Unable to use Bookmarks in Zotero in Ubuntu 10.04

phonon1
After following several threads here and else where, I finally managed to get Zotero working in Ubuntu 10.04. However, it only works for me with Reference Marks, meaning that I must save the file in odt format. If I try to use Bookmarks so that I can save the file in doc format, the first citation works ok, but after that the citations fail and give a massive error message. The message seems to say something about a failure to communicate with com.sun.star.uno. As I cannot upload a screen cap to this post, the full error message is quite long, and it also locks up Firefox while displaying, I can't post the entire thing.

Can anyone else reproduce/confirm this behavior? If so, any ideas on how to fix it. Zotero was working fine with Ubuntu 9.10.
  • Jon Rubin
    Hi, yes I can confirm this: Ubuntu 10.04 Zotero 2.03 / 3.0a7
    Tried to insert a second entry into a new doc with prefs set to bookmarks

    debug id D1767972.

    Dan, I can email a sceengrab of the error window if you want.

    Regards,
    Jon.
  • dstillman
    You can send it to support@.
  • pbhedlund
    Same error here.

    Peter
  • Jon Rubin
    OK, sent a pic of the error message to support.
  • sshelagh
    This is also the case for me on Ubuntu 9.10.

    I sent a error message ID 1474712800. It said I had to tell the forum or it wouldn't be looked at. So I hope this is how to do that.

    Shelagh
  • dnh
    I can confirm every word written by phonon1!
  • dnh
    Let me add that one cannot convert existing doc-files to odt-files without loosing all references ... help desperately needed! ;-)
  • christabone
    Same error here, still trying to find a fix.

    Using Ubuntu 10.04, same messages as Jon Rubin.
  • Jon Rubin
    Just an FYI, It does appear to be a specifically Ubuntu 10.04 problem - I was trying a different linux (which is built from Ubuntu binaries, which makes things more odd) and after installing java and the openoffice plugin, I couldn't get Zotero to crash when using bookmarks. So: odd.
  • phonon1
    That is indeed odd, but I'd still think this is a fairly big problem since Ubuntu is arguably the most well known and popular Linux distribution at this time. Not only that, but Ubuntu's status as a corporate-backed distribution would seem to make it a more likely candidate for widespread desktop deployment in a work setting than any of the community backed Ubuntu derivatives. This may be an Ubuntu specific problem, but it might end up casting Zotero in a poor light as people run into this bug.
  • dnh
    phonon1, it is definitely not Ubuntu-specific, I am using Kubuntu 10.04. But possibly it is Canonical-specific? In any case, it is a major problem that's causing more and more problems. I know, Zotero is free, but it would be great if it could be fixed soon! :-)
  • phonon1
    Yeah, it's been a problem. I had a few papers in progress using Zotero when I upgraded to Ubuntu 10.04. I've had to switch everything over to Mendeley Desktop for the time being. Possibly indefinitely.
  • dnh
    Zotero ... please!!! I love Zotero, I don't want to migrate to Mendeley - please please fix the problem! ;-)
  • phonon1
    Can anyone confirm whether or not this problem shows up in Linux Mint 9? I'd rather use Zotero if possible, and I can switch to Mint for now if necessary.
  • Jon Rubin
    Hi, well never used Mint before so I stuck it on a usb stick and ran it 'live'. Unfortunately, exactly the same problem occurs the moment I try to enter a second reference using bookmarks.
    Which as Mint comes with sun-java already set up, rules out another vague thought of mine.

    If you don't want anything permanent, then do check out the latest puppy linux

    http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/puppylinux/puppy-5.0/lupu-500.iso

    you can run it off a usb stick (I do) install open office, firefox and java really easily and it doesn't seem to have the bookmarks problem.
  • phonon1
    I've found a workaround for this problem. I uninstalled the OpenOffice 3.2 that came with Ubuntu and installed OpenOffice 3.2.1 RC1 from the OpenOffice.org website. Using that and Ubuntu 10.04, the Bookmarks work correctly. So something may be screwy with the Ubuntu OpenOffice packages.

    (I didn't try OpenOffice 3.2.0 from the OpenOffice site; thought as long as I'm removing the built in version I might as well get the latest out there. So I can't know for sure if the change is due to an updated build or simply due to having a non-Ubuntu build, but whatever. At least it's working now.)
  • dstillman
    If someone feels like testing OO 3.2.0 from the OO site, that'd probably be helpful. I don't know the technical details on this one but I believe it may be a bug in OO.
  • noksagt
    The official OO.o 3.20m12 (build 9483) works for me, where-as Ubuntu's build with the same ID does not. This seems like a problem with the Ubuntu package & not with a specific version of OO.o.
  • phonon1
    You know, if I remember correctly, the OpenOffice package that comes with Ubuntu is actually the Novell-developed Go-oo fork, not the vanilla OpenOffice.
  • spaetz
    Same here (Works in Reference Mark mode but not in Bookmark mode). I tried the vanilla openoffice.org install instead and all I get then was a "Zotero is unable to modify the document" dialog box, so I could not really test it.

    Solving this one way or the other would be great, as Zotero essentially became useless for me now. If there is anything I can do to help debug this....
  • dlenski
    Me too, same problem... Bookmarks didn't work with Ubuntu Lucid's build of OpenOffice.org. So I installed the vanilla OO.o 3.2.1 from openoffice.org.

    It works great with Zotero, except that it lacks the Gnome dialog integration of Go-oo :-(

    I'm looking forward to an updated Go-oo 3.2.1 build... anyone have an idea when this will come out?
  • dnh
    I installed the new OOo-version 3.2.1 manually on Kubuntu 10.04. It has two advantages:
    - It works with Zotero.
    - It looks a lot better than 3.2.0. ;-)
  • noksagt
    I'm looking forward to an updated Go-oo 3.2.1 build... anyone have an idea when this will come out?
    I just built and installed the current 3.2.1 git branch of Go-oo on Lucid and it still exhibits the bookmark problem.
  • noksagt
    Reported in launchpad:
    https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/openoffice.org/+bug/595687

    Go-oo + Zotero bookmarks works on Windows. Haven't tested any other platform.
  • jschlerf
    After applying the workaround, there are still some annoyances in "bookmark mode" in OpenOffice on Linux (running "vanilla" OpenOffice, downloaded and installed on June 25, 2010). If I try to insert a bibliography BEFORE the VERY END of a document, say leaving room for some figures, the bookmark for the bibliography includes everything following the bibliography end of the document. Thus, updating the references will remove whatever non-bibliographic information Zotero has decided to include. This is quite, quite annoying, and only happens with bookmarks. Inserting the bibliography with reference marks works just fine. Though once I convert to bookmarks, the annoying bug crops up. All I can do for now is work in reference marks and convert at the very end, and pray that I don't need to change anything in a future revision or what-not. Is this due to OpenOffice or Zotero?
  • Simon
    jschlerf, I think just fixed this bug in the OpenOffice Integration Trunk XPI. You can try it out in here, although you should make frequent backups of your document during testing, and make sure to install Zotero OpenOffice Integration 3.0a9 manually when it is released in the next week or so.
  • orduek
    I still experience the problem with regular OO from the Ubuntu repositories.
    Any change?
  • spaetz
    Any chance to publish the improved OO plugin? I am still not able to use bookmark mode in Ubuntu...
  • adamsmith
    spaetz - Simon links to it above - you can use it under the caveats he points to.
    Formal releases often get pushed back, so if that's what you want you'll have to wait.

    And the Ubuntu problem is - well - an Ubuntu problem, not a Zotero problem and as I understand it won't be resolved by the update.
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