As per comment 4 the binfilter has intentionally been removed upstream (and it wont come back, good riddance).
There might be a reimplementation as part of the document liberation project, if there are volunteers or sponsoring. But otherwise support for the old binary formats has ended. ** Changed in: libreoffice (Ubuntu) Status: Triaged => Won't Fix -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Desktop Packages, which is subscribed to libreoffice in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1186756 Title: can't open sdw document in writer Status in libreoffice package in Ubuntu: Won't Fix Bug description: 1) lsb_release -rd Description: Ubuntu 13.04 Release: 13.04 2) apt-cache policy libreoffice-writer libreoffice-writer: Installed: 1:4.0.2-0ubuntu1 Candidate: 1:4.0.2-0ubuntu1 Version table: *** 1:4.0.2-0ubuntu1 0 500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ raring/main i386 Packages 100 /var/lib/dpkg/status 3) What is expected to happen in Writer via a terminal: cd ~/Desktop && wget https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/libreoffice/+bug/1186756/+attachment/3692886/+files/ex1m5a00.sdw && lowriter --nologo ex1m5a00.sdw is it opens successfully. 4) What happens instead in Quantal is I get an "Allgemeiner Fehler - Allgemeiner Ein/Ausgabefehler" (i/o - error). apt-cache policy libreoffice -> 1:3.6.2~rc2-0ubuntu4 libreoffice-filter-binfilter ->1:3.6.2~rc2-0ubuntu4 In Raring, it opens without an i/o error, but the contents are gibberish. WORKAROUND: Use AbiWord. apt-cache policy abiword abiword: Installed: 2.9.2+svn20120603-8 Candidate: 2.9.2+svn20120603-8 Version table: *** 2.9.2+svn20120603-8 0 500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ raring/universe i386 Packages 100 /var/lib/dpkg/status ProblemType: Bug DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.10 Package: libreoffice-writer 1:3.6.2~rc2-0ubuntu4 ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.5.0-32.53-generic 3.5.7.11 Uname: Linux 3.5.0-32-generic x86_64 ApportVersion: 2.6.1-0ubuntu10 Architecture: amd64 Date: Sun Jun 2 17:41:35 2013 InstallationDate: Installed on 2012-05-25 (372 days ago) InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Release amd64 (20120425) MarkForUpload: True ProcEnviron: TERM=xterm PATH=(custom, no user) XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set> LANG=de_DE.UTF-8 SHELL=/bin/bash SourcePackage: libreoffice UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to quantal on 2012-12-26 (157 days ago) To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/libreoffice/+bug/1186756/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages Post to : desktop-packages@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp