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The only typing I do is the
cd Lib
cd DEBS
sudo dpkg -i *.deb
cd desktop-integration
sudo dpkg -i *.deb [using up arrow till I get to that command]
No long folder or file names if you unpack the folder/files via the GUI file manager and archive package, then rename the folder to "Lib".
I do the same thing for the help packs.
I do as little typing as I can.
Hi 
When you get to the s in desktop-integration try pressing the tab key and watch the rest of the line get put in for you 
I agree with Marc and feel compelled to point out that normally installing stuff is much easier on Gnu&Linux, and safer. It's because we are all trying to do something unusual, something that we wouldn't normally do, that it's getting complicated.
Normally i wouldn't even have to download anything from a website using a web-browser or visit sites i could never entirely be certain of or trust friends or a shop that might not know everything to watch out for. Normally i just open my "Package Manager" instead of a web-browser. Then i tell it roughly what i want. Even if i don't know a name it gives a bunch of choices. I click on one or more of the choices and click the "Install" button. From then on the package manager looks after updating it for me and making sure it doesn't break or get corrupted or anything. It just does the whole job of downloading, installing and updating.
Regards from
Tom
Hi All,
A simple copy and paste works really well!!!!!! No typing necessary. Just make sure you have the file saved as a .txt that you open with GEdit.
When I was new to Linux (Ubuntu) and didn't understand anything about what the system was really doing or about the file structure, OpenOffice was updated, and it wasn't going to be included for Ubuntu users until the next update, which was three or 4 months down the road. I ran across this method as a way to update my OpenOffice without waiting. The same thing took place with the next OpenOffice release. Again I found the updated instructions on the Internet. I still use this as it is easy to update computers. I've installed Ubuntu on about 23 or so. It is also easy for a new person to Ubuntu since they don't have to understand changing directories, etc. Simple extract the download to the desktop, and then copy and paste the three commands into the terminal.
Don
/snip/
This is the Microsoft/Apple/Ubuntu attitude. If you want a nanny, use one of those. What do you do when you need something
that's NOT in your repo? LightScribe, frinstance? You'd better learn how to use either rpm or deb, whichever your system
uses, or you will be smothered by those four walls you have allowed some distro to erect around you!
--doug
There are a variety of ways to install LO for Debian OS's. Some are harder than others, and some are easier.
What no one has mentioned is the use of script files. They will do much of the work for you. Planning how to install the Deb files is important.
If you have LO from your OS, you need to use Synaptic (Step#1 mentioned above.) But this is the only time you need to do this. dpkg (installs the Deb files) writes the new files over the existing files. There is no need to remove them.
Extract the installation folder and always place it in the same location. (This is important for the contents of the script file.)
Example of the script file:
#!/bin/sh
cd /home/dan/Downloads/LO/LibO_3.6.5.2_Linux_x86-64_install-deb_en-US/DEBS/
sudo dpkg -i *.deb
cd desktop-integration
sudo dpkg -i *.deb
This looks like a lot of typing, but it is not really. Besides much of it is used over and over again. The third line is the longest. "cd /home/dan/Downloads/LO/" is the location for the installation folder that you extracted. "LibO_3.6.5.2_Linux_x86-64_install-deb_en-US" is the name of that folder.
I do not like to type long names like the name of the installation folder, so I look for a short cut. I use the file browser (Nautilus) to go to this folder's location, I can right click on the folder and select Properties. There at the top is the folder's name highlighted. Ctrl+C copies the name, and I paste it into the third line. I also erase the name of the previous folder. Another method: erase the number of the previous LO version and type in the new number. In this case, replace 3.6.5.2 with 4.0.0.3.
What this does: installs the Deb files and desktop integration items.
The script file needs to be executable when it was first created. To do this right click the script file, select Properties -> Permissions. Click the box labelled "Allow executing the file as a program."
The location of the script file might be important also.
So actual steps to install 4.0.0.3:
1) Download the file to /home/dan/Downloads/LO/.
2) Extract the downloaded file to the same location.
3) Update the third line of the script file using either method using gedit.
4) In the file browser, double click the script file.
5) Click the button "Run in Terminal".
6) Type your password.
7) Close the terminal.
The first two steps involve only clicks. Step 3 can involve only using the mouse, or typing 4 digits and 3 periods. Only step 6 involves typing with the rest done by mouse clicks.
