Apache OpenOffice Community Forum

Edit: Removed from tutorials, see the most recent tuto from RGB: [Tutorial] Installing Apache OpenOffice on GNU/Linux

-------------------------
This tutorial has been integrated in the OOo wiki also: Documentation/How Tos/Installing on Debian based Distros.
-------------------------

The Ubuntu concept is that once a flavor is released, there is no update for its content, except security issues. Therefore, once you stick to a flavor (Dapper, Edgy, Feisty, ...), your OOo version is not updated. Basic reason is : integration has been validated with this package, a new one could mess the system.

But Ubuntu releases of OOo are known to be rather bugged, especially the Feisty one (slideshow in Impress causes crash recovery systematically, Base wizards freeze at the very end of the process among the most 'popular' bugs on the Ubuntu forums).

From 2.3, OOo is also available in .deb format, no need to convert the packages with alien as before.

Here is a method for all Debian-based distros :

1. Remove all the packages from the installed version
Go to Synaptic or your package manager and mark all the openoffice.org packages installed to be removed (there is the string ubuntu in their version number). This is mandatory for your first upgrade of the distro delivered OOo version, no need to do that for the following upgrades.
Note: don't use the Ubuntu Software Center to remove OOo because it seems that some packages are left and conflict with the install with official debs.
For Ubuntu (flavors prior to Jaunty 9.04), the system will also remove the ubuntu-desktop package. No worry, this is a meta package that can be removed safely. But in case you want to upgrade your whole distro, you'll have to install back this package (and the OOo original version).

2. Download the tarball (.tar.gz file) from the official OOo web site
See here : http://www.openoffice.org/download/ (or http://download.openoffice.org/other.html and select the Linux DEB version depending on your architecture, 32 or 64bit).
If you've troubles getting the automatic download, see on the mirrors: http://distribution.openoffice.org/mirrors/#mirrors.

3. Extract the tarball in your home directory (or any other directory you want)
Either do that with your file browser and your archive manager (usually available in the context menu) or open a terminal (you should be directly in your home directory) and : Example (for 2.4.0): filename = OOo_2.4.0_LinuxIntel_install_en-US_deb.tar.gz
Hint: no need to type the whole filename, just start with the first characters and hit the TAB key for the auto-completion.

You should see a new folder, say OOo_inst_folder.
Example (for 2.4.0): OOo_inst_folder = OOH680_m12_native_packed-1_en-US.9286

4. Install the created .debs 5. Update the Applications menu
Go to the desktop integration subfolder. Run again the previous installation command. Here you are, menus should have been updated.

6. Troubleshooting
If you had run the Ubuntu version before, you might face a problem starting OOo the first time. If so, try to reset the user profile. But during the welcome process, don't transfer your personal data (if you had 2.x), former configuration files might corrupt the new profile.

Installing from the RPMS (for the record)
If you've the RPMS package and don't want to download again the DEBS package, you can convert the RPMs to DEBs using the following command to be launched before step 4:

Put the thread in the Tutorial section for better visibility and split the related discussion: Re: [Ubuntu] Installing OOo on Debian and Co. Thanks to post any question in that thread and not here.

I found that, after installing OO with the deb packages, the menu selections didn't work. It was necessary to first run OO in a shell with , which opened the wecome/license window.

Hi, I am quite new to Linux and OO, could you explain on how to fix the menu problem, I installed OO but the menu is not there.
Ta.
I guess that you need to run in terminal
Here is the answer:
user@ubuntu:/$ openoffice.org2.4
exec: 2: /etc/openoffice.org2.4/program/soffice: not found


Thanks in advance

Any chance that the resulting Debs could be hosted somewhere in a proper package repository, eg an Ubuntu PPA? This would make it much more convenient...

Ask the Ubuntu team.

In Step 5 of the above procedure the directory "desktop-integration" is empty.

I am using Ubuntu 8.10 and the final release of openoffice 3.0 build 9358.

OK -- where did I go wrong ???

______

Have you downloaded it from the OOo web site? It may be a RC version, they're delivered without the desktop-integration by design.

YES ! It was downloaded from the official site.

The following turns out to be the issue:

DO NOT click on the green "Download Now" arrow." It yields generic Linux.

Do Click on "Get More platforms and languages" and select Ubuntu & DEB.
This yields is a rather close chart with columns and very little white space.
SELECT - Ubuntu & DEB.

NOW --- you do get the menu .DEB file in the subdirectory mentioned in step 5 above.

The .DEB menu file did install after I deleted all older versions of OO with the "Synaptic Package Manager".

_________

_________

PA_Dummy wrote:The following turns out to be the issue:

DO NOT click on the green "Download Now" arrow." It yields generic Linux.

Do Click on "Get More platforms and languages" and select Ubuntu & DEB.
This yields is a rather close chart with columns and very little white space.
SELECT - Ubuntu & DEB.

Yes, that's what is said in section 2 of the tutorial.

I am trying to install OOo 3.0 onto Ubuntu 8.10. This all worked fine for me, except I had to install the Java Runtime. (I did read somewhere it wasn't enabled in Ubuntu.). However, the update to the gnome menu failed with " openoffice.org-core conflicts with openoffice.org-unbundled"

I hade removed the bundled version with " Add/Remove Apps" when it failed the first time I then used Synaptic which removed some OOo thesaurus files, and it still didn't work. I then ran sudo aptitude remove --purge openoffice.org. as advised here http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=380313. Still no luck. I assume its some thing to do with Gnome menu files but the original entries have gone

Any more clues?

Are you sure that there is absolutely no other OOo package from Ubuntu? (showing the 'ubuntu' string in their version number)?

