Bug#335897: Similar problem, but solved

[Niccolo Rigacci <niccolo@rigacci.org>]

I got a similar problem on my Debian Etch box; it turned out to be an NFS lock 
problem. Using strace on the soffice.bin process just before the freeze will 
reveal this:

  open("/nfs/niccolo/dvd_howto.html", O_RDONLY) = 28
  fcntl64(28, F_SETLK, {type=F_RDLCK, whence=SEEK_SET, start=0, len=0} 

In /var/log/kern.log:

  Feb 21 22:00:32 kernel: lockd: server 192.168.2.2 not responding, timed out

This was because the NFS server was firewalling some NFS traffic. Just check 
that all the rpc ports used on the server (rpcinfo -p) are reachable by the 
client.

I hope this help.

-- 
Niccolo Rigacci
Firenze - Italy

War against Iraq? Not in my name!