Font size in GUI too small; can't install

[ricky tigg]

OS: Fedora | DE: Gnome | Window systems: Wayland and X11 | Installed: LibreOffice.

Hello.

Prior to Linux RPM-based installation

As per the guidance at https://www.openoffice.org/download/com ... html#linux

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$ whereis soffice
soffice: /usr/bin/soffice /usr/share/man/man1/soffice.1.gz
$ ls -l /usr/bin/soffice
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 38  9. 5. 03:00 /usr/bin/soffice -> /usr/lib64/libreoffice/program/soffice
$ sudo rm /usr/bin/soffice
$ soffice
bash: soffice: command not found...
Install package 'libreoffice-core' to provide command 'soffice'? [N/y] N

Note: the last command output is the result of

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PackageKit-command-not-found

Unlike the instruction suggests it,

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whereis

is non-adequate for checking whether LibreOffice has re-routed the OpenOffice binary.

Installation

In RPMS subdirectory;

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$ sudo rpm -Uvih *.rpm

It is told to be installed at /opt. That cannot be attested in output though. Including the command option that matches the verbose function would have been adequate in this regard. Then that is an opportunity to improve the guidance.

In desktop-integration subdirectory

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$ rpm --test -U openoffice4.1.14-freedesktop-menus-4.1.14-9811.noarch.rpm
 file /usr/bin/soffice from install of openoffice4.1.14-freedesktop-menus-4.1.14-9811.noarch conflicts with file from package libreoffice-core-1:7.5.3.2-2.fc38.x86_64
$ rpm --test -U openoffice4.1.14-redhat-menus-4.1.14-9811.noarch.rpm
error: Failed dependencies:
 redhat-release is needed by openoffice4.1.14-redhat-menus-4.1.14-9811.noarch

Obviously those outputs indicate that OpenOffice was not properly tested in order to ensure that
- it can be installed while LibreOffice is priorly installed;
-

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redhat-release

exits, which is not the case.

There is not much we can do here. So nothing to do. After investigating the location of the starting file |

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$ /opt/openoffice4/program/soffice

In both window systems, the font sizes, unlike those exhibited by the GUI applications available within Fedora repositories, do not honour the set font sizes. Characters are barely visible thus indicates an issue; as a consequence that prevents the installation. Screen maximum resolution: 1920 x 1080 (16:9); current: 1368 x 768 (16:9). For comparison; two applications opened in same session; the one shown at bottom represents

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soffice

:

openoffice_GUI_font_size_comparison.png (108.98 KiB) Viewed 3849 times

[Mr.Dandy]

$ sudo rm /usr/bin/soffice

This is not the right way
Try:

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dnf remove libreoff*

[ricky tigg]

What could be your motivation to suggest the removal of the LibreOffice suite while obviously if it was installed, that must have been for a reason. And that's what you called a way! That speaks for itself. If it is the best proposal OpenOffice could deliver, that makes it out of scope in my project.

[Bill]

What could be your motivation to suggest the removal of the LibreOffice suite while obviously if it was installed, that must have been for a reason.

OpenOffice.org which became Apache OpenOffice uses the soffice command to start OpenOffice. When LO was forked from OOo, the same soffice command was used to start LibreOffice. As a result, AOO will not completely install if LO is installed. That's why it is suggested to remove LO before installing AOO. If you want both programs on the same system, remove LO that was installed by Fedora and install the Snap, Flatpak or AppImage version of LO.

[ricky tigg]

If there is one thing that will not be missed, that there is no need for wondering who runs this project. As the obvious indicated it, nothing neither from me nor from anyone else, could demonstrate that it could be solved yet. As by magic that team managed to translate that as [Solved], as a user, that leaves me no choice but to leave that singular team wastes by itself its time. For that it appeared to need no help. Not to mention that the present platform is no place to report issues. Dedicated places for that exist; GitLab, GitHub among others.

Edit:  When LO was forked from OOo, the same soffice command was used to start LibreOffice. As a result, AOO will not completely install if LO is installed. That's why it is suggested to remove LO before installing AOO. If you want both programs on the same system, remove LO that was installed by Fedora and install the Snap, Flatpak or AppImage version of LO. 2023-06-28 12:30 UTC Bill explained why you should remove LO and then how to reinstall it. You had no response for 11 days. That suggested to me that you encountered no further trouble and that the issue was solved. This is typical user behavior - ask a question, get an answer, then never acknowledge or reject it. If the problem were still unsolved, why would you expect to get any further help if you don't respond? I removed the [Solved] tag even though this may prevent other people with the same situation from finding this solution.  Not to mention that the present platform is no place to report issues. We have the Site Feedback forum -- MrProgrammer, forum moderator

[Hagar Delest]

You were given several choices. The most obvious one is to remove LO because it interferes with AOO.
But if you want to use both applications, then you can still proceed with the installation of AOO through the packages and LO through non system-wide packages like Snap, Flatpak or AppImage.
Thus, your question WAS answered. Do you agree with that? Maybe you haven't even tried.

Not to mention that the present platform is no place to report issues.

This is absolutely right, see here why: [Survival guide] This is not a customer service. That post gives you a link to the place for reporting issues.

[ricky tigg]

In any case, one can hardly affirm that perseverance fails you to cover you with more embarrassment if it is still possible. as now the very report's title is misinterpreted as a question; "Font size in GUI too small".

So what do you believe so well that would rectify the font issue by suggesting an application in Snao format, while by definition the latter makes the application isolated from the system and therefore not accessible by the DE Shell; presently Gnome Shell in my case?. Try instead to observe the effect that would be produced by increasing the font size for applications via gnome-tweaks, and you will learn something new that should take away the desire to propose measures condemned in advance to failure, proving if it were necessary that they were never even attempted by one of yours.

[Hagar Delest]

I was the one who changed your topic title, which was "Font sizes of characters exhibited in GUI abnormally low | Prevents the installation". It is really too long and prevent an easy browsing of the forum, either in the index or from a query. I think that my proposal is not far from the issue but feel free to change it as long as it remains concise.

Please read again the advice's provided. The issue is with a faulty installation linked to the presence of LO on your system. If you remove LO, then AOO should install correctly and that should fix the font problem. Then, if you want to install LO, do that from a Snap, Flatpak or AppImage package. I guess that it would not be impacted by any font issue. Thus, you'll end up with both applications running fine in parallel.

Just try before ranting and let us know.

[Bill]

The original thread title seems to say that small characters are preventing installation of AOO, but the screenshot showing the "small characters" is the welcome screen which appears the first time OpenOffice is run after it is installed. This is confusing. Is the real problem about the font size or about the installation?

Regarding the font sizes not honoring the font size changes in gnome-tweaks, this may be caused by a missing dependency. I don't use Fedora, so I can't verify this and won't try to tell you how to install the dependency. See these threads for discussions about the missing dependency in Ubuntu and Debian:

[Solved] Appearance of the desktop environment lost

[SOLVED] OpenOffice stuck on Raleigh theme and can't change