I am trying to install Open Office. I downloaded it OK.
Somehow I used gzip, gunzip, or something to unpack it. Finally I tried to install it using dpkg. I copied the command from some reference on the the web. I believe it was dpkg -i en-US. The installation chugged away for quite a while.

Now what? As a Windows user, I expected a shortcut (link) on my desktop. No such luck. Using hints from the internet, I finally found stuff in the \opt\OpenOffice...\program directory.

There was a file called soffice.bin and another called swriter.bin. Holy Batman, that must be it. I clicked on them, nothing. I used the terminal, got to the directory and typed ./soffice I got a message that "GCLIBC_2.11 was missing" This looks like it is trying to compile something.

Help where did I go wrong??

Why don't you just use your distributions package manager to install it from the official repositories? This way the software is guaranteed to work and you will get proper menu entries.

most prorgrams designed for users (not a library or codec anything), are suppose to have their own command to invoke its startup. Some are pretty intuitive, some are not.
What you do is you:
And search for its initiator command. I remember my open office was "ooolight1.0", but with the 1.0, I am not really convinced that you have the same.
Ted

openoffice for me has always been "oo" followed by something intuitive. Such as "oowriter" for the word processor, "oocalc" for the spreadsheet program, "ooimpress" for the presentation program, etc. That is assuming it's been installed correctly.

I second TobiSGD's suggestion. While doing that, if you have doubts in this (package manager etc) please post here with details about your hardware specs, distro, windowing environment and people can guide you through it.

Further information.

You are correct. soffice.bin etc are the executables.

GCLIB or GLIBC? (GCLIB is also a dll on windows).

Try this - read it fully - if GLIBC (first result on google)
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=9463555

OK

What distro and desktop environment/window manager are you using?

Different ones have different ways for adding items to the menu. If you install from your distro's repositiories, KDE, Gnome, XFCE, and some others will automatically add items to the menu.

For some of the other, lighter-weight environments/window managers, items need to be added to the menu with a menu editor or a text editor. How to do this can differ from one environment to another, but there is always a way to do it.

Generally (this is very much a generalization), Linux does not place icons on the desktop as promiscuously as Windows does; doing so usually requires positive user action. Some environments support desktop icons; lighter-weight ones may not.

If you can find the OpenOffice components using the ls command (ls /usr/bin/oo* would be a good start), you should be able to add it to the menu using the menu editing method appropriate for your environment. (Edit: Once you find them, you can test them by starting them directly from the command line in a terminal.)

Linux is not windows


1) what operating system is this ?
2) what version of this unknown OS is it ?
3) why not use your package manager ?
one of the OO's should be installed by default
"GoOffice"
"LibreOffice"
"OpenOffice"
"KOffice"

the "desktop is mostly for looks
and a few launchers for some everyday things ( like firefox)

look at the menu for whatever DE you are using
Gnmoe3
KDE4
xfce
lxde
cinnamon
???????

IF you installed the SECOND REQUIRED set of packages ( in the zip folder) for "Desktop integration"
-- there are TWO sets of programs to install ( see the included install instructions )
and just what instructions from the web ??
Were they even for your operating system ?

why not fallow the instructions in the install documents that ARE INCLUDED

OK. I took the common opinion that I should use the package manager. For the record this Debian. I don't even know how to find the version, but the cd was labeled devcdl6R.300

Anyway, I cd'd to the root and typed:

apt-get install openoffice.org

The system checked dependencies, reported that I needed 319 MB and asked permission to proceed. Fine with me. It then got multiple pages of errors all like this:

Err: http://mirror.kernel.org stable/main dicitionaries-common Error 404 File not found

I used Opera to go to mirror.kernel.org without any trouble so the Ethernet/modem/etc is funcitonal.
I can do this by name as well as by IP Address. I do get an error if I add the part past the .org, i.e. stable/main dictionaries-common. This seems funny TCP syntax to me, but what do I know.

Before running the install command update the package database with After that try it again.

a single install CD ?

guessing it is a live cd
well what did you install ?
http://www.debian.org/distrib/netinst
or did you NOT install this operating system

office will not be on a tiny , less than 700 meg cd .

do you not wave an internet connection on this computer ?

a "liveCD" will have almost no additional programs on it
everything needs to fit into less than 700 meg
it dose not have the space that a 4.6 Gig install DVD has

also what version of Debian is this ?

also for OO
this is the version you installed ( or tried to )
"Apache_OpenOffice_incubating_3.4.1_Linux_x86-64_install-deb_en-US.tar.gz"

http://sourceforge.net/projects/open...ar.gz/download

you need the "deb" version for debian

That 404 is unexpected. In your menu, there should be an entry for Software Sources near the entry for Synaptic, the package installer. Run it and make sure that Debian is actually set to use a repository and not the CD.

If the sources were set to the CD it would complain that there is no package openoffice. You only get the 404 when it tries to download a package that does not exist, most likely because the package database is outdated and points to a package that does not exist anymore (replaced by a different version).

Installing packages from a tarball is not foolproof, and should be a last resort. You should always use the package manager. Debian is very much a roll-your-own distribution, especially if you install from one of the minimal versions. If you are not a Linux expert, a distro like Mint, Xubuntu, or Mepis might work better for you if it's a Debian-based distro you're after. Libre Office will be installed automatically or if it isn't, easy to install without all these issues.

Thanks everyone.

TobiSGD's suggestion that I update the OS (apt-get update) and try again, did the trick.

I should have explained that this is not a standard PC that I am using. It is a PC-104 board which will ultimately be used for a special-purpose terminal. I received the OS CD as part of the package that I obtained from the board manufacturer. Apparently, they did not give me the latest stuff.

Just to clarify that: will not update the OS, it will only update the package database.
Usually Debian (and other distributions) install CD will not contain the latest updates, this is normal.