Fix for super slow LibreOffice base (database) using Ubuntu linux
Like others, I recently found myself struggling to use the LibreOffice program “base” to do database calculations, when it was running on a Linux OS (in my case, Ubuntu 11.04). The main issue was the fact that the problem took ridiculous amounts of time to do just about anything. The problem is not evident on a Mac, and apparently not on Windows either.
Apparently this is a JAVA issue. Specifically, you need to tell the Linux version of OpenOffice/LibreOffice to use an older run time version of Java, or it just will not work right.
I found a good solution to the problem in this forum.
Re: Super Slow Base
by compuwatch » Sat Jun 04, 2011 3:37 pmHad similar problem in UBUNTU and solved it this way. The whole process takes about 2 Minutes (Very Easy)
Here’s how:
1. Download the java-sun-jre-1.6.21 from:
http://java.sun.com/products/archive/j2se/6u21/index.html2. Move the file to your (Create Folder) $HOME/bin and make it executable
go to folder once it is there and make file executable.
$> chmod a+x jre-6u21-linux-i586.bin
$> ./jre-6u21-linux-i586.bin4. After extracting the files, configure your LibreOffice/OpenOffice.org to use the older java runtime (Tools -> Options –> LibreOffice/OpenOffice.org –> Java). Add the path from where the extracted files currently located.
5. Restart your computer, then restart your LibreOffice/OpenOffice.org and verify if your database now runs smoothly.
6. Done.
I followed the instructions, and it now works as it should, very fast, on my Ubuntu 11.04 distribution. That said, why does 1.6.21 work, while later versions do not? And what if anything did Oracle have to do with breaking the OpenOffice/LibreOffice database code? After all, Oracle completed its acquisition of Sun, which controlled Java and OpenOffice development, in January of 2010. KEI, Richard Stallman and others opposed the merger on the grounds that Oracle would try to undermine the future development of MySQL. Since the merger was completed, there have been a variety of complaints about the way that Oracle has managed the various open source assets, leading to new efforts to fork or replace MySQL and to spin off or fork OpenOffice.Org. The fact that the Linux version of the OpenOffice/LibreOffice database program is broken because of problems with the newer versions of Java is fairly bizarre, since Oracle is first and foremost a database company, and during the period when the problem emerged, Oracle controlled both Java and OpenOffice.