Installing OpenOffice from source
Forum: Apps
Topic: Installing OpenOffice from source
started by: I went to bed very late
Posted by I went to bed very late on Sep. 09 2004,10:14
Can you help me installing OpenOffice from source?I ve the source package on my hdd and do not know how to install it. I read I have to compile it with "gcc" (I think gcc is not included in DSL) or "tcc" but that s all I know about it.
Posted by I went to bed very late on Sep. 10 2004,13:03
You do not want to talk to me, then I talk to myself!!!I ve done it.
But it is very very slow, much slower than under win98SE.
Did I a mistake during the installation?
The start up time is okay but when typing some letters, the system begins to swap to the HDD.
Posted by ke4nt1 on Sep. 10 2004,17:24
Openoffice recommends 386MB ram for operation.The Openoffice.uci cloop mounted version in the repository uses much less ram.
73
ke4nt
Posted by cbagger01 on Sep. 10 2004,21:05
FYI,A precompiled open office myDSL extension already exists in the repository.
If you use the openoffice.uci extension, you can run it without requiring a large amount of free RAM.
Did you compile your Open Office as part of a full hard disk installed version of DSL or did you run it from livecd/frugal/poormans?
Posted by I went to bed very late on Sep. 13 2004,10:50
I unpacked the file OO.tar.gz which I got through the web. Then I typed install, then setup. I wondererd it started because it is the only app which I was able to install ("no cc found").I did not use any ./configure commands or things like that.
You are right. It is very slow because it needs a lot of RAM.
I have a hd-install, so I think the .dsl version will not work properly.
It would be very fine to get OO working.
I am going to download the OO.dsl file. How can I get it installed without a network connection. There is apt-get but I do not know how to use it.
Is apt-get the tool I need to install .dsl files?
Posted by reidar on Sep. 13 2004,11:28
You can use the OO.dsl for a hd-install also, I've done it myself and I believe it works just fine. What you can do if you don't have a network connection is to download the .dsl-file open emelfm and click on the myDSL-button (in the center, top). You can also do it manually, which I do since I have a hd-install of dsl 0.7. Then you copy the .dsl-file to / (root directory), rename it from .dsl to .tar.gz (.dsl is actually tar.gz really, I believe) and do 'tar -zxvf OO.tar.gz' in a prompt (you probably have to be root), and ... voila!There are probably also lots of other ways of doing it, but the above-mentioned ones work for me at least.
-r
Posted by I went to bed very late on Sep. 13 2004,11:34
This really sounds easy. I am going to try this out.Do you know something about the disadvantages of the .dsl files when using with a hd-install?
Posted by reidar on Sep. 13 2004,11:43
I have used .dsl files for my hd-install, and they work just fine. I am not really sure if there are any disadvantages. If you use apt-get you might get the more updated programs of course. (OO.dsl is OO version 1.1.0 I think?) I have a hd-install of dsl, and I don't have network connection on that computer, so I have therefore downloaded and used .dsls (as I explained), and I have also downloaded a set of sarge cds. I then do apt-cdrom add, and apt-get install all the progs I want. Works fine!
-r
Posted by guest on Sep. 13 2004,11:49
You can download a pre-compiled from openoffice.org (NO compiling requiered)i run a poorman´s install ( that is its like livecd but the compresed rootfs is not on cd but hd)
i have a linux partition (hda7) just to store things.
this is what i did ( i needed a dutch version):
download OOo_1.1.2_LinuxIntel_instal_nl.tar.gz
extract to linuxpartition /OOo-instalatie
run setup -net ( from /OOo-instalatie )
make symlink in /opt to /openoffice1.1.2 on linuxpartition
add: /opt/openoffice1.1.2 /home/dsl/OpenOffice.org1.1.2 /home/dsl/.sversionrc and home/dsl/.mime.types to filetool.lst
then run spadmin from /home/dsl/OpenOffice.org1.1.2
it takes some reading and experimenting, but thats the way you get things done.
now i am a happy OpenOffice user.
Posted by I went to bed very late on Sep. 13 2004,11:55
Do you think OO is faster when using it as .dsl file.The OO source was very very slow and very much slower than under Win98SE.
A lot of people say in comparison to the OO from source the OO.dsl needs less RAM.
That is a contradiction because at the following homepage there is an information the OO.dsl needs 384MB RAM.
< ftp://ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/distributions/damnsmall/mydsl/index.html >
Posted by guest on Sep. 13 2004,12:03
the OO.dsl needs this much ram because it copies all of the oo package in ram. if you use the .uci the oo package is mounted ( use very little memory)there is NOTHING you can do to make OO start faster but buy a real fast computer
at startup OO loads a LOT of libraries. this takes time.
Posted by cbagger01 on Sep. 13 2004,12:07
oo.dsl needs 384MB of RAM, IF YOU ARE RUNNING FROM LIVECD.It needs the 384MB to create a ramdisk for the *.dsl file contents.
This is not true if you are adding oo to a hd-installed system.
However, I would not expect to see a big increase in performance because your original (from source) OpenOffice was also installed to your hard disk.
I would still give it a try. Can't hurt to try.
Posted by reidar on Sep. 13 2004,12:09
OO.dsl needs a lot of RAM if you use run it from live-cd, but is it really so if you install OO.dsl on a hd-install? My impression is that OO.dsl is faster on my machine than if I install openoffice using apt-get for instance. I haven't really tested this thoroughly, but I have done hd-install of dsl and installed OO.dsl, and another time done a hd-install of dsl on the same computer but then installing openoffice via apt-get. My impression (which is not more than an impression of course) is that OO.dsl is faster. I run dsl hd-installed on a computer with 56MB ram, and running OO is of course slow, but perfectly doable. I prefer lighter apps like abiword and especially ted though, for that computer at least.
