Which distros allow installing AOO ?

[kingfisher]

Hello. I would appreciate Linux users letting me know on which distro(s) they have been able to install AOO and how they did so.

[RoryOF]

Ubuntu and its variants, fuduntu also. Remove libreoffice-core* using the package manager and install as in the OO tutorials.

[acknak]

Fedora.

I use a separate rpm database just for AO, install to separate, specific locations (--prefix), and avoid the desktop integration--start from the command line. Same for non-distro versions of LO.

It's a right PITA but it works well enough.

[kingfisher]

Thanks for the replies. acknak, what do you mean by "a separate rpm database just for AO" and how do you set it up ?

[acknak]

Create a directory, say 'pkgdb', and pass rpm the option --dbpath pkgdb

I have to do this in case the AOO/LO rpms have any packages that have/use names that match the distro packages. This used to be a problem; I don't know if it still is or not but it's easier just to keep things separate. Since they are separate from the distro packages and files, rpm doesn't need to check against the system packages.

[kingfisher]

Thanks for that. I will keep the rpms separate. I am hoping to install AOO only.

[esperantisto]

No problem installing AOO from RPMs from the official site in openSUSE 12.3 (rpm -ivh *.rpm).

[acknak]

Installing wasn't the problem with Fedora. The problem was that every time the distro released updates for OO, the update process would remove packages from the user-installed OO because one package contained a name that matched the distro packages. Every time the system automatically upgraded the distro OO, it would break the user-installed OO.

Maybe it's silly to bypass all the packaging system features but I prefer to avoid a (potential) problem. And for something like OO, the packaging system isn't helping that much anyway.

For each LO/OO version I install, I also keep a list of all the package names in a file, so when I want to remove it, I can just feed the package list to rpm -e.

In the end, for what I'm doing, it might easier to just use rpm2cpio and bypass the packaging system altogether.

[esperantisto]

For each LO/OO version I install, I also keep a list of all the package names in a file, so when I want to remove it, I can just feed the package list to rpm -e.

1. Switch to openSUSE. We’ve got zypper
2. You don’t need to keep a list of all packages. Just remove the openoffice-core01, all others will be removed due to dependencies (or is it zypper-specific? then see 1.).

[acknak]

... Just remove the openoffice-core01, all others will be removed due to dependencies ...

Good point. I'll have to try that next time.

But I'm not sure that every package requires oo-core*, so they may not all be removed.

[esperantisto]

But I'm not sure that every package requires oo-core*, so they may not all be removed.

Almost all do require it. You’ll have something *ure left and something else (and desktop integration package, if you installed any).

[kingfisher]

Thanks. Just to be sure I understand, is there no way of removing the distro 'OO' (meaning LO ?) or do you want both ?

.... The problem was that every time the distro released updates for OO, the update process would remove packages from the user-installed OO because one package contained a name that matched the distro packages. Every time the system automatically upgraded the distro OO, it would break the user-installed OO. ...

[acknak]

There's no problem removing Fedora's LO package--sure, that would avoid any conflicts. But I wanted to keep the distro's LibO ... for ... some reason that I can't remember now.

[kingfisher]

Thanks for the replies. My second attempt to install AOO 4.1.0 was successful probably because I followed the instruction to run the desktop integration rpm AFTER the others.

I used the opendesktop rpm and found I had to configure many file associations using the desktop tools. In pre-Apache days I used the Mandriva rpm and another member of the forums has used that rpm successfully to install the latest version. The Mandriva rpm is probably the better choice for PCLinuxOS.