[SOLVED] Safely switching LibreOffice 5 out for Apache OpenOffice 4.1.2

Support & Help Requests
#1

This post would be concerning UM Release 15.10

What all could be involved in safely switching LibreOffice out for Apache OpenOffice? I dearly adore my LibreO 5 :heart_eyes:; but I do have a family member who swears that LibreO is buggier than she remembers her ancient Windows experiences with OpenO to be.

Via my thorough reading of our relevant forum posts, here, I am finding that there may-or-may-not be palpable issues with dependencies and updates - as well as conflicts with LibreO; in the event that it is left in the mix (not removed) - with OpenO merely added in.

What shall a newbie tell another newbie about how to proceed with this? And, finally, could these hang & crash issues just be a bad download/install situation – which could be resolved with a fresh install of U-MATE or a reinstall of LibreO (if the latter, then how best)?

Thanks! :relaxed:

#2

Lets start at the begining.
Buggy - are there details about “buggy” (mine runs fine on an 8 year old rig, a 10 year old laptop and a 5 year old piece of apple hardware).
Which hardware is being used?
How was the linux OS installed?
Are any other programs showing “bugginess”?
Has the person in question read the LibreOffice manuals for the moduls (Writer, Calc, etc.) they are trying to use?
Are they going about achieving their desired result the wrong way (see last question)?
[I have been called a “Word-power-user” (yes, I do have to use it professionally), and you can’t always go about things the same way)].

LO or Oo?
Although Oo continues to be developed, the lions’ share of developers seem to have switched their efforts to LO. So it might be worth trying to iron out the LO “bugginess”.

LO & ubuntu-mate
My understanding is that LO is deeply intertwined with the distro and that trying to remove LO can break your system (this may or not be true, perhaps someone might be able to confirm?).

I’m definetly not a LO “power-user”, but if you can fill out some of the details, others might be able to help you to get the most out of your LO installation. :smile:

#3

I would stick with LO but that is up to you!:

When you get time and are bored:

1 Like
#4

@alpinejohn & @wolfman: Good enough - thanks a million! :relaxed: This consensus was kind of what I was gathering, after gleaning what I could from earlier posts.

I am going to recommend a complete fresh reinstall of 15.10 for her - due to other tiny, but unnerving, issues she is having - I do not know what torture has been bestowed upon the system since the install - about month ago.

I should have mentioned, perhaps, that the principle issue is a persistent hang, or unresponsiveness, when doing simple word processing on LO-Writer. This has been particularly scary for her when drafting college papers. :scream:

So, unless there is a resolution to a known problem - resembling this LO-Writer freeze up, which someone pops in about today, I’ll assume some reinstall advice will do her best.

As always, you guys are tremendous; thanks!! :penguin:

#5

Yep, I got a chance to read the howtogeek.com earlier; but that wn.net/Articles/637735/ was some fresh and interesting confabulation.

Thanks, wolfman, you’re eternally on target!

#6

Install the following package (There isn’t a total full install of LO by default!):

sudo apt-get install libreoffice

If you are having stability problems, run the following commands first before a new install:

sudo apt-get --fix-missing install

The above command downloads and installs any missing packages on your system.

sudo apt-get --fix-broken install

The above command downloads and installs any broken dependencies on your system.

Was the boot media burnt at the slowest speed and/or, was the USB stick pre-formatted?:

1 Like
#7

You can uninstall LibreOffice if you wanted to (would free up over 130 MB), but it’ll also want to remove ubuntu-mate-desktop - It wouldn’t break the system, it’s simply a meta-package that acts as a list of all packages that come pre-installed with the Ubuntu MATE Desktop. :package: The only possible problem is during upgrades where new applications for that release wouldn’t be added (I believe). Other than that, I had no problems leaving ubuntu-mate-desktop removed between 15.04 to 15.10. :thumbsup:

Since the entire suite isn’t installed, trying to remove libreoffice isn’t enough, you’d have to remove libreoffice-writer, libreoffice-impress, libreoffice-calc, etc. The Synaptic Package Manager is good for this.

As for installing OpenOffice (for reference), I can’t see any packages in the repositories… so the user would probably have to grab a copy from their website. :confused:

About uninstalling stuff
#8

As stated, a meta-package can be removed

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/CommonQuestions#Meta-packages:_ubuntu-desktop

and there are several. Mate is not included in this link, but gives you the idea.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/MetaPackages

#9

@alpinejohn, @wolfman, @lah7, & @anon42388993, thanks, as always, for showcasing the variety of selfless attention that our new U-MATE community is increasingly becoming known for :earth_asia: :smile: .

Well, it looks as though the terminal was able to dish out some love via missing library appendages and such; altogether seven issues were resolved, she said.

This was not a consistent headache with her LO-Writer – it just seems to pop up at the most inopportune of times; she is a college student - so maybe a few times a week. Therefore, notwithstanding the fact we will have to wait for enough word processing to be executed for a veridical [SOLVED] to be in order, I can assure you that I will find out the verdict – on this most simple of fixes.

In the mean time, know that we are spawning great informational work for those who progressively rely on this ever growing forum :sparkles: :grinning: .

3 Likes
#10

@mated, you didn’t answer the above question, it is very important to make sure the installation media is done correctly from the start or you will/may get input/output errors post install!. :wink:

#11

Sorry about that, @wolfman :cold_sweat:!

Okay, I found out that the boot media was not burnt at the slowest speed; but that the USB stick was pre-formatted.

Also, as for an update on her first issue goes, the hang/freeze in LO-Writer has been resolved; but the spellchecker is not doing its thing. I haven’t looked at her computer yet to see if the new issue is something that this, progressively, less useless newbie can pinpoint :sunglasses:. I am wondering if she should do a fresh (re)install of U-MATE 15.10 with more mindful attention applied to the aforementioned wisdom…

Thanks for your conscientious follow up to this!

#12

Which method did you use to do the install?, disk or USB stick?. :smiley:

#13

She used a cheap Sandisk USB stick to do the install. :neutral_face:

#14

Pre-formatted to FAT32?. :smiley:

#15

She said she does not believe that it was FAT32; but, instead, NTFS… (remember I’m a newbie :no_mouth: ).

On a happy note: I fixed her spellcheck; the fix command she issued yesterday toggled it off, was all, I guess :grin:.

So, perhaps, all is well with her U-MATE OS now.

I am digesting this download/install tutoring, in any event; because I know we all need to be aware of these facts (and that many newbies are unaware of the copious details which comes with our newfound freedoms) :dizzy_face:.