Hi, I've tried to install OpenOffice a few times now. All with the same result: only root can open the OpenOffice programs.

If i try, as a normal user, to open one of the OpenOffice programs by clicking an icon nothing really happens. If try to start it at the command line I get this:

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Installation of OpenOffice.org 1.1.1 failed:
'LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/ooo-1.1:/usr/lib/ooo-1.1/program /usr/lib/ooo-1.1/program/setup -R:/etc/openoffice/autoresponse.conf -v -nogui >& ~/.openoffice-install-log'
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I've looked at the openoffice logs in my home directory but they're all empty.

I've tried to install it using apt-get /synaptic and the add/remove programs menu choice which then asks for my Fedora Core 2 CDs. Everytime it's the same result - and it's a little annoying that I have to su in order to start oowriter.

Did you try installing it as a normal user and then opening the program? OpenOffice installed perfectly for me under a normal user, and then it should open fine

uninstall it.
go to the openoffice.org site and download the linux version to your home directory.
untar (is it tar.gz? not sure) openoffice download.
cd into the openoffice directory.
cd into programs within the openoffice directory
./setup
and install it to your user's home directory.

that's the way i do it at least. if you don't like it being installed in the user's home, i'm not quite sure of another way, but an LQ search should get you that solution.

lol. or what rm6990 said...

Well, I have tried that. But when I do an apt-get install on it, it complains about permission denied. It just occured to me when writing this post that maybe I should use that chmod command on it so I can apt-get the rpm as a normal user? (yes, i'm new at this).

Thanks.

Yes I've thought about that and I'm very close to doing just that. It just annotys me that I can't get a working install using apt-get because it's obvious that I'm doing something wrong. But I'll try to look into that chmod thing so I can install the RPM as a normal user. If that doesn't pan out I'll go to the openoffice.org site and go from there.

Thanks for the advice.

OK I just can't get it to work. I've tried yum, apt-get, Add/Remove Software all with the same result: The OO programs can only be started by root.

Anyway I think I'll just go to OO's site and download it from there. ARghhh.

That's strange, I used to use Fedora Core 2 and it worked fine for me, never a problem. I used OpenOffice all the time. Maybe an installation bug caused it or something.

Maybe you should give SOT Office 2003 a try. It is built on top of OpenOffice (1.1.1 I believe) but it has a lot of nice add-on features. The only thing that sucks about it is that you have to download an iso image and burn it to cd. After than, insert it and go into /mnt/cdrom/Linux/RPMS/ and then install the rpm for english. Then, at a terminal window type SOTOffice2003.sh and this will start an install program, which will install about 2 MB of data into your home directory (this is better because if you have multiple users on your system you don't need to install 200 MB of data into each home folder). Then, either make an icon or again type SOTOffice2003.sh at a terminal and SOT Office will open. SOT is way better for making Impress Presentations than Open Office, as it includes way more templates and other tools. The only bad thing about it is I don't know whether development is continuing or not. I hope it is as I use it more often than OpenOffice.