I wouldn't know what else would be left behind but I eventually got it to work

I re-installed the bundled package with add/remove apps and then removed them all again with Synaptic. The OOO 3.0 install then worked and the Gnome menus updated. After the messing about I have no idea what state my system is in so I plan to start from square one tonight and re-install Ubuntu from scratch and the use Synaptic to do the delete.

OK; your tutorial does say use Synaptic but I can only assume add/remove apps doesn't do a complete job.

I'll let you know how I got on.

doubletop wrote:I can only assume add/remove apps doesn't do a complete job.

I'm not that sure. That's why you should check directly in Synaptic. If a package is also used by Ubuntu for another application, he may be left during the Add/Remove menu.

Confirmed

With a complete re-build of Ubuntu 8.10 and deletion of the bundled OOo using Synaptic and the installation of the Java runtime the install of OOo 3.0 happens without a problem. Don't use Applications Add/Remove

So what does this do for upgrading to the newest version of Ubuntu in a few weeks for me? In the original post it said something about removing the ubuntu-desktop package and it would affect upgrading.

Hagar de l'Est wrote:But in case you want to upgrade your whole distro, you'll have to install back this package (and the OOo original version).

Therefore, you'll have to uninstall the Sun version of OOo and reinstall the ubuntu-desktop package that will in the meantime install the Ubuntu version of OOo.

Anyway, it's safer to reinstall the whole distribution from scratch (i.e. with the live CD). Because old configuration files can cause some troubles in the new flavor (I've experienced that and I'm not alone). That's why it's very important to have different partitions on your HD. It allows you to install from scratch but keeping your personal data untouched.

This tutorial should be updated to include info about the Java GUI installer for Linux... ie you unzip the downloaded Linux install files and run ./setup The GUI Wizard walks you through the rest of the install... no need to use rpm or dpkg if you don't want to.

ccornell wrote:This tutorial should be updated to include info about the Java GUI installer for Linux... ie you unzip the downloaded Linux install files and run ./setup The GUI Wizard walks you through the rest of the install... no need to use rpm or dpkg if you don't want to.

I hope someone tested the setup script thoroughly. In the past "sudo ./setup" used to not install the application successfully on Ubuntu systems. I don't remember what went wrong.

I can't speak for Ubuntu since I tried and dropped that distro a long time ago... it works fine in openSUSE (RPM based) and I've used it several times to install... no issues that I've noticed... so far

OK, there is no script "setup" with Java involved in OOo_3.1.0_LinuxIntel_install_de_deb.tar.gz (which I notice with some relief, to be honest).
Instead I find an ordinary script "update" calling dpkg to install v3.1 over the existing v3.1.

Thank you for the instructions. They worked very well.
Just an observation with the Ubuntu install... it is a good idea to 'Remove Completely' the openoffice.org packages from Synaptic. I had to delete the .openoffice.org folder in my home directory before I got the OOo working again after installation following the instructions in this thread.

This tutorial has been integrated in the OOo wiki also: http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wik ... ed_Distros

Cher Hagar de l'Est,

This is to notify you that I have touched the discussion page associated to the Wiki page referenced above.

-- Jack de l'Ouest

Thanks. In fact, I'm not the one who ported this article to the wiki.

But don't you have a JRE installed by default?

Hagar de l'Est wrote:Don't you have a JRE installed by default?

I took an upgrade to my Ubuntu installation instead of installing the latest version from a CD (contrary to advice). Maybe that's why I didn't have a JRE.

By the way, I am aware that it is forbidden to pose questions in this forum. However, what I would like to know has to do with exactly this tutorial and nothing else.

I cite this tutorial from my home page http://jackwaugh.com/ . I wonder whether it makes better sense to steer the public to the version here, or the version ported to the Wiki (which is what I currently do). The reference at the top, here, to the Wiki copy, made me think the latter was more likely to be kept up to date. If you are maintaining the tutorial here, I do not understand why you cite a backup copy.

ykabnyfue6 wrote:By the way, I am aware that it is forbidden to pose questions in this forum. However, what I would like to know has to do with exactly this tutorial and nothing else.

I know, that's why I don't split the posts from this topic as long as they are related to the subject. Some bits of information like this one can help people in corner cases.

ykabnyfue6 wrote:I wonder whether it makes better sense to steer the public to the version here, or the version ported to the Wiki (which is what I currently do). The reference at the top, here, to the Wiki copy, made me think the latter was more likely to be kept up to date. If you are maintaining the tutorial here, I do not understand why you cite a backup copy.

In fact, someone proposed to port this tutorial to the wiki as it was. At that time, I was still balancing between making tutorials here in the forum or on the wiki. So it was a kind of let's see how it renders on the wiki (I've tried once to write a wiki page but too complicated IMHO). I also think that there may be people that prefer to refer to a wiki page rather than a forum.

Note that I don't take the wiki version as a backup. The power of the wiki is that it can be improved, easily changed by anyone. Whereas this tutorial cannot be changed except by the author or a moderator. That's just 2 ways how information is handled.

I have lots of macro problems with OOo 3.2.0. I tried the tutoirial but it breaks the KDE integration (I am running Kubuntu Karmic).

It would be a good idea for Ubuntu to put OOo 3.2.1 on the repositories of Karmic with is LTS. If is wasn't LTS, I wouldn't mind, but as an LTS it is an absolute must have to upgrade to OOo 3.2.1

Ask the Ubuntu team for that.

NB: there are some topics about the KDE integration here IIRC. Have you searched the forum? As the forum search doesn't support 3 characters string, see the Survival Guide for the forum for an alternative to search the forum with Google.