Hello. I wanted to get the latest British version of OpenOffice.org (available at the time of this writing, with other versions as well, at
http://www.openoffice.org/download/other.html. Initially I just downloaded it, and ran the set-up program provided. This seemed to work, but I couldn't start it -- there were no menu items, and the file "soffice" had not been created ("soffice" being the command that starts it). So, this was a failure.
What did work was to download the the Linux Intel RPM version (available at openoffice.org/download), decompress it, find the RPMS directory, and convert every rpm file in this directory into a tgz file. It's best to just move all these files into one directory, and then with a terminal go into the directory and run the command
rpm2tgz *.rpm. Then within this directory remove all the rpm files with
rm *.rpm. Now you will be left with just tgz files, all in the same directory. So, install these as root with the command
installpkg *.tgz. Now, OpenOffice.org will be installed, and you should see the menus for it (listed under Menu/Office). Also, pressing Alt+F2, and entering "soffice" will bring it up.
Make sure java is working by going to Tools/Options/java. If you see nothing listed, press your mouse in the space, and it should list the java that is installed on your machine (make sure via Gslapt you have jre installed (as of this writing, it's version 7u3-i586-1vl70). If you see it, select it. Restart OpenOffice.org, and java should work. The OpenOffice.org download may come with its own jre package. If when checking Gslapt you notice that you have two jre packages installed, it may be a good idea to remove the earlier one.
To recap:
- Download and decompress the OOo (rpm brand) file of your choice from http://www.openoffice.org/download/other.html
- Find the RPMS directory and put all the rpm files from here in one directory (note: within this directory there is another directory entitled "desktop-integration" which has some additional rpms that also need to be installed), and convert all of them to tgz files in one swoop with the command "rpm2tgz *.rpm"
- remove the rpm files from the directory, leaving only the tgz files, and in one swoop, install all of them with the command "installpkg *.tgz"
- install the Vector jre package (currently 7u3-i586-1vl70), and then check to make sure java is working in OpenOffice.org by checking Tools/Options/java from the OOo menu. Check "use a java runtime environment" box there. The installed java should appear in the area there for you to select (if not, just click the area with your mouse, and then it should appear). Restart OOo
PS, As of June 2012, the most recent version of OOo is 3.4. But the language choices given with this newest version are limited. So, if your desired language is not available in the most recent release, then possibly you could find your desired language in a relatively recent release from
http://download.services.openoffice.org/files/localized/. The recent jre (currently 7u3-i586-1vl70) does work with OOo 3.4.
PPS, if you're upgrading from an older release, you may have to remove your user directory, which is the hidden file at /home/
user/.openoffice.org/3/user, to get dictionaries working properly. Also, first remove the older OOo release you have installed. Use a terminal and, as root, go to the directory where you have the tgz files from a previous installation of OOo, and run the command "removepkg *.tgz" on them. Then install the newer OOo as described above.
