How do I mend Openoffice?

[Seakat]

Subject:
> How do I mend OpenOffice?
> From:
> Seakat <seakat at orange.fr>
> Date:
> Mon, 24 Dec 2007 11:03:23 +0100
>
> To:
> Kubuntu Help and User Discussions <kubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com>
>
>
> I upgraded recently from Kubuntu 7.04 (Feisty) to 7.10 (Gutsy), and this
> also upgraded OpenOffice2.0.2 (I think) to 2.3.1. Now Ooo is badly
> broken. Using KDE, Write displays only part of the text (but it is still
> there), and the icons on the toolbars have disappeared. In Calc, the
> line heights have become tiny, and when teased apart, the text remains
> invisible (but it is still there in the entry window on the toolbar).
> (Running in Gnome the problem is similar except that the tool bar icons
> are still there). Strange horizontal red lines appear in both Write and
> Calc. Impress shows the images, but only occasional bits of text. Even
> worse, when Ooo is loaded my computer slows right down and heats up. Is
> there a way out, please? However I have installed Ooo 2.3.1 on XP _SP2
> running in VirtualBox on Kubuntu, and there is no apparent problem there.
> Otherwise, I've been a Kubuntu user for about 6 months, and it's just great!

Further to my above posting, I got the icons back in Ooo by tinkering
with permissions. All the other problems seemed still there, however,
and running "sudo soffice" or "sudo ooffice" didn't help.
Then after reading the recent thread on kdesudo, I tried "kdesudo
soffice" and "kdesudo ooffice". Now just about everything seems to work
(no sound in Impress, yet, but that's minor). WOW!

Four questions/comments:
1. THANK YOU kdesudo!
2. Shouldn't Ooo work anyway without having to do all this, and can't it
be made easier, especially for newbies?
3. Anyone got ideas about the nitty gritty of why my OOo's screwed up
without kdesu?