Wednesday, October 15, 2008

updating to OpenOffice 3.0 in Kubuntu Hardy Heron (8.04)

Okay before I begin we first need to discuss a couple of things here:

Credit must be given to mogyweb who's how to for Ubuntu was helpful but incomplete for Kubuntu as there is one or two more steps which must be discussed.

The file system Structure differences between Gnome and KDE are very apparent when installing the latest version of OpenOffice in Hardy. However, they are minor at best.

The following is from mogyweb's post. Anything preceded with a * is an added note:

OpenOffice 3.0 is not in the repository for Ubuntu yet…why…I do not know. Anyway you can install it very easily by following a couple steps.

Download the file from OpenOffice.org
OOo_3.0.0_LinuxIntel_install_english-US_deb.tar.gz (*You should replace with the tar ball file that has the appropriate language for your use if available.)

*Use Adept or Synaptic to remove all OpenOffice 2.4 packages. These will conflict with OpenOffice 3.0 files and will keep 3.0 from loading. In your home folder (and all other user home folders, if you have more than one) remove all hidden folders related to OpenOffice. The user settings for OpenOffice 2.4 are incompatible with 3.0 and will keep OpenOffice 3.0 from loading files and starting up past the initial startup screen if using the the main OpenOffice user Interface or past the splash screen if calling up a specific OpenOffice application such as Writer.

Now you need to right click it and extract or run this command:
tar xzf OOo_3.0.0_LinuxIntel_install_english-US_deb.tar.gz

That will create a number of folders. Now move into those folders:

cd OOO300_m9_native_packed-1_en-US.9358/DEBS

*Before installing, if you use KDE exclusively remove the file ooobasis3.0-gnome-integration_3.0.0-9_i386.deb from the directory you can either delete it (not recommended) or move it into another directory. In the directory desktop-integration is the deb package that will install your menu icons for OpenOffice 3.0. You should copy or move that deb package into the working directory so that your menu icons are incorporated into the KDE menu under the Office listings.

sudo dpkg -i *.deb

*You will have to redo file associations but that is easy enough to do. Simply right click the file you wish to associate to OpenOffice and select Open With >> Other. Check the box labled "Remember application association for this type of file" and the under the Office Menu listing select the appropriate OpenOffice application for that file type. KDE will then associate the file extension to the correct application and hence forth when you open that file type it will use the OpenOffice application.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's not really true to say that the packages conflict with 2.4. It's only the desktop integration that has a problem.

If you just want to try it out, and don't mind doing so from the command line, then you can have both.

Unknown said...

I will have to disagree as I had several issues prior to doing the steps I entailed in this how to. If you have to use the command line then something is amiss.

Anonymous said...

Very nice tutorial, worked well for me. I did it from the command line. I just like to add, you have to be in the DEBS directory when issuing "sudo dpkg -i *.deb".

Unknown said...

When I said using the command means something is amiss I meant running OpenOffice not installing it. The instructions from mogyweb clearly state DEBS in the CD line. You probably just missed seeing that. I said to copy the deb file in the desktop-integration folder to the DEBS folder (the working directory) though i should have been more clear on that point myself.

Anonymous said...

Thanks... list worked like a charm!

Arun said...

I got these errors?


Preparing to replace openoffice.org3-dict-en 3.0.0-9 (using openoffice.org3-dict-en_3.0.0-9_i386.deb) ...
javaldx: Could not find a Java Runtime Environment!
Unpacking replacement openoffice.org3-dict-en ...
Preparing to replace openoffice.org3-dict-es 3.0.0-9 (using openoffice.org3-dict-es_3.0.0-9_i386.deb) ...
javaldx: Could not find a Java Runtime Environment!



Setting up openoffice.org3-dict-en (3.0.0-9) ...
javaldx: Could not find a Java Runtime Environment!

Setting up openoffice.org3-dict-es (3.0.0-9) ...
javaldx: Could not find a Java Runtime Environment!

Setting up openoffice.org3-dict-fr (3.0.0-9) ...
javaldx: Could not find a Java Runtime Environment!


Errors were encountered while processing:
openoffice.org3.0-debian-menus_3.0-9354_all.deb


Please help. Thanks!
I've installed JRE in "/usr/local/jre1.6.0_10/" and have $JAVA_HOME exported with this value.

I have uninstalled OO 2.4 completely.

Thanks in advance for all the help.

Shivchal

Unknown said...

I checked my Java Install and I do not have the folder you refer to in my '/usr/local/' directory. The problem maybe due the method or package you used to install Java. I use Sun Java 6, which are available in the Ubuntu repositories. use the command "sudo apt-get install sun-java6-bin sun-java6-fonts sun-java6-jre sun-java6-plugin" to properly install Sun's version of Java and the retry installing OpenOffice 3 and see if that corrects your issue.

Anonymous said...

worked perfect for me.
The file associations for OO and MSOffice files are kept without the additional step.

Unknown said...

You got lucky I didn't have the same experience and from what I have gathered most had to redo the associations.

Donnie said...

I had a problem with the menus. The menu package copied and pasted into the working directory would not install due to a conflicting package - secondary I am sure to my inability to root out all 2.4 associations.
I removed the conflicting package with sudo apt-get remove openoffice.org-core which took some other packages as well and seemed to do the trick.
Thanks for this tutorial.

Computer House Calls said...

I truly need help to do this I did what was said but when you use the sudo command where are you?
I am trying to use adept

Unknown said...

You need to open a terminal window and the use the cd command to navigate to the directory the debs are in. Adept will not help you here instead once in the directory use "sudo dpkg -i *.deb" to install OpenOffice.