Installing OpenOffice.org
(This howto is updated for Slackware-12.2 and OpenOffice 3.0.1 on 20090320)
One of the most requests that is heard on irc, is how to install OpenOffice.org on Slackware. While there are multiple howto’s on doing this, personally I believe the outlined way below is the best way™.
The OpenOffice.org build scripts hosted at SlackBuilds.org make a binary repackage of the official RPMs. The reason for this, is that it is much easier to repackage the files. Building Openoffice is pretty much a pain (but YMMV).
The below howto is written for Slackware 12.2 and OpenOffice.org 3.0.1. For other versions of Slackware please amend the needed version strings.
Step 1: Download the SlackBuilds.org GPG key:
Download and import the Slackbuilds.org GPG key.
wget -c http://slackbuilds.org/GPG-KEY
gpg --import GPG-KEY
Step 2: Download the archive:
wget -c http://slackbuilds.org/slackbuilds/12.2/office/openoffice.org.tar.gz
Step 3: Check the validity of the archive using the GPG signature:
gpg --verify openoffice.org.tar.gz.asc
Step 4: Extract the SlackBuild archive
tar xvzf openoffice.org.tar.gz
This will create the directory OpenOffice.org in your current working directory. Change into the Openoffice directory:
cd openoffice.org
step 5: Source the info file.
The info file contains all the information we need to download the program.
source openoffice.org.info
Step 6: Download the ’source’ of the OpenOffice program:
source openoffice.org.info
wget -c $DOWNLOAD
Step 7: Check the md5sum to see if the download is correct:
echo $MD5SUM && \
md5sum OOo_3.0.1_LinuxIntel_install_en-US.tar.gz
Make sure these two match. The output will be something like:
abcd52cda489f93768c82a2b3581bf72
abcd52cda489f93768c82a2b3581bf72 OOo_3.0.1_LinuxIntel_install_en-US.tar.gz
Step 8: make sure the openoffice.org.SlackBuild is executable
chmod +x openoffice.org.SlackBuild
Alhtough all SlackBuild scripts inside of an archive should be set to executable, alternatively, you can call with as following:
sh ./openoffice.org.SlackBuild
Step 9: Execute the openoffice.org.SlackBuild and sit back and wait till it is finished.
To give you a couple of examples:
To put the finished package in your current working directory once it’s done building:
OUTPUT=$(pwd) ./openoffice.org.SlackBuild
To use another language instead of the default en-US one. (The example would build the french version of Openoffice.org. Please note that you need to have the localised tarball instead of the one provided in the *.info. Most likely mirror for this is:
ftp://ftp.free.fr/mirrors/ftp.openoffice.org/localized/ $OOLANG / $VERSION /
OOLANG=fr ./openoffice.org.SlackBuild
To disable the Java Loader in Openoffice.org (This will not affect any other program).
DISABLE_JAVA=YES ./openoffice.org.SlackBuild
Normally, OpenOffice.org is build with Java enabled and the solver disabled.
Be sure to look at the script for some optional things you can do when building.
Step 10: Install (or upgrade) the newly create slackware package.
When it’s done the slackware package is normally in /tmp or whatever you have outputted as $OUTPUT. e. You can us either installpkg(8) or upgradepkg(8) to install the package.
installpkg /tmp/openoffice.org-3.0.1_en_US-i586-2_SBo.tgz
upgradepkg /tmp/openoffice.org-3.0.1_en_US-i586-2_SBo.tgz
upgradepkg --install-new \
/tmp/openoffice.org-3.0.1_en_US-i586-2_SBo.tgz
Alternatively:
Now if you aren’t confident in doing the above, you can always download a binary package. Robby Workman has an excellent package on his site and you can download it here.
Once you have downloaded the package you can install it by using installpkg(8) or upgradepkg(8) to install the package. If you need pointers for this see step 10 above.
Or, as another alternative:
You could also use Chess Griffin’s sbopk, to build and install Openoffice.org. Sbopkg is a frontend to the SlackBuilds.org repository and basically goes through the steps as outlined above.
And that is the most simple and effective way to get Openoffice.org installed, setup and running on Slackware!.
In step 9, you show some examples, but don’t explain what they are examples of. Are these settings for the package, or for the builder? I think I figured it out, but you could make that a little more clear.
These are the different settings you can apply for the package. Some people might want to build for a different language. Anyway, I have expanded that section as to more explain what the different options do.
Excellent article, The process as laid out is accurate. The scrip is well documented. I now have a functional OpenOffice 3.0 on my Slackware 12.2.
Thank you.
I am running Vector Linux 6.0 (free download) and I used the procedure to get Openoffice 3.0.1 above. The procedure worked but the program doesn’t work. When I run soffice I get the following:
/opt/openoffice.org3/program/soffice: line 124: /opt/openoffice.org3/program/../basis-link/program/pagein: No such file or directory
/opt/openoffice.org3/program/soffice.bin: error while loading shared libraries: libuno_sal.so.3: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
This is just to let you know that there are problems and probably other missing libraries as well.
No replay needed.
Rich
Well I am going reply anyway:
1) I know the above works without any problem. If you can reproduce this on a slackware-12.2 machine, we can talk. I have tested this with the latest OOo build from SlackBuilds.org (will update the page asap).
2) to show you those file exist:
michiel@hades:~$ ls -la /opt/openoffice.org3/program/../basis-link/program/pagein
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 5180 2009-01-09 14:09 /opt/openoffice.org3/program/../basis-link/program/pagein*
michiel@hades:/opt$ find . -name “libuno_sal.so.3″
./openoffice.org/ure/lib/libuno_sal.so.3
So frankly I do not know where your missing files are coming from. They both exist on my system.
3) As you noticed this is for Slackware, not Vector Linux or any derivative. Since Vector Linux changes a whole lot of the scripts and implements other changes (frankly having seen the start-up scripts, the word “maim” comes to mind), I am going to say the problem is (most likely) with Vector Linux
case .. dismissed.
Thanks my friend!
I have just installed Openoffice 3.1.1 on Slackware 13.
With the slackbuilds (http://slackbuilds.org/slackbuilds/13.0/office/openoffice.org) it works fine. You have just to verify the version of office downloaded from openoffice.org (JRE, X64, …) and eventually “adjust” the script. After that, you have just to install the package.
If this comment can help …