How to install OpenOffice 3.4.1 on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS 64 Bit

[drvsgogia]

Hi

I am a novice with Ubuntu and Open Office. I am not happy with LibreOffice bundled with Ubuntu and want to install Apache Open Office. Pl help how to install, do I need to remove LO, if yes, how to remove it.

Thanks.

[RoryOF]

Use Synaptic to remove libreoffice-core and associated files, then install using this Tutorial
http://forum.openoffice.org/en/forum/viewtopic.php?f=74&t=68

Make sure you do the directory change to desktop-integration and the second

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sudo dpkg -i *.deb

.

[Hagar Delest]

Note that if you install from the debs, then you'll be able to install in parallel both AOO and LibreOffice.

Please add [Solved] at the beginning of the title in your first post (top of the topic) with the edit button if your issue has been fixed.

[ghormax]

While this works nice, do NOT install both at the same time. I have tried this and it has messed up my system completely. Now I cannot remove the Libre Office anymore!

[Maeve]

Hi thanks for this support forum. People must put in a lot of work on it.

I searched my problem, & links in support posts keep leading back to this page:
[url]https://wiki.openoffice.org/wiki/Documentation/How_Tos/Installing_on_Debian_based_Distros
[/url]
Unfortunately, I don't understand a word of this. It sounds like it's intended for computer programmers.

I'm not a programmer. I'm very computer literate, & I learn new programs quickly. But I don't get this at all.

I downloaded OpenOffice 4.1.0. I got a tar.gz folder. I click on it. It does nothing. It just opens the folder & takes me inside to look at more folders.

How do I get it to work?

Thanks for your help

[RoryOF]

Click on the .tar.gz file. It will open in Archive Manager. Tell that to extract the files; from memory it will place them in an en-US folder in Downloads. Open a terminal and type (again from memory

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cd Downloads/en-US/DEBS

or break that up into the individual cd steps

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cd Downloads
cd en-US
cd DEBS

whichever you are happiest with.
then

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sudo dpkg -i *.deb
Password: ****** (It prompts for Password and you reply with your root password)
cd desktop-integration
sudo dpkg -i *.deb


And all should be well.
If you are at all computer literate you should have no great difficulty with this.

[Maeve]

I'm so glad I got a reply from Pooh Bear! ("It's always friendlier with two." - Pooh)

Your reply is very helpful & thanks a million for being so prompt.

Very happy to learn new things & techniques.
(I should have learned these things. Should / could have trained as a low-level computer maintenance type tech.)

QUESTION;
What do you mean "open a terminal" ?
I don't understand how to do that.
(Perhaps you're referring to something I'm familiar with, but have never heard referred to in that way.)

I first learned computers in the DOS days, before user-friendly windows took over everything. So I can handle entering code OK. Just where??

With sincere thanks & appreciation

[RoryOF]

I'm running on Xubuntu so have forgotten my Ubuntu interface. I think Ctrl Alt T should give you a terminal. There is also Terminal Emulator" in one of the System or Administrator menus.

A Terminal is the linux equivalent of the DOS command line. In linux all terminal commands are case sensitive - probably best to cut and paste the individual commands from the posting. In Terminals I have used Paste is Ctrl Shift V, but there is usually a menu to remind you.

[Hagar Delest]

You can also select the command and paste them in the terminal with the middle click (mouse wheel click) to paste.

[Maeve]

Thanks for that! You're the best! I'm off to give it a go ...

[Maeve]

I'm running on Xubuntu so have forgotten my Ubuntu interface. I think Ctrl Alt T should give you a terminal. There is also Terminal Emulator" in one of the System or Administrator menus.

A Terminal is the linux equivalent of the DOS command line. In linux all terminal commands are case sensitive - probably best to cut and paste the individual commands from the posting. In Terminals I have used Paste is Ctrl Shift V, but there is usually a menu to remind you.

Thanks, that all seemed to work pretty well. It was definitely doing something: pages of "Unpacking openoffice" & other encouraging messages rolling out.

But there seemed to be some error messages in there. And Open Office did not open, appear anywhere, on the desktop, or anything I can see.

Here's some of the error messages I could make out:

"dpkg: error processing openoffice4.0-debian-menus_4.0-9764_all.deb (--install):
trying to overwrite '/usr/bin/soffice', which is also in pacage libreoffice-common 1:3.5.4-0ubuntu1.1
/usr/bin/gtk-update-icon-cache
gtk-update-icon-cache: Cache file created successfully" (then a lot of "Processing triggers..")
"Errors encountered while processing:
openoffice4.0-debian-menus_4.1-9764_all.deb ..."
(Hope there's no typos in this code. It's late & I'm bleary.)

I tried to attach a screenshot of the terminal with error messages, but 300 kbs was too big, your system wouldn't allow it.

Here's the screenshot URL
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BzFHYjwquZZ9MGlVREhzYklCVlk&authuser=0
(I hope you can view it OK. It wouldn't let me share it or change my share settings (connection is not good today, Having lots of probs.)

Thanks for all your help & patience.

[Hagar Delest]

It's a known issue, there is a remaining libreoffice package still installed on your system.
Try (in a terminal): sudo apt-get purge libreoffice*

[Maeve]

But that means all my Libre Office applications will be vapourized? Destroyed? obliterated? No more Libre Office?

[Hagar Delest]

If you want to install both, you can but you need to install both of them with their .deb packages and not the version delivered with Ubuntu out of the box. The method is exactly the same, just the filenames in the commands change.

[Maeve]

Point of clarification:
So the answer to my question of Sept 16, is YES, my existing Libre Office package, that came "out of the box" with Ubuntu, will be wiped out?
if I execute the code you kindly provided in your post of Sept 16 ... ? Yes?

But I then have the option of installing Libre Office alongside Open Office if I choose.

Sorry to fuss, but each program is different, takes time & effort to re-learn how to use it. Libre Office has proved lacking in some ways, but I do know how to use it now, & it's proved indispensible for some functions.

Thanks very much for your help

[Hagar Delest]

Yes, that's it.
Note that there are also methods to install debs without using the package manager (so that you keep LibO with the file association) but I've never tried.