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Trying to install Apache Open Office

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Caitlin
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Trying to install Apache Open Office

#1 Post by Caitlin »

(Boring background story: finding Libre Office [LO] quite annoying, I've been wanting to replace it for a long time now. Recently, I installed Debian 9.3.0 replacing 9.0.0, and then LO stopped working -- when I tried to start it, a button would show up on kicker, then a few seconds later it would just disappear. I looked around on the internet, tried some things, but couldn't get it to work.

So I scout around and decide to install Apache Open Office [AOO] instead. It seems LO and AOO are first cousins, but that's neither here nor there. Anyway, I wade through the inadequate AOO install instructions and finally get it installed into /opt/openoffice4. An attempt to start it resulted in an error message about a missing something from LO! It seems LO was "hijacking" any attempt to start AOO by symlinking to LO instead.)

So I change /usr/bin/soffice, which was pointing to LO, to point to AOO instead; specifically, /opt/openoffice/programs/soffice. It turns out this is a shell script. I get the following errors:

Code: Select all

84: /usr/bin/soffice: /usr/bin/pagein: not found (line 84 is "$sd_prog/pagein" -L"$sd_prog" \)
119: /usr/bin/soffice: /usr/bin/soffice.bin: not found (line 119 is "$sd_prog/$sd_binary" "$@" &)
Apparently, it's looking for "pagein" and "soffice.bin" but looking for it in the wrong directory.

I tried adding /opt/openoffice4 to the PATH but that didn't help. (Perhaps I should have added /opt/openoffice4/programs instead?)

Any ideas on what I should try next?

Caitlin

Wheelerof4te
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Re: Trying to install Apache Open Office

#2 Post by Wheelerof4te »

No need to reinstall Debian 9.0, you could have just upgraded to 9.3 easy.
Caitlin wrote:Any ideas on what I should try next?

Code: Select all

apt purge libreoffice libreoffice-core
Download .deb from the AOO site and install it:

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apt install ./path/to/AOO.deb
Any idea why LO annoys you? It's miles ahead of AOO in terms of features and compatibility with M$ Office.

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HuangLao
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Re: Trying to install Apache Open Office

#3 Post by HuangLao »

First time I ever heard someone say they prefer AOO over LOO.

Caitlin
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Re: Trying to install Apache Open Office

#4 Post by Caitlin »

@Wheelerof4te -- I'll try your suggested solution, and let you know.

Yes, I could have done the update -- upgrade -- dist upgrade thing, but does that mean I have to? By doing a clean reinstall, I was able to fix problems I was unable to fix any other way. For example, when I installed 9.0.0, I didn't create a root account. This made Synaptic insist on my giving my user password instead of my root password for authentication (the latter was stronger). No matter how I tried, I found no way to fix it -- except by reinstalling. There were other problems too, I just can't remember them at the moment.

I wouldn't rule out doing a clean reinstall of the same version of Stretch for the same reason -- although an "upgrading reinstall" is more sensible.

What I absolutely can't stand about LO is it seems to "know" what I want to do next -- and then it does it -- then I have to undo what it just did because that's not what I wanted. Like the satellite TV company that adds two premium channels to your account when you only asked for one (true story). The straw that broke the camel's back was I had a table that I wanted borders around, but only in some places -- it kept adding more than I asked for, or removing more than I asked for. So, not even allowing for the fact that LO doesn't work, I want to banish LO totally and forever with no hope of reprieve. AOO seems to be the most highly rated substitute.

Caitlin

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Re: Trying to install Apache Open Office

#5 Post by Hallvor »

Caitlin wrote:For example, when I installed 9.0.0, I didn't create a root account. This made Synaptic insist on my giving my user password instead of my root password for authentication (the latter was stronger). No matter how I tried, I found no way to fix it -- except by reinstalling.
Let me take a wild guess: sudo passwd root ? :)

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Wheelerof4te
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Re: Trying to install Apache Open Office

#6 Post by Wheelerof4te »

OP maybe installed from a live image, I remember those had such a bug which disabled root password or something.

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debiman
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Re: Trying to install Apache Open Office

#7 Post by debiman »

apache openoffice is still under development, and it's open source.
(i thought the original OOo was dead, and probably is, but apache have taken over the website, and apache OO seems a fork of the original, just like libreoffice)
i wonder if it is lighter on resources than libreoffice, which i really consider a hog (but not bad software per se).
the latest release is from december 2017: https://projects.apache.org/project.html?openoffice

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Re: Trying to install Apache Open Office

#8 Post by andre@home »

Caitlin wrote:@Wheelerof4te -- I'So, not even allowing for the fact that LO doesn't work, I want to banish LO totally and forever with no hope of reprieve. AOO seems to be the most highly rated substitute.Caitlin
Hmmmm so as you seem not to be able to work with LOO whereas millions of people do.... and you cannot repair it.... You want to install AOO with a very convincing supported argument to do that (= NOT DONE...) and then you run into installation problems with AOO?

This tend more to the conclusion that neither LOO or AOO is your real problem, but that you seems do have more a kind of disappointment/frustration that you cannot work with or install it....

