Slackware 12.0 openoffice install problem/fix
 

Fellow slackers,
Recently i downloaded openoffice 2.3 and happily
ran the installer and to my dismay it baulked after extracting all the rpm's complaining with various errors such as
/bin/sh not installed
/usr/bin/grep not installed

I only spent a little time wondering why i was getting these absurd errors. and, as i looked in the install directory and saw all the rpm's sitting there in RPMS
what i did next was this
i removed any rpm's that had anything like mandriva etc in their name and typed
then waited untill all the rpm's were turned into tgz's
and then su to root and typed
this installed all the packages into /opt/openoffice.org2.3
and because i do not have that in my path to run i just type
/opt/openoffice/swriter or whatever and all is well.
It actually turned out to install nicer than the crusty java installer.
This probably wont help anyone but just on the off chance it does i thought i would mention it.

Just use the slackbuild at http://slackbuilds.org/repository/12...penoffice.org/

It does everything you need with the official openoffice binary rpm.

Yeah, what shadowsnipes said. I wrote the build script at SlackBuilds.org, and I use it to create a binary package that I make available for others in case you're interested - see the links in my signature.

...............................

I too can recommend Robby Workman's Slackbuild script. However, if you want to install a non-English (ie multi-language) version of OOo, there's another, very comfortable option, that I used for my last two installations without any problems.

http://www.slacky.eu/index.php?optio...4006&Itemid=56

When install this .tgz package, you are asked which language you want to use. Then the OOo version you like is downloaded (!) and installed. It couldn't be simpler.

gargamel

Read the README file that's distributed as part of the script tarball (and is displayed on the page at http://slackbuilds.org/repository/12...penoffice.org/) and look at the build script itself (it's commented very well). Pay particular attention to the patch that works around a bug in Xfce, bu there are other things too.

At risk of sounding a bit arrogant, you have two choices: You can either use rpm2tgz and get lots of sub-packages that are built like OpenOffice.org wants them to be built, or you can use the script from SlackBuilds.org (or get my package made from it) and get a package constructed by someone who is verifiably familiar with Slackware's packaging process and standards. It's up to you.

You might find this interesting... :)
From http://slackbuilds.org/slackbuilds/1...org.SlackBuild:

Thanks, I was, of course, aware of this. ;-)
And, as I said more than a couple of times, I do like your scripts. But the OOo-multilang package from Slacky.eu doesn't even require to edit a config file, or to download OOo manually. It just does everything for you, only asking for the language. It is so damn comfortable that I use it despite the fact there is an rworkman SlackBuild script ;-), and although its behaviour is totally non-standard. In this case the non-conformance is totally to the advantage of the user.

Of course, I have used your script before, and it worked flawlessly, too. So, as I said in my post, I do recommend your script, too.

Friends? ;-)

gargamel

Of course :)

I'm all for using the right solution for the problem, and if that solution isn't mine, then so be it. In fact, in your shoes, I'd almost certainly use the one from slacky.eu as well.

Another great example is the scripts that Eric Hameleers has online - his do much the same thing in the context of downloading the source and such. Totally "non-standard" for *my* way of doing things, but completely standard for his way. Neither is inherently better or worse - just different. I use quite a few of his offerings myself for the sake of convenience - after all, I trust his work as much as (if not more than) I trust mine :-)

Hi:

Hey thanks for that build script, it made my life a lot easier!

Andrew

rworkman, quick question what is the XFCE bug related to OpenOffice Install? Running Xfce in slackware12 is a ongoing struggle, considering switching to Vector or Ubuntu? Will see if I can learn enough to install some software and compile my huge.smp kernel? Anyway have been wanting to install OpenOffice in Xfce, so whats the bug I have to pay attention to? Appreciate all your work.

From the build script:
Here's an example of what the patch is doing:
Essentially, xfdesktop's menu implementation doesn't handle the "-base" or any other "-option" command properly; see the bug report for a full description of what it does. To fix it in Xfce would require deep code changes, and since 4.4.x is a stable series, it's simply not going to happen. They're working on a completely rewritten menu system for 4.6, but that's way down the road still. In the meantime, we work around the bug.

Notice that the menu entries are changed to just call "app" - for example, "sbase" as given above. To make this work, I add symlinks in /usr/bin to each of the actual binaries.

I don't understand why it's a struggle. It's a fairly minimal (compared to kde) environment, but plenty full-featured for my tastes. If it's not enough for you, then use something else - don't try to fit a round peg into a square hole.

Why would you want to compile a new kernel? Unless you can explain *why* you need to compile your own kernel, you almost certainly do *not* need to do so - use the provided generic-smp kernel (yes, create an initrd for it by following /boot/README.initrd).

Don't get me wrong - I think everyone should compile at least *one* good working custom kernel sooner or later, if only to know how it's done. However, I do not think compiling a custom kernel should be looked at as a "must do" thing or even as some "magic solution" to all sorts of problems, as many seem to think it is. For the vast majority of users, the stock kernel(s) will work just fine, and you save yourself a *lot* of heartache and headache by using them.

See above; thanks! :)

WMs, which I have seen in descending order of complexity:

1)KDE or Gnome
2)CDE probably (but now probably too old for most people)
2)Xfce
3)Enlightenment
4)*boxes (fluxbox, blackbox, ratbox, etc..)
5)*wm (WindowMaker, twm, fvwm2, fvwm95, etc...)

rworkman and Alien_Homnid, thanks..reason I am thinking kernel compile is because I just have a little old box: SY6ba+IV mobo, HPT366, PIII 600e, 640mb crucial, Dualboot 2-ATA 100 Segate 160gb slackware12, win98, cdrom, cdrw, modem blaster flash 56II, Eth0, 2WireGateway,Yamaha YMF 724F sndcrd, ATI Rage128 Pro Ultra AGP 32mb; running the huge.smp kernel and all I need is a safe stable desktop to run file/web server for XP and a mac..
I have had a difficult time with Xfce - permissions, getting xserver, sound, printer. Its all so time intensive learning linux just to get it to a productive level. None of this OS software and application installation is straight forward. I would like to migrate My Documents and Firefox bookmarks from win98 but truth is firefox and win98 at this point run faster than my current slackware12, xfce setup. I was thinking a kernel recompile would be a way to trim the excess modules given my hardware requirement and speed everything up too? Thanks again for your hard work.

Bah, to setup file/web server I only needed less than 5 minutes after installation. And you don't need x. You enable apache (rc.httpd) and mysqld (rc.mysqld) when installing slack (choosing services). That's the place where you should have selected cups. Later you need to edit several conf files and that's all. To get a service starting at boot time, you need to:

you need to be root, cause you give executable flag to the service

if you need to stop starting at boot: