"JRE is defective" error in Apache OpenOffice 3.4

chengiz5
On hitting the "Insert Citation" button in AOO 3.4, a box pops up with the following error message:

"OpenOffice.org requires a Java runtime environment (JRE) to perform this task. The selected JRE is defective. Please select another version or install a new JRE and select it under Tools - Options - OpenOffice.org - Java."

JRE is 1.7.0_05 and is visible under Tools -> Options -> OpenOffice.org -> Java. (TOOJ)

Earlier I had OO 3.3 which is apparently incompatible with JRE 1.7 - in fact the Zotero OO extension does not even install with that setup, and OO 3.3 does not even find JRE 1.7 under TOOJ. OO 3.4 is supposed to be compatible with JRE 1.7, finds it automatically under TOOJ, and selects it happily.

So is this still an OO issue, or a Zotero issue now?
  • Simon
    It's an OOo issue. Unless you're wedded to OpenOffice.org, try LibreOffice. It may work better.
  • chengiz5
    LibreOffice has the same problem. I tried various things like uninstalling and reinstalling, rebooting the computer etc, but the problem persists.

    Essentially I cannot use Zotero with JRE 1.7 on Win7 32 bit, with Apache OpenOffice 3.4 or LibreOffice 3.5.4. OO and LO forums say later versions should be compatible with JRE 1.7 so my best guess right now is the problem is with the Zotero LibreOffice plugin version 3.5.3.

    Btw Apache OO 3.4 was just released, so I think it's disingenuous that Zotero forums and pages tend to say OO development has stalled.
  • adamsmith
    Btw Apache OO 3.4 was just released, so I think it's disingenuous that Zotero forums and pages tend to say OO development has stalled.
    disingenious is a mighty strong word... what incentive on earth would we have to deceive people about this?
    LibreOffice development is significantly more active and backed by most of the major players. I think it's very reasonable to suggest that people use it instead of Ooo/AOO which, in spite of the 3.4 update, looks very much like it's a dying fork.

    I don't have much on the JRE issue - I've failed once to fix that on a Windows machine, too. I've seen one user report that downgrading to an earlier 1.6 JRE helped.
    Oddly enough this is not a consistently reproducible issue, which makes troubleshooting, let alone fixing, hard.
  • chengiz5
    Sorry, I didnt imply to be strong-worded by using "disingenuous" - I take that back :-)
  • Simon
    See here for the LO bug describing issues with Java 1.7. Comment 15 has a detailed set of steps that may help.
  • chengiz5
    Tried all of that but it didnt work. Then I said screw it and downgraded to Java 6. This immediately worked - should have done it first thing!
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