So go first go back to the basics of Linux and when you feel comfortable enough tackle the Open Office (LOO or AOO) problems. When you then have a good question, do come back here and the higher quality of your question will automatically generate more support/beter answers..
Good luck with your choices/reflections.

Caitlin
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Re: Trying to install Apache Open Office

#9 Post by Caitlin »

andre@home wrote:This tend more to the conclusion that neither LOO or AOO is your real problem, but that you seems do have more a kind of disappointment/frustration that you cannot work with or install it....

So go first go back to the basics of Linux and when you feel comfortable enough tackle the Open Office (LOO or AOO) problems. When you then have a good question, do come back here and the higher quality of your question will automatically generate more support/beter answers..
Good luck with your choices/reflections.
What nonsense. What I want is this:

(1) Libre Office GONE.

(2) Apache Open Office installed in its place.

Any attempt to read anything more into that is counterproductive.

Out of courtesy, I've answered "why" type questions -- such as why I reinstalled Debian rather than simply upgrading it (which I am perfectly capable of doing, thank you). But from now on I'm going to stick to the facts.

Caitlin

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Re: Trying to install Apache Open Office

#10 Post by Caitlin »

I purged AOO and LO successfully. Then I tried to reinstall AOO and had difficulties.

According to the AOO web page, I should have been able to re-install AOO through apt-something. But I got these messages:

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# apt-get install openoffice-brand-en-us openoffice-brand-writer openoffice-brand-calc openoffice-brand-impress openoffice-brand-base openoffice-brand-draw openoffice-brand-math openoffice-pyuno openoffice-ooofonts openoffice-ooolinguistic openoffice-debian-menus

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
E: Unable to locate package openoffice-brand-en-us
E: Unable to locate package openoffice-brand-writer
E: Unable to locate package openoffice-brand-calc
E: Unable to locate package openoffice-brand-impress
E: Unable to locate package openoffice-brand-base
E: Unable to locate package openoffice-brand-draw
E: Unable to locate package openoffice-brand-math
E: Unable to locate package openoffice-pyuno
E: Unable to locate package openoffice-ooofonts
E: Unable to locate package openoffice-ooolinguistic
E: Unable to locate package openoffice-debian-menus
My /etc/apt/sources.list contains:

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# deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 9.3.0 _Stretch_ - Official amd64 xfce-CD Binary-1 20171209-12:11]/ stretch main 

# deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 9.3.0 _Stretch_ - Official amd64 xfce-CD Binary-1 20171209-12:11]/ stretch main 

# Line commented out by installer because it failed to verify:
deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security/ stretch/updates main 
# Line commented out by installer because it failed to verify:
# deb-src http://security.debian.org/debian-security/ stretch/updates main 

# stretch-updates, previously known as 'volatile'
# A network mirror was not selected during install.  The following entries
# are provided as examples, but you should amend them as appropriate
# for your mirror of choice.

deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ stretch-updates main 
# deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian/ stretch-updates main 

# stretch-backports, previously on backports.debian.org
# A network mirror was not selected during install.  The following entries
# are provided as examples, but you should amend them as appropriate
# for your mirror of choice.

deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ stretch-backports main contrib non-free 
# deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian/ stretch-backports main 

deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ stretch main contrib non-free 

deb http://httpredir.debian.org/debian/ stretch non-free contrib main
Any ideas?

Caitlin

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Re: Trying to install Apache Open Office

#11 Post by Lysander »

Some of the issues you have mentioned with LO are features which can be disabled. Since AOO is not recommended as an installation, it is clearly better to use LO. It would be advisable to reinstall LO and try to disable the features that irritate you.

However, I imagine this advice will fall by the wayside. In the event that it does - which I fully predict it will - maybe have a look at this link:

https://tecadmin.net/install-apache-ope ... tu-debian/#

Yes, this is an unofficial page but what you are doing is not recommended by the Debian devs anyway, so you may as well go the whole hog. Nevertheless, the advice given in the webpage does appear perfectly logical.
Caitlin wrote: What nonsense.
It's not entirely nonsense. The idea that:
andre@home wrote: neither LOO or AOO is your real problem, but that you seems do have more a kind of disappointment/frustration that you cannot work with or install it
is accurate. All autoformatting/autocorrect options in LO can be disabled.

I understand your frustration with finding parts of andre's post rather condescending, but in this case a simple learning of why LO is doing what it's doing and learning to work with it or remedy it in-program would have done. These are, essentially, good basics to practice in Linux [well, software in general].

Caitlin
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Re: Trying to install Apache Open Office

#12 Post by Caitlin »

I'll attempt to install AOO from the tarball.

If that doesn't work, I'll try reinstalling LO and disabling all the "autoformat" features.

But remember this all started with LO not working AT ALL -- I would click on a file, LO would start to activate, then shut down.

And I am not the problem here.

Caitlin

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debiman
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Re: Trying to install Apache Open Office

#13 Post by debiman »

i was able to install AOO on archlinux, and it does seem a little lighter on resources.

sorry to hear you are having difficulties with it.

have you tried installing one of the files from here?

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