--Dan
This I also agree with as well. If the scripts fit for everyone. However, there is no sense making installing LibreOffice (the downloaded files) sound so complicated for Linux. You don't really need to know much about installing .deb's or .rpm's other than to "right-click" and the files and picking the right choices. That's all.
In fact, if you are just installing one .deb or .rpm, on most systems, you just have to double-click on the .deb or .rpm file and it will call up the distro's installer. It's just that simple. Just like it is done on Windows.
Cheers,
Marc
I now have the terminal commands in a text document. I keep forgetting the "remove" command's "text". So I just use the package manager to remove the previous version.
Maybe there could be a "sh libre-update.run" type of command made and placed in the archived folder one level up from the DEBS folder. Then all someone needs to so is run one command in the terminal that would do everything else. Make it generic so it would not need changing for every version. Do the same for the RPM installs.
How easy would it be then? run one command that will do everything for you so it would not take any other typing, except your password, to get the Linux versions installed. Windows users get one double clicking of the file, plus the "custom install options", to install LO. Have a simple single line command to remove the old version of LO and install the new one would be really nice.
Still, some Linux users would not like that. It would make my life easier sometimes.
Hi
Tractor's method worked really well for me. For clarity i think i would add
a step in order to be able to reduce the critical 2 lines
1. sudo apt-get remove libreoffice*.*
2. cd ~/Desktop/LibreOffice_4.0.0.3_Linux_x86-64_deb/DEBS
Except that i didn't download to the Desktop. I downloaded to Downloads and
then did
right-click - Extract to here
So, my version of this step was
cd ~/Downloads/LibreOffice_4.0.0.3_Linux_x86-64_deb/DEBS
At around the D or o of Downloads i pressed the Tab key to complete that
word. Then pressed Tab again at the L or i of the next bit to complete that
long bit and then Tab 3rd time just after typing in a capital D to save
myself the effort of typing in the 3 remaining letters there.
3. sudo dpkg -i *.deb
4. cd desktop-integration
Again Tab just after typing in the d at the beginning of "desktop" there
saved me the hassle of typing the rest which helps me avoid the inevitable
tpyos.
5. sudo dpkg -i *.deb
Errr, again i cheated here by just pressing the keyboard's up arrow twice in
order to get back to the 2nd-to-last command i typed in. (one that i did
entirely type in myself for once (well copy&pasted it with the mouse but
same same (oddly keyboard paste doesn't work but mouse paste is always
good)))
6. If using Unity, Open Dash, type Libre and you will see the different
components (Writer, Calc, etc.). Simply drag the icons for them over to
where you wish to have them in the launcher bar.
All worked really nicely and meant i could keep doing ls or dir to see what
was in the folder i was about to do stuff with. Boiling those instructions
down i got
1. sudo apt-get remove libreoffice*.*
2. cd ~/Desktop/LibreOffice_4.0.0.3_Linux_x86-64_deb/DEBS
3. sudo dpkg -i *.deb
4. cd desktop-integration
5. sudo dpkg -i *.deb
6. If using Unity, Open Dash, type Libre and you will see the different
components (Writer, Calc, etc.). Simply drag the icons for them over to
where you wish to have them in the launcher bar.
After doing the cd commands i do a dir or ls to see a list of files in the
folder. Note that steps 3 and 5 were exactly the same command but just done
in different folders. Up arrow cycles through as many old commands as i
could count. Step 2 was the one that people might find is a little
different depending on exactly where you put things. Tab was a real boon in
step 2 but Tim's method of renaming the folder works well too. Dan's idea
of writing a script is a bit too advanced for me but looks well worth giving
a try because it looks like it might well work next time i want to upgrade.
Just double-clicking the script would beat all that messing around.
So, many thanks to all!
Regards from
Tom
Yes, but a newcomer to Linux who wished to install LibreOffice on her/his distro would not know this, and hopefully, would just do what most people would do and unpack the compressed files and double-click the .deb's or .rpm's ... or select all of them - right-click and choose to open with the file manager.
I don't believe we are doing our users any service by suggesting all of these convoluted ways of installing. Let's promote the easy and straight forward. it really simple.
Cheers,
Marc
The only reason you cannot double click any of the .deb files in the install's DEBS folder is the fact that you need to make sure they are all run due to the file dependency issues. They have to be run in a certain order, sort of.
