Open/Libre Office installation

[fronclynne]

I suspect that stateful protocols don't work well on 802.11b with lots of traffic

Two questions comes to mind:
- should I uncompress those files?

No, the build process will take care of that, as long as it finds the file it needs.

- do they need to be downloaded on the same computer as I'm installing. I'm working through telnet to make it easy and use wget, but obviously that is not possible with the java site clickthroughs. It will be the same IP but would it make a difference?

Nope, it doesn't really care where the file comes from as long as the checksum and contents are correct. I've been doing that a lot with a couple of unbunutu machines: just rsync-ing /var/cache/apt/archives/*.deb from machine to machine, instead of pulling it down multiple times (wireless with 802.11b and 802.11g clients on the same AP seems to make nfsd(8) flake out a lot, but maybe it's just that this AP stinks).

 

[Deleted member 9563]

Using the correct commands would be a good place to start:
. . .
Don't just blindly type Linux commands and expect them to work on FreeBSD.

Hehe, I have no idea what the linux command would be. However, thanks for the info! That is very hard to find. I spent over an hour on net searches on how to start OOffice. It seems that no one does that themselves and if they did, apparently didn't live to tell about it.

OOo 3.0, 3.1, and 3.2 all work on my FreeBSD systems, all installed via packages, from the OOo website and from killasmurf86' site.

Good to know. Perhaps I should try the package from killasmurf86's site again. I didn't realize where I was before and that it was his site. (Very nice of him to do that, btw.)

PS: I am not yet familiar with "job numbers" etc. Bear in mind that this machine has nothing running on it yet. It is a new install and I'm just trying to get OOo on it to make sure that will work. Also, it seems that the slowdown was actually download speeds of sub 50Kbps. On a 1.5MB line, I don't know what I can do about that.

 

[Deleted member 9563]

I didn't notice that it was asking for me to download different files the second time. There are still errors, but it does look like I am getting closer. There is one file that I don't know how to get however. It sends me to http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/index.html to get tzupdater-1_3_29-2010f.zip, however the site only appears to offers 1.3.33 - not 1.3.29. What should I do?

 

[phoenix]

Save yourself a lot of trouble and don't bother trying to compile OpenOffice. You need 2 GB of RAM, and 10 GB of disk space (or something ridiculous like that) in order to do so.

Just use the binary packages.

Then run the binary to start it (see the output of # pkg_info -Lx openoffice|grep bin). Easy-peasy. Done.

It's 3 steps: download, pkg_add, run.

 

[Deleted member 9563]

I finally got it to start compiling by getting the right file. I found a post which explained the problem. http://forums.freebsd.org/showthread.php?t=17409 Apparently the maintainers want you to use an outdated file, but don't explain how to disable that requirement by going to /usr/ports/java/jdk16 and typing "make config" and then unselecting tzupdate. I wonder how people find out about this stuff. It sure took me a while - and a lot of frustration. The machine is chugging away right now and it looks like it might work.

Regarding ram, I don't think 8GB is too little - but we'll see. As to using packages, I don't know how to get that working either. I have installed lots of packages on FreeBSD and it is as easy as you say. There is no working package on the FreeBSD site that I can find. Yes, it lists it, but that is irrelevant to the reality that I experienced. The other repository provided by killasmurf86 is well hidden on the net and I only found it because it was mentioned earlier in this thread. The package does not work on this machine.

It's 3 steps: download, pkg_add, run.

Wish that worked. Could it be that the 64 bit versions are still a bit experimental?

 

[phoenix]

Wish that worked. Could it be that the 64 bit versions are still a bit experimental?

What doesn't work? What error messages do you get? What command, exactly, are you running?

 

[Deleted member 9563]

I'm not going to stop the compiling process now. If compiling doesn't work (but it looks like it might) then I will go back and try some package.

What I already did was go to the directory where I put the package and then type:

pkg_add OOo_3.2.1_FreeBSD81X86-64_install_en-US.tbz

Nothing happened. It just didn't work. There is no OOo. I can't find it anywhere on the drive and none of the commands suggested earlier did anything. I don't recall what, if any, error message showed up, but it was basically a non-event. This has not been the experience I've had with all the other packages that I have installed on other machines over the last year, although I normally use the -r switch. Packages have just worked and I find it a quick and painless process. OOo however is a pain.

 

[wblock@]

I'm not going to stop the compiling process now. If compiling doesn't work (but it looks like it might) then I will go back and try some package.

What I already did was go to the directory where I put the package and then type:

pkg_add OOo_3.2.1_FreeBSD81X86-64_install_en-US.tbz

Nothing happened. It just didn't work. There is no OOo. I can't find it anywhere on the drive and none of the commands suggested earlier did anything. I don't recall what, if any, error message showed up, but it was basically a non-event.

% su -
# pkg_add OOo_3.2.1_FreeBSD81X86-64_install_en-US.tbz
# exit
% rehash
% openoffice.org-3.2.1

See http://forums.freebsd.org/showthread.php?t=17309 for how to capture a session to a file.

 

[Deleted member 9563]

Thanks for that idea wblock. I might need it later.

OK. It looks like OOo compiled, and the executables are in /usr/local/bin so I can put them in a fluxbox menu. Which I did - and it works! Well that was quite a journey. Thanks to everyone who helped me with this - especially sk8harddiefast.

That wouldn't have been so bad to compile if I had known what I was doing and what to expect. It was a few hours, but a big package. I guess most things would be smaller and quicker.

 

[phoenix]

I'm not going to stop the compiling process now. If compiling doesn't work (but it looks like it might) then I will go back and try some package.

What I already did was go to the directory where I put the package and then type:

pkg_add OOo_3.2.1_FreeBSD81X86-64_install_en-US.tbz

Nothing happened.

Or nothing showed onscreen? pkg_add just untars the package and registers it under /var/db/pkg but won't show any messages if there are no errors installing. To see what it does, just add -v.

It just didn't work. There is no OOo. I can't find it anywhere on the drive and none of the commands suggested earlier did anything. I don't recall what, if any, error message showed up, but it was basically a non-event.

Well, without any more information, it's pretty hard to diagnose what the issue is.

Glad to see you got it working eventually.

 

[Deleted member 9563]

Or nothing showed onscreen? pkg_add just untars the package and registers it under /var/db/pkg but won't show any messages if there are no errors installing. To see what it does, just add -v.

That's a great hint. I'll try to get into the habit of that.

Well, without any more information, it's pretty hard to diagnose what the issue is.

Sorry, I wasn't actually looking to diagnose my original problem but rather though I should start over and ask for the best way to accomplish the installation. In retrospect, I should probably have tried to use a package but the way it went did provide a learning experience so all is good. My next problem is why does Firefox crash, but I'll start another thread.

BTW: you live pretty close to me. I didn't think there was anyone within a hundred miles who had any knowledge of computers. Drop by next time you go south. http://nethop.net/~ole

 

[jgh@]

Great! It was the "Remove tzupdate flag" that I didn't get or understand. Now this part appeared to work. Woot!

I'll follow the rest of your instructions and report back.

You also placed the file in the wrong directory. It says to put the file in /usr/ports/distfiles/.

 

[Deleted member 9563]

You also placed the file in the wrong directory. It says to put the file in /usr/ports/distfiles/.

Oh right, nice catch. That was just a typo, or more correctly a "cutnpasteo". I don't think it would work the other way. After these problems I replaced the failing ram, reinstalled the OS, and the program subsequently installed normally. Thanks anyway.