apt-get oops!

[fpd]

I saw my Knoppix 3.8 was using OpenOffice 1.1, and OpenOffice was up to 2.0, so I did this:

apt-get install openoffice.org

and now when I click the OOO panel button, I get this:

The desktop entry file /usr/share/applnk/Office/OpenOffice/openoffice.desktop has no Type=... entry.

I surfed the web and soon read "Do not use apt-get for OOO with Linux distributions as it will break the OO" Looks like "they" were right. Any pointers?

[stuart_b]

Whatever you do, you probably want to uninstall the current copy first, since it's now messed up.

After that, the easiest way would probably be to download it from OpenOffice.org and manually install it. Since it uses basically the same installer as the Windows version, that isn't too big a hardship--though it doesn't automatically install for each user the way a .deb or .rpm would. That means if you install as a user it installs to that user's profile and isn't available to anyone else, and if you install as root you then need to run a short version of the install er for each user who wants access--or it was so last time I installed it. That doesn't put it into the .deb database, but it assures you of the latest version.

Another option is to find a .deb that works. I recall from a remastering a year or so ago that I was able to find a source where I could get a slight update from what was then included in Knoppix. The really good part is that installed it was smaller than the one Knoppix had, so my updated system fit on a CD. I don't remember where I got it, and don't remember if I installed it with apt-get or downloaded it and used dpkg--but I found it from a reference in the forum.

Otherwise, I don't know a good way to get back to where you were unless you just reinstall.

[fpd]

Thank you for your help.

Which one do I uninstall, the original (1.1.4) or the "apt-get install openoffice.org" that I messed up? How do I uninstall either one? Kpackage?

I downloaded OOo_2.0.1_LinuxIntel_install.tar.gz, and looked around for the correct place to un-tar it. Where would that be? /usr? Should I create a directory?

[stuart_b]

I'm not sure how best to do the uninstall. If they both show up installed when you query the database or look in Kpackage or Synaptic, you probably want to uninstall both. Or try to.

As far as the download of OpenOffice, it's really flexible. It doesn't really matter where you untar it, though /usr would probably be one of the worst. When you untar it you get an installer. Then you go into that directory and run the install script, so the logical place for the untarred directory might be in your user directory or root's user directory. If you then run the install script as your user, the program is installed completely within your user directory.

If you run the installer as root, you can put the program's own directory almost anywhere. I think the typical Debian place is /opt, which is otherwise basically empty. (That reminds me that it might be possible to edit the package database directly, and delete the OpenOffice directory.) I'm not sure if it's still the case, but before it was always necessary after the program was installed to go into its directory and find the setup script there and run it. That installer always looked like the initial one, but all it did was links to your menus and set up a profile for the program within your user profile. And the install directory can be deleted after the program is installed.

[chadlongstaff]

$apt-get install

Seemingly, by default, this just installs all the latest, unstable and experimental packages. Whatever it does it left me with a completely unusable system. No desktop and (as yet) not enough knowledge of bash to get anything fixed. Had to reinstall (Debian) and am now only apt-getting things I actually need. Keeps the bug reporting down to a minimum.