Installing OpenOffice 3.1.x under Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.x

8 June 2009

If you’re actually trying to install another version of OpenOffice, then click on the OpenOffice tag, as there may be an entry on that other version.

My suggested procedure for installing OpenOffice 3.1.x under RHEL 5.x is essentially the same, mutatis mutandis, as that for installing OpenOffice 3.0.x:

  1. If you don't have a JRE installed, then install one. Version 1.6.0 update 13 of the JRE was distributed with OpenOffice 3.1.0 when Sun was already at update 14. As I write, OpenOffice and Sun are in-synch at update 16, but check with Sun for a more recent version when you are installing OpenOffice. (I suggest that one use jdk-6uxx-linux-xxx-rpm.bin or jre-6uxx-linux-xxx-rpm.bin, rather than jre-6uxx-linux-xxx.bin.) The remainder of these instructions assume that one has a JRE installed.

  2. Remove any earlier installation of OpenOffice. As root, enter these two commands:

    rpm -qa | grep openoffice | xargs rpm -e --nodeps
    rpm -qa | grep ooobasis | xargs rpm -e --nodeps

  3. Unpack OOo_3.1.x_LinuxIntel_install_wJRE_en-US.tar.gz (or the version appropriate to a devil-language, if you use one of those) to your filespace.

  4. Go into resulting OOO31x_mxx_native_packed-x_en-US.xxxx/RPMS/ (or to the OOO31x_mxx_native_packed-x_xx-xx.xxxx/RPMS/ corresponding to your devil-tongue).

  5. As root, run

    find . -maxdepth 1 -name "o*.rpm" | xargs rpm -U

  6. As root, run

    rpm -U desktop-integration/openoffice.org*-redhat-menus-*.noarch.rpm
    (NB: You may need to log-out and back-in for the Applications menu to be up-dated and list the latest OpenOffice components. Your previous version may continue to be listed on the menu.)

  7. As root, run

    rpm -U userland/*.rpm

  8. Tell OpenOffice which JRE to use:

    • Launch OpenOffice:
      /usr/bin/openoffice.org3
      (It may not be listed on the applications menu unless you have logged-out and back-in. Before then, you may be able to launch it from the menu by way of a listing for a previous version.)
    • Select
      Tools | Options… | OpenOffice.org | Java | Use a Java runtime environment
    • Choose one of the environments that is then listed.
    • Click the OK button.
    • Shut-down OpenOffice. (The change will be in effect upon next launch.)

NB: This entry was editted on 2009:09/13, to make it compatible with OpenOffice version 3.1.1, and otherwise to improve the instructions. One of the improvements reflects the discussion in the first two comments to this entry.

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4 Responses to Installing OpenOffice 3.1.x under Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.x

  • omdiv says:

    5th step ( As root, run rpm -U o*.rpm) does not work for me should be :

    find . -maxdepth 1 -name "*.rpm" | xargs rpm -U

    Perhaps not all rpms are installed due to be buffer in shell.

    • Daniel says:

      First, thank you for reporting both your difficulty and the work-around that you found. It may prove helpful to others.

      This seems to be a globbing issue. Which shell do you run? (I usually run bash.)

      I would suggest modifying your command-line to

      find . -maxdepth 1 -name "o*.rpm" | xargs rpm -U

      unless you wish to install the JRE provided with OpenOffice.

  • got to step 5 and got
    error:Failed dependencies:
    rpmlib(FileDigests) <= 4.6.0-1 is needed by openoffice.org3-base-3.1.1-9420.ppc
    { and about 35 more with different by filenames}

    running oracle Enterprise linux 5 .4

    I saved the entire run and I triple checked my poor typing I am and Sr Oracle programmer/analyst, but fairly new to Linux with some exposure, I predate unix.

    i installed JDK 6.18

    Thank you for this writeup.
    James

    • Daniel says:

      Okay, well, I'm not running Oracle anything, nor do I have a PPC, so I cannot run experiments here, but we'll see if we can resolve this.

      The diagnostic makes it look as if you're trying to install an .RPM with a newer format on a machine whose version of rpm doesn't support it. Whence came this OpenOffice .RPM? (I don't see an .RPM for PPC Linux at the OpenOffice download page.)

      RHEL 5.x is built on Fedora Core 6. With Fedora Core 11, there was a change in the .RPM format,such that users of earlier versions of Fedora need to update rpm to use it. Possibly the .RPM that you are using has the new format and you have an incompatible version of rpm; that would certainly result in the diagnostic that you got. I don't know whether the latest version of rpm for Oracle Enterprise Linux 5.4 supports the newer format, but make sure that you have an up-to-date version of rpm installed. As root, run

      yum update rpm

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