Libreoffice --headless refuses to convert unless root, won't work from PHP script

Question

Running headless Ubuntu server 12.something.

root@server: chown www-data /my/path/ -R

root@server: chgrp www-data /my/path/ -R

root@server: chmod 755 /my/path/ -R

root@server: libreoffice --headless --convert-to pdf:writer_pdf_Export /my/path/foo.ppt --outdir /my/path

convert /my/path/foo.ppt -> /my/path/foo.pdf

Works like a charm.

---

root@server: sudo -i -u www-data

$libreoffice --headless --convert-to pdf:writer_pdf_Export /my/path/foo.ppt --outdir /my/path

convert /my/path/foo.ppt -> /my/path/foo.pdf
Error: Please reverify input parameters...

Damn.

---

root@server: sudo -i -u someotheruser

$libreoffice --headless --convert-to pdf:writer_pdf_Export /my/path/foo.ppt --outdir /my/path

convert /my/path/foo.ppt -> /my/path/foo.pdf
Error: Please reverify input parameters...

Damn.

Anyone have any idea? Trying to research this just confused me more. Is this probably a bug or some dependency quirk?

Answer 1

I finally found an answer to this... Add:

export HOME=/tmp &&

to the beginning, so:

export HOME=/tmp && libreoffice --headless --convert-to pdf:writer_pdf_Export /my/path/foo.ppt --outdir /my/path

That worked for me on CentOS 6.5, and as shell_exec() in PHP.