Mandrake 9.1 + Open Office = Aplication ErrorAborted
 

Hello everybody! I have a question that might be posted a while ago, sorry if I repeat it again, but I still didn't find any solutions or advice. The problem is the following:

I have installed Mandrake Linux 9.1 and Open Office which came in the disribution. After launching any office program I can see a splash screen for a couple of seconds and nothing happens. If I start it from the console, I get "Application ErrorAborted".

The weird thing is that on my notebook I have the same package installed (e.g. Mandrake 9.1 + Open Office) and it works fine. I could not trace a difference (only in hardware configuration, but does this matter in this case?) and find out why one works and the other does not.

I searched the web for the solution, but I have found only the description of the problem (which confirmed, that I'm not the only one having the problem) and no solutions. I'd really appreciate to hear if anyone has already solved the problem! Thank you in advance.

Mandrake sets OpenOffice up in a non-standard way. The following may work but I promise nothing.

Use the Control Centre to uninstall OpenOffice.

Visit www.openoffice.org and download the latest version. Don't worry about it being a tar.gz, the program is self contained and there are no dependencies. I use the 1.1beta and it's fine.

Do the "network" install (even if you have just a standalone computer) as root in a terminal. Then as yourself, do the user install (go to the main OOo folder in a File Manager where the network install was done, something like /usr/local/OpenOfficex.xx and run the setup icon). Install the one which takes up the lower disk space, this just "connects" you as a user to the install you made earlier.

This is the way that OOo is designed to work, and should therefore run better.

No guarantees, mind! Also OOo won't be on your menus. If you are using KDE there is a simple solution: install "oooqs" using Mandrake Control Centre. This will put an icon in your system tray which enables you to launch all OOo functions.

DAVE




DAVE

It works!
 

Thank you! It really works this way!
I have also noticed the following:
If OpenOffice is installed during the instalation of Mandrake - it works fine. But if I install it later from RPM (from the same distro CD) - it won't work, showing the error described above.

If you only did phase one of the tar.gz above and tried to run the network install via a shortcut, it crashes when you try to access the Personal Details page. This is what really brought it home to me that it is far more stable when you run it as a "server" and "terminal" even on the same computer!!

If you do want to put OOo on your KDE Start Menu, you will need to copy the OpenOffice icons from /usr/local/OpenOffice.org644/share/icons to /usr/share/icons (the bit in italics will vary depending precisely on what build of OOo you have).

Then you will have to set up the entries with MenuDrake. All the functions (writer, calc etc) plus the templates (vcard, memo etc) have shell scripts starting with the letter s, so for example program file to run Writer is:

/usr/local/OpenOffice.org644/program/swriter

other self-explanatory links are:

scalc sdraw simpress smath soffice swriter
sagenda sfax slabel sletter smaster smemo svcard sweb

You also need spadmin to help set up fonts for your printer. Unless you want to waste a lot of space on your Hard Drive, set up your Fonts as "Create Soft Links Only".

This is some work, but worth it to get OpenOffice.org running at its best.

DAVE

been having the same problem myself.

i wanted to upgrade when 1.1 came out in non-beta flavor, but on a 28.8k modem i didn't want to download a 60 meg file and find that it wasn't going to work.

glad someone asked this. :)

In the UK Linux Format magazine will probably have it on their coverdisk when the 1.1 final is out. They have already had 1.0.3 and 1.1beta.

www.linuxformat.co.uk

You can subscribe to it from another country.

DAVE