 of Ubuntu
> which brings with it OOo v3.2.1 but I had none of these problem with
> previous versions of either. The main difference between you and me is
> that you use Kubuntu. And am I right in thinking that with a 64 bit
> processor, you are using the 64 bit version of Kubuntu?

Yes. I'd read about a lot of people staying with 32 bit but the new box came
with Win64 on it, so I decided to go with Kubuntu 64bit. I wouldn't think
Kubuntu vs. Ubuntu would matter. As I understand it, the only difference is
KDE vs. Gnome and OpenOffice.org is neither.
>
> Can you describe what you mean by 'crash' - does OOo just close, or
> hang? Is there any error message? Is this straight after you select New

It closes with the following dialogue box message:

OpenOffice.org Document Recovery

Due to an unexpected error, OpenOffice.org crashed. All the files you were
working on will now be saved. The next time OpenOffice.org is launched, your
files will be recovered automatically.

The following will be recovered:
Untitled 1

> Can you tell me what the error message is when you save to .dbf. I just
> get two dialogues - the standard warning you get when you do not save to
> the OOo default ODF format and a dialogue that asks me which character
> set to use for the .dbf export. Do you get either of these?

Earlier this afternoon, I fired up Synaptic to see if there was an Open Office
update. I was surprised to see it not marked as installed, so I let Synaptic
install it. It added another 11 files and now Calc can open and save .dbf
files. Unfortunately, it didn't fix labels.
>
> Did everything work OK with your older version (32 bit?)

I just cranked up the old box with OpenOffice.org 3.0.0 OOO30m9 (Build:9358)
running on Kubuntu 8.04 32bit. Selecting New/Labels in Writer doesn't crash,
it opens a label dialogue. That's probably what I was using last year.

 -Jerry
=============================================
Jerry Lapham
Monroe, OH 45050
<email address hidden>
=============================================
Wear tank tops. Support the right to bare arms.

Hi Jerry

This looks like a problem with 64bit. I will look around and see if there are any bugs listed for it.

Tony

On Friday, December 24, 2010 06:28:50 pm you wrote:

> Your question #138686 on openoffice.org in ubuntu changed:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/openoffice.org/+question/13868
> 6
>
> Status: Open => Answered
>
> Tony Pursell proposed the following answer:
> Hi Jerry
>
> This looks like a problem with 64bit. I will look around and see if
> there are any bugs listed for it.

The same thing happens on my laptop, which is 32bit.

 -Jerry
=============================================
Jerry Lapham
Monroe, OH 45050
<email address hidden>
=============================================
Walk to Emmaus: Fueling station for a spirit-filled church

On Saturday, December 25, 2010 12:15:50 am you wrote:

> Your question #138686 on openoffice.org in ubuntu changed:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/openoffice.org/+question/13868
> 6
>
> Status: Answered => Open
>
> You are still having a problem:
>
> On Friday, December 24, 2010 06:28:50 pm you wrote:
> > Your question #138686 on openoffice.org in ubuntu changed:
> > https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/openoffice.org/+question/138
> > 68 6
> >
> > Status: Open => Answered
> >
> > Tony Pursell proposed the following answer:
> > Hi Jerry
> >
> > This looks like a problem with 64bit. I will look around and see if
> > there are any bugs listed for it.
>
> The same thing happens on my laptop, which is 32bit.
>
> -Jerry

Over the weekend I did an upgrade to Kubuntu 10.10 AMD-64. It has

OpenOffice.org 3.2.1
OOO320m19 (Build:9505)
ooo-build 3.2.1.4, Ubuntu package 1:3.2.1-7ubuntu1

and it still crashes (closes) when I try to open New/Lables with the same
dialogue box message:

OpenOffice.org Document Recovery

Due to an unexpected error, OpenOffice.org crashed. All the files you were
working on will now be saved. The next time OpenOffice.org is launched, your
files will be recovered automatically.

The following will be recovered:
Untitled 1

I was hoping the new version would fix it but not such luck.

 -Jerry
=============================================
Jerry Lapham
Monroe, OH 45050
<email address hidden>
=============================================
If users appear to need help, appear to help them.

Hi Jerry

I'm not surprised that the update did not help - this is not normal behaviour, after all.

I have had a look around and have found this reported in this bug on the OOo issue tracker

http://qa.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=115357

You could add your experience to that. You could also file a bug in Ubuntu and reference that bug and this question in it. The correct way to file a bug in Ubuntu is to enter the following in a terminal.

ubuntu-bug openoffice,org

One thing you could try, is to do a Complete removal of the openoffice.org package and then re-install it. This often seems to cure these random unexplained problems. Note that this will reset all options to the defaults

Tony

It must dbf corruption. In such case I should recommend you tool below http://www.dbf.repairtoolbox.com utility helps you to restore dBase, Clipper and FoxPro database files