It would be nice to have a double-click script that could be run that way that will run all of the .deb file in the folder, but it is not as easy as that, or that single double-clicking file/script might have been created by now.
So far, needing the terminal to install packages [not all] is a problem for some users who want to switch from Windows. Also, sometimes the double-clicked package installs do not even make a menu or desktop launcher icon, so you have to go into the "bin" or other folder and create your own launcher icon. I had to do that for the Canon Scanning package. It was "/usr/bin/scangearmp" and how many new users to Linux would know how to create a launcher or where the command was stored?
More people might move over to Linux if package were easier to install on Ubuntu, Mint, and others. We all got spoiled on doing a double-click on the install file [.exe or .msi] and it will place the package icon in the menu system [Start] and place a launch icon on the desktop for ease of use. Yes, we got spoiled, but it was easier. I do not know how to add the Canon Scan Gear package to the Ubuntu Applications menu. Wish I did.
Hi
But that is kinda one of the points i was making earlier. The package manager usually does all the installing and maintenance of programs for you. Heck, mostly there are plenty enough programs to do anything you might want right from the get go. It's only when we want to be awkward and try weird things that it can get tricky and that is true of any OS, including Windows.
This thread was not about your cannon printer. Perhaps start a new thread about that as i have a few ideas that would be very off-topic in this thread.
Regards from
Tom
Hi
With most Gnu&Linux's LibreOffice is installed by default so you don't need to install anything unless you really want to make life tricky and go for the cutting-edge. Some have OpenOffice instead but that is still fairly similar and can edit pretty much all the same file formats. (LO added a few extra ones recently). A few have Gnome Office or KOffice/Caligra but again they use the same formats.
So, this thread is really only about getting the cutting-edge 4.0.0
Regards from
Tom
All well and good, but the simple way that you suggest will present problems for the newcomer on Debian OS's. The desktop-integration file will not install if the LO that came with the OS install CD remains: it must be removed. Without doing this, you can not right click on a file and select a LO version to open the file.
We used to use Synaptic to remove an installed program or install a program from the Ubuntu repositories. A few years ago Ubuntu no longer included this package manager when it went to using the Unity desktop. (Synaptic was a part of the gnome desktop package.) In its place, Ubuntu introduced the Ubuntu Software Center. It appears that programs can also be removed using it, but only if they came from the Ubuntu repositories. Right now I have LO 3.6.5.2 and 4.0.0.3 installed from the website. Neither of these are listed in Ubuntu Software Center, so it can not be used to remove them.
I just checked out your first paragraph. What you wrote does not work for installing LO in Ubuntu. (It probably will not work for any of the Debian OS's, but I only have Ubuntu and can not check the others.) The only thing that works is to think about the specific steps that must be followed and determine how to do them either on the command line or using a script. You may want to call these convoluted, but at least they work.
--Dan
Not quite right, Tom. This is about installing LibreOffice on Ubuntu that is downloaded from
http://www.libreoffice.org/download/ or installing Apache OpenOffice (or earlier versions of OO.o) downloading from its website. It is also about including either of these programs present in the Menu or Dash.
--Dan
Thanks for the information Dan. I will install Ubuntu on a spare box and test these out. I for one am for simplifying the notes on the .rpm section and adding a more simplified intallation routine of the 4 steps which do work for users who install the most used default managers as Gnome or KDE managers.
We should also try to find a visual installation routine for our Ubuntu users. The vast majority of users are just interested in using the software. Is some wish to install the latest and the bleeding edge versions, we need to make it an easy install.
We are looking for more contributors in all of our teams and especially QA. IMO, we should try to get our betas/rc's into the hands of users interested in QA who actually use LibreOffice in a productive way. The installation barrier should not become such a burden that such users would cringe at the very thought of installing these pre-release versions. When doing QA, users are often installing newer version of LibreOffice in a very short order of time.
Cheers,
Marc
The one that is in Ubuntu is named - libreoffice4.0-debian-menus_4.0.0-103_all.deb
This is the menu guide "I think" for Debian desktop-integration.
?package(libreoffice-writer):needs="X11" section="Apps/Editors"\
title="LibreOffice 4.0 Writer" command="libreoffice4.0 -writer"\
hints="Word Processors"\
kderemove="y"\
icon="/usr/share/icons/hicolor/32x32/apps/libreoffice4.0-writer.png"\
icon16x16="/usr/share/icons/hicolor/16x16/apps/libreoffice4.0-writer.png"
This is for the RPM version you have. There are 3 different ones in the RPM desktop-integration package.
?package(libreoffice4.0-writer): needs=x11 section="Office/Wordprocessors" icon="libreoffice4.0-writer.png" title="LibreOffice 4.0 Writer" longtitle="LibreOffice 4.0 Word Processing Component" command="libreoffice4.0 -writer" mimetypes="application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.text,application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.text-template,application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.text-web,application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.text-master,application/vnd.sun.xml.writer,application/vnd.sun.xml.writer.template,application/vnd.sun.xml.writer.global,application/vnd.stardivision.writer,application/msword,application/vnd.ms-word,application/x-doc,application/rtf" kde_opt="InitialPreference=100" startup_notify="true"
The problem is not getting it on my desktop or panel, but to get a listing in the Applications menu when the package does not list the package in say "Applications/Office" where it should be listed, but not. I know how to make a launcher icon on the desktop for my Canon Scanner package, but not how to get it in the /Office menu or the /Graphics menu where it should belong. The Canon scanning system will not work with XSane, like my Epson scanner does [since I went to Ubuntu 12.04/12.10].
I think we need to make it as easy as possible for our users [ Windows/Mac/Linux ] to install the newest version of LO to replace the older ones.
I really think it is not Windows vs. Linux, but how we can make it easy for all users, no matter what OS they use. MS has an installer build into the .msi package. We need to do something like that for Linux.
HP has a package like "sh hplip-3.11.3a.run" that is run in the terminal that walks you through the install process for the Linux printing.
There are a lot of complex things going on, including a "make" option in there. How easy would it be to create something like that?
Never heard of 'tab-completion'?
Try hitting the tab key after typing one or two characters of the folder name and see what happens...
Never heard of this. Never know of the Tab completion in the Terminal.
Does it work with the Terminal that is in GNOME, MATE, Unity, KDE? How about the one that comes with openSUSE and other non-Ubuntu systems. I have been told that Debian and Ubuntu is "growing apart" so some distros are showing both Ubuntu-based and Debian-based versions.
What happens when you have two folders that are similar characters, except some difference?
LibreOffice-4.0-installsvs. LibreOffice-3.6-installs?
You would have to make sure you go out till the difference?
I tend to unarchive all of the downloaded file for my version at the same time. For me, that is just the main install and the help pack.
/To be honest, I never really got into doing all that much with the
terminal. I prefer to use a GUI to do the work. There are a very
large amount of things that the terminal can do that I do not know
of, or how to do those things that might help me once and a while. I just never bought or download and GOODand easy to understand
reference to what you can do in the terminal. Of course, there are
different ways to do things in a Ubuntu/Debian system than you would
do the same thing in a openSUSE or RPM system. Different commands
and such. //
//
//I have tried things that others say work for the, but does not
work in my install of Ubuntu. That is one reason I have a laptop
that has a partition that I use to test new versions of Ubuntu and
desktop environments. I do not want to upgrade my 5 TB "production"
desktop and then find that something is not right. I did the
upgrading from 10.04 to 12.04 on the laptop and it worked fine, but
totally crashed on my desktop causing me to need to wipe the system
and do a fresh install. I really did not want to have to reinstall
all of the packages over again, but in the end I had no choice to do
so and move my data files from my external backup drive. That took
days to complete./
SO
I do not experiment with things on the Terminal, or almost never.
I would love to "experiment" and see about creating a script that would automate the install of LO from an earlier versionusing something like "sh libre-update.run" and then have it do the removal of the older version and install the newer one. I could place it in the folderthat contains the "DEBS" folder so it will be version independent. But, if I do something wrong, how bad will it go wrong? So right now I am not going toexperiment that way.
Hi
Tab complete is what i was trying to describe in this thread the other day, possibly yday although it's already nearly tomorrow here so possibly the day before yday.
Works on any unix-based platform so that includes Bsd although possibly not Mac. I've not seen a command-line on a Mac. Also works on the Grub command-line although i try to avoid that even more than the regular command-line as i'm even more clueless there. Point&click rules! (unless you are showing off)
Regards from
Tom