Peter Cornelius wrote: >>A much better place is in the /usr/local directory tree. > > > Thanks for that, Chris. > > I haven't yet read the 64 pages (!)
As is so often the case with computer documentation, the guts of the matter is in the appendix at the very end of the document! It's actually well worth reading it. but the other reply I received pointed > me to the author of OpenOffice and it was there suggested that it be > installed opt, which I assume is root/opt since I would first need to be in > 'root' via CLI, and then a further 1.4MB would be placed in a home DIR. No, imho, the directory you should install into should be either /usr/local because that is the default, or as a second choice /opt Don't install any applications programs into /root as that is root's home directory. As a matter of policy I always install into the directory offered as the default by any program or package if it seems half reasonable. Essentially, no precisely, this is the sequence of commands you need to do to install OpenOfficeOrg:- cd /usr/tmp Now get the latest release of OpenOfficeOrg wget \ http://planetmirror.com/pub/openoffice/release/1.0.1/OOo_1.0.1_LinuxIntel_install.tar.gz I've put that command on two lines simply because the mail user agent won't take the command on one line. You don't need the back-slash if you join the lines together. But, if you don't join the lines, make absolutly sure the backslash character is the very last one on that line. This is a rather large download of approx 70.8 Mbytes, it is therefore a somewhat remote possibility, but possibility none the less, that the file has been corrupted in transmission. Check for this eventually using the md5sum utility. md5sum OