I just switched over from Windows to Linux a few weeks ago and am trying to get the hang of it. I am trying to install open office 2.0 - so i download the .tar.gz file from the web site into my home directory - then i move it into a temp directory and extract the files which creates a folder OOO680_m3_native_packed-2_en-US.8968. If i go into that folder there are three subfolders "licenses", "readmes" and "RPMS". If i go into the RPMS folder there are a bunch of icons which end in ***.rpm and a subfolder "desktop-intergration". However I cant find anything to actually start installing the program. What is the instalation procedure once you have unzipped the downloaded file ?

Thanks for your help

Change into the directory called RPMS. Use the command (as root):
Then change into the "desktop-integration" subdirectory, and use the above command again. If all goes well, OO should be installed, and you should even get icons in the menu.

I hope this helps
--Ian

Your distro probably includes packages for OpenOffice.org, which would probably be better to use.

Huh??---if he wants the real v2 release, it may well NOT be in the distro.

One tweak to the other instruction----go into the desktop integration directory and copy out the one that applies to your distro. Then, back in the rpm directory, just do:

rpm -i *

That **should** be it.

But wait--do you have an rpm-based distro?? if not, find how to convert rpms---eg on Ubuntu/Debian, its "alien"

ok I followed those steps and it says....

"can not get exclusive lock on var/lib/rpm/packages"
"can not open packages index using db3 - operation not peritted (1)"
can not open packages database in var/lib/rpm"

????

you have to run that command as root.

$> su
Password:
#> rpm -i *

ok i run the command in the RPMS folder and that works, but when i run it in the "desktop integration" folder I get

"Failed Dependencies"
mandrake release is needed by open office.org-mandriva menus 2.0.0-3
/etc/SuSE-release is needed by openoffice.org-suse menus 2.0.0-3

You don't want to install all the "desktop integration rpms" you only want to install the one specific to your distro. I'm not sure if there is a centos rpm there.

I am a newbie and this is elementary dumb but how do you change into the directory rpms?

Same as in DOS, cd <directory>.

There is a little guide I wrote in this thread.

this worked real well! reddazz spent a lot of time on that thread for me and just so you know, some stuff is getting easier. Read all you can.