OpenOffice 4.0.1 as a service on Ubuntu 13.10 (headless)

[cdebauche]

Hello !

I am new in Linux / Ubuntu / OpenOffice. I would like to run OpenOffice 4.0.1 as a service on my Ubuntu 13.10 and would like this service to start automatically at start-up.

I try to get information about how to do this on the web but didn't find my way.

Because I am a Newbie , can you give me a step by step process ?

I want to use it with a Java application (Jahia) that need this service to convert documents and built previews.

Thanks a lot !!
Zeb

[RoryOF]

Start by doing a Forum Search, using search box at top right of Forum window,

Look at
https://forum.openoffice.org/en/forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=53875

[cdebauche]

Start by doing a Forum Search, using search box at top right of Forum window,

Look at
https://forum.openoffice.org/en/forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=53875

Thanks for the quick answer !

What I find seems to be for the previous version 3 of Open Office. I look at your post but I am running Ubuntu 13.10 64-bit and I don't know if I have to install Yum to get OpenOffice Service running.

When I try :
$ sudo apt-get install openoffice.org-headless

I get this :
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
E: Unable to locate package openoffice.org-headless
E: Couldn't find any package by regex 'openoffice.org-headless'

[Villeroy]

You should become a tiny little bit familiar with your new operating system before you try to install any 3rd-party software.

A software named "openoffice-headless" does not exist.
OpenOffice is not in the Ubuntu repositories, therefore the apt-get program can not download and install OpenOffice automatically.
Ubuntu comes with an almost identical software named "LibreOffice". It should be installed already. If not: sudo apt-get install libreoffice
libreoffice --headless starts this program in headless mode.

[RoryOF]

To install OpenOffice on Ubuntu you may need to

Code: Select all   Expand viewCollapse view

sudo apt-get remove libreoffice-core

(there are ways to install OpenOffice alongside LibreOffice, but the above is my usual method of working)

then download OpenOffice from http://www.openoffice.org/download and install as in the tutorial at
[Tutorial] Installing OpenOffice on Ubuntu, Debian and Co.

Note that spaces are important in your invocation of headless mode and you need a space before the --headless.

[cdebauche]

Thanks a lot for your help RoryOF and Villeroy.

In fact, I think I did exactly the right installation ...

I did this :
sudo apt-get remove --purge libreoffice*
sudo apt-get clean
sudo apt-get autoremove

After having downloaded Apache_OpenOffice_4.0.1_Linux_x86-64_install-deb_en-US.tar.gz
I did the following :
tar -zxvf Apache_OpenOffice_4.0.1_Linux_x86_install-deb_en-US.tar.gz
cd en-US/DEBS
sudo dpkg -i *.deb
cd desktop-integration
dpkg -i *.deb

OpenOffice is working fine, all the programs works from the menu and LibreOffice has been removed.

I tried to launch openoffice4 --headless but it start normally and not in headless mode.

How can I start in headless mode ? is-it possible with the version 4 ? Do I have to install something else ?
Sorry, but I didn't find information about headless mode in he links you give me :-/ ... did I miss something ?

[cdebauche]

I try this but It does not allow me to do anything else in the terminal... I have to use CTRL-C to exit...

$ /opt/openoffice4/program/soffice -nofirststartwizard -headless -accept="socket,host=localhost,port=8100;urp;"
$ /opt/openoffice4/program/soffice -headless -accept="socket,port=8100;urp;"
$ /opt/openoffice4/program/soffice -headless -nofirststartwizard

Is the command
pidof soffice
is correct to know if the openoffice headless is up ?

Thanks again for your help !

[RoryOF]

If you look in the OpenOffice Help and search for "headless" (no quotes) you get a full list of command line parameters. I only use OpenOffice directly, so cannot help with details of running it in headless mode.

It might be that you need to invoke openoffice4 rather than soffice - I'm not certain.

[cdebauche]

Thanks RoryOF !

I really need someone who use openoffice in headless mode (server mode)... I can't find my way in the documentation...

I hope someone will answer about how it works

[cdebauche]

If agree, could you please Bump this topic ?

When I launch the server with this command :
"/usr/bin/soffice -headless -accept="socket,host=0.0.0.0,port=8100;urp;" -nofirststartwizard -nologo -norestore -nolockcheck -nocrashreport -nodefault > /dev/null"

The terminal don't give me the hand back. I have to use CTRL-C to get back to the terminal input... I don't find any logs and don't see any errors... :-/ ...

Please help...

[cdebauche]

... I have a lot of X11 directories in usr/bin... do you know why ?

/usr/bin$ cd X11/X11/X11/X11/X11/X11/X11/X11/X11/X11/X11/X11/X11/X11/X11/X11/X11/X11/X11/X11

Thanks,

[RoryOF]

see
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2081113
for an explanation.

[cdebauche]

Did someone starts OpenOffice in headless mode on Ubuntu 13.10 ? ... :-/

Can you bump this topic ? i don't have the right to do it...

[RoryOF]

A posting to the thread automatically bumps the topic. If you are getting no replies, perhaps no one has done this yet, or your thread has fallen into the slack time before the Christmas holidays.

[RoryOF]

Search the help file using Parameters as a keyword. To start OpenOffice headless the command is

Code: Select all   Expand viewCollapse view

openoffice4 -headless

space between 4 and -, only one -

[dwihardy]

I manage to run the service in background by using this init.d script, so I can have my terminal back without stopping the service

https://gist.github.com/stuzart/3787679

But I change the command to use (because I'm using 4.1.5) : soffice -nofirststartwizard -headless -accept="socket,host=localhost,port=8100;urp;" & > /dev/null 2>&1

Hope this can help other person who come across this page