Ubuntu
dolphin package

Cannot open MS Excel file directly from USB in MS Excel

Bug #191363 reported by Marius Groenewald

This bug report was converted into a question: question #50225: Cannot open MS Excel file directly from USB in MS Excel.

4
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
dolphin (Ubuntu)
Invalid
Low
Unassigned

Bug Description

I installed MS Office through Wine on my Kubuntu PC. I tried to open an Excel file, stored on my USB Flashdrive, using the right-click menu, Open With option. I selected MS Excel, after which MS Excel loads, but with an empty Book1 file and not the file I selected in Dolphin.

The same happens even in Konqueror.

If I open an Excel file stored on my hard drive, then it works.

Revision history for this message
TerryG (tgalati4) wrote :

Marking incomplete pending more info. Can you move files from your hard drive onto you USB flash using Dolphin/Konquerer? If you don't have write permission on the USB flash, then it's possible for this behavior. I presume your USB drive is formatted as FAT or FAT32?, not sure how WINE handles non-FAT filesystems.

This is definitely an edge case--using MS Office through WINE. Can you open the file with Open Office from the USB disk?

At least you have a work-around--write the file to local disk then open it in Excel. Could be a WINE issue with handling of USB disks. Could be an MS Office/WINE issue with file handling.

Changed in dolphin:
status: New → Incomplete
Revision history for this message
Marius Groenewald (groenem) wrote :

Yes, I can move files from my hard drive onto my USB flash using Dolphin/Konquerer.
My USB is formatted as FAT.
Yes, I can open the .xls file with OpenOffice directly from the USB.

Revision history for this message
TerryG (tgalati4) wrote :

Thanks for your testing. Marking as Confirmed. Could be a simple as a Dolphin configuration. I run Gnome on most of my machines, I have KDE on a partition somewhere. If you right-click on the file and choose open with other application, then choose custom command:

What happens if you put a custom command that looks something like: (modify it to your environment)

wine exel.exe /media/myusbdevicethatisgivingmetrouble/myexelfile.xls

You can get device names using the command:

df -h

If this works, then you have a work around. If it doesn't then the Dolphin folks can figure out why usb mounted devices don't get the correct path sent to wine.

You can make launch icons on your desktop with this custom command if it's a file that you routinely edit.

Changed in dolphin:
status: Incomplete → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
Marius Groenewald (groenem) wrote :

If I use the "wine exel.exe /media/myusbdevicethatisgivingmetrouble/myexelfile.xls" command, nothing happens. My mouse pointer changes to the Wine logo for a while, indicating that the PC is busy processing the request, but that's all.

Is this problem already escalated to the Dolphin guys or Wine guys, or must I report it to them separately?

Revision history for this message
Jonathan Thomas (echidnaman) wrote :

You would need to be where exel.exe is for it to work.

Changed in dolphin:
importance: Undecided → Low
Jonathan Thomas (echidnaman)
Changed in dolphin:
status: Confirmed → Invalid
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