No database option

users
#1

Using LibreOffice 3.5.7.2 on Ubuntu 12.04.

I am working with a ooBasic tutorial. It says to choose File-->New-->Database to create a new database. The problem is there is no Database item on that drop down menu. Also, on the opening screen the Database entry is grayed out.

I actually have a database on my system that I was experimenting with a couple of years ago. If I go to Tools-->Options-->LibreOffice-->Databases it shows there but I can't open it.

Anyone have any idea of what could be wrong and how to enable databases again?

Thanks, Jim

#2

Hi :slight_smile:
You might need to install Base. I think it's the only module that can be
installed separately on Gnu&Linux systems. So something like

sudo apt-get install libreoffice-base

should do the trick on a distro from the debian-family. Please let us know
how this goes!
Good luck and regards form
Tom :slight_smile:

#3

Hi :slight_smile:
You might need to install Base. I think it's the only module that can be
installed separately on Gnu&Linux systems. So something like

sudo apt-get install libreoffice-base

should do the trick on a distro from the debian-family. Please let us know
how this goes!
Good luck and regards form
Tom :slight_smile:

Just checked with Ubuntu's package manager and Base was in fact not installed. Used it to install Base and now the option appears so I should be able to proceed. Sort of surprised as I thought the entire suite had been installed.

Thanks Tom

Regards, Jim

#4

Hi :slight_smile:
Yeh, it surprised me too. In Windows i think the whole suite gets
installed but in Gnu&Linux it's a bit more fine-grained. I think the
Windows version really needs to keep it all as simple as possible but in
Gnu&Linux it's more likely that users are a bit more expert at using
computers and can cope with oddities like that or at least are less scared
of asking questions! Perhaps also Windows users tend to be on higher-spec
machines or at least very unlikely to be attempting to work on some
extremely low spec thing and or desperately streamlining everything for
other reasons.
Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

#5

Hi Jim,

Just checked with Ubuntu's package manager and Base was in fact not
installed. Used it to install Base and now the option appears so I
should be able to proceed. Sort of surprised as I thought the entire
suite had been installed.

Ubuntu, in its infinite wisdom, decided not to install Base by default
along with the other modules - quite why, I have no idea, but this is
not LibreOffice's fault, unfortunately. I agree that it is most
frustrating however, especially when, as a continuous user of previous
versions, the default meta packet install did put Base in there for you.
Go figure.

Alex

#6

Alex,

Thanks for the info. It clears up another thing that was bothering me. How did a DB file get on my machine if Base was not installed?

I started using Ubuntu at at around 9.04 or 9.10 and did a distribution upgrade to 10.04. So at this point Base was installed and I must have created the DB file. When I went to 12.04 I decided to do a clean install. I popped in a new hard drive and installed 12.04 and slowly transfered stuff from the 10.04 hard drive. I must have transfered that DB file at that time.

Regards, Jim