At least strange, at worst fishy

[ricky_f]

I am having real trouble getting the FreeOffice2021 version of planmaker to run. Whenever I start planmaker after a fresh (re-)boot, it wants to re-activate itself with the SoftMaker website though I have already done that before. So I went through that a couple of times but this is clearly not going away and it's not acceptable anyway. So I looked into the matter a bit more closely. Here's what I found, all to be taken with a grain of salt as I can only observe what the programme is doing but can't see its source.

Here's the chain of events:
0a. I have a freshly re-activated version of planmaker (2021, 1040). It starts and I can load and work with spreadsheets. All is fine.
0b. There is a file in /etc/SoftMaker:

Code: Select all

-rw-r--r-- 1 rick rick 1688 Dec  7 18:29 offree2021.lic

Note that the file is owned by me and not by root.
1. I reboot and start planmaker. The main window opens but is blank and nothing happens for about a minute, then the dialog box to re-activate appears.
2. I look into /etc/SoftMaker:

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-rw-r--r-- 1 rick rick    0 Dec  8 12:48 offree2021.lic

Note file size is now 0.
3. I re-activate and now set owner/group of that file to root.

Code: Select all

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1688 Dec  8 12:49 offree2021.lic

4. I reboot and start planmaker. The main window opens but is blank and nothing happens for about a minute, then the dialog box to re-activate appears.
5. I look into /etc/SoftMaker:

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-rw-r--r-- 1 rick rick    0 Dec  8 12:53 offree2021.lic

So that means that planmaker is able to remove or change a file owned by root. How is that possible? Worrying to say the least.

But I am not one to give up easily so I re-activate, set the owner to root and call chattr +i for the file:

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sudo chattr +i /etc/SoftMaker/offree2021.lic

And now planmaker works as it should without making me jumps through the activating hoops, even after a reboot.

Any idea what is going on here? I don't know what's going on but this sort of thing doesn't inspire confidence. If SoftMaker really think they have to go through an activation for what is a free product, then make it easy and painless and RELIABLE.

And fiddling around with a file that is owned by root is a big NO NO anyway.

I'd like to hear what SoftMaker makes of that.

[ricky_f]

Hm... no word from SoftMaker, even after more than a week. So I assume that this is sitting more at the fishy end of things.

Anyway, as I can't get FreeOffice2021 to run (or rather, to activate) in a reliable fashion and since textmaker 2021 has lost the capability to export to epub, it's back to trusty old 2018. Perhaps even at some point LibreOffice.

Leaves a very bad taste, this whole saga.

[SuperTech]

Thanks for sharing complete details. By checking all the details and situations, it seems that on every system reboot your computer modifying FreeOffice license file offree2021.lic (which is required) to zero which was creating this problem of reactivation.

There is no such complaint of reactivation from any other user, so please check your operating system related settings/updates/corruption.

[ricky_f]

Ah, so it's the fault of my system or OS... which strangely runs every other application I've ever thrown at it w/o problems (including Freeoffice 2018 whose license file lives in the very same directory and is not touched at all).

But even if my system would somehow on every reboot zero out that file (which is hard to believe but let's just assume it does) how do you explain the behaviour I have detailed in the other post? A single attached USB SSD makes Freeoffice forget its activation temporarily... and if I remove the SSD it works again.

Nope, I don't believe it. Your activation code is broken.

[SuperTech]

We have already replied to you on your another post of USB drive problem.