-r
Posted by reidar on Sep. 13 2004,12:10
Ops. You already answered the question while I was typing, cbagger. Thanks.-r
Posted by I went to bed very late on Sep. 13 2004,12:20
What is .uci? Is it a part of Mydsl?@cbagger01
I ll give it a try.
@reldar
My computer has 48MB RAM. The startup time is not a problem. The main problem is every time I press the keyboard to begin writing the computer starts to swap.
Why is OO on your system with 56MB RAM doable and not doable on my system
@guest
What are your system specs?
Posted by guest on Sep. 13 2004,12:29
p4@1.6Ghz 256MbSystem Requirements
GNU/Linux ("Linux")2
>> * Pentium-compatible PC or higher
* Linux kernel 2.2.13 or higher, glibc2 2.1.3 or higher
>> * 64 MBytes RAM recommended
* 250 Mbytes hard disk space
* X Server with minimum display 800x600, 256 colours
do jou meet >>?
what do you expect?
Posted by reidar on Sep. 13 2004,12:30
Hmm, I am not sure why it is doable on my system and not yours to be honest. I must admit that I really don't use it much though (on that computer that is!). I prefer ted for word-processing, gnumeric for spreadsheets and magicpoint for presentations. They are all much faster than openoffice. With ted you can print you files as ps-documents and convert them to pdf with ps2pdfwr, which is already part of dsl. If you install antiword you will be able to deal with M$-word documents as well. You can view them, convert them to .txt (which you can work with in ted) or .ps, which you can convert to pdf again if you like. At least on a smaller system like yours (and like mine) you should really consider using other apps than openoffice!-r
Posted by I went to bed very late on Sep. 13 2004,12:36
well I think I really should kick OO from my hd and use another app instead.My new project which will blow up the forum the next time will be the "adventurous experience with abiword".
thanks for your knowledge. greats c
Posted by cbagger01 on Sep. 13 2004,16:40
The *.uci files are "Compressed ISO" extensions. They don't install into RAM and run from your hard drive or CDROM. They are better than *.dsl packages for users with limited RAM although they run a little bit slower due to the decompression that is required from a compressed filesystem.Your best bet is to do an install of the non-uci extension to your hard drive.
FYI, you can save yourself a little RAM by not booting up in "enhanced" mode. Those desktop icons and the little dockapps on the lower right side of your screen ALL use up RAM and for a 48MB user it is better to avoid starting them up.
For your computer, I recommend that you try out Henriqe's Siag Office mdDSL extension. Search the forums for the link to his site.
Siag Office runs great even on old computers with limited RAM.
Posted by clivesay on Sep. 13 2004,17:50
I'm with CB.I have been playing with Siag because of the exact same experiences you have with OO. Once I looked I realized that Pathetic Writer will save as .rtf (If you want to view and edit in Microsoft Word) and .pdf!! The only thing about .rtf is that any change in font colors will not carry over to MS Word but things like bold and underline will.
Similar with Siag spreadsheet program. You can save as a .csv file for MS Excel or .pdf.
It's really a cool little office app!!
reidar -
If you are using magicpoint, I would love to get some pointers on how you get it to run. I installed from Debian unstable but cannot seem to find how to start the darn thing! I did a whereis mgp but none of the mgp files seem to launch the app. I don't mean to cross-post. ( I also mention this in the MyDSL Wishlist thread). If you are an active user, I could sure use the tips! Thanks
Chris
Posted by ke4nt1 on Sep. 13 2004,19:23
siag-office.dsl is in the repository..I should make an .info file and an md5sum,
and post it in the repository web pages ..
For now, here is a link
< http://ibiblio.org/pub....ice.dsl >
73
ke4nt
Posted by reidar on Sep. 14 2004,06:21
Thanks a lot, ke4nt! I haven't tried siag office before. Just downloaded the .dsl and tried it out. It looks great! Powerful app it seems. It even has quite decent import-/export-filters. Impressed!Thanks again
-r
p.s. Answered your question in the mydsl-wishlist post, chris. Good luck with magickpoint! Hope my answer there helps.
Posted by I went to bed very late on Sep. 14 2004,10:26
@cbagger01:Excuse me I am not sure I understand you correctly. Sure you already recognized I am not a native speaker.
Is it better to use .uci or .dsl files for a hd-install of DSL (0.8.0) on a low RAM machine?
Posted by cbagger01 on Sep. 14 2004,16:24
For DSL version 0.8.x livecd users, they should use *.uci in order to save RAMFor DSL version 0.7.x livecd users, they should use *.ci and associated user.tar.gz files in order to save RAM
These rules also apply for frugal or poorman's install users.
However, for full hd-install users, you should use *.dsl or *.tar.gz files. And of course you can always use a package managerment system like apt-get/dpkg/Synaptic or compile the program from source.
FYI, on the Siag Office conversion options, you can also MANUALLY convert a MS Word document to a text file or a postscript document by using the included command line utility called "antiword".
I believe that the command is located in the /usr/lib/siag/antiword/ directory.
You can get more help by going to this directory and type: ./antiword -help
Posted by I went to bed very late on Sep. 16 2004,10:41
I installed abiword.dsl and I am satisfied with it.It 's a good solution for my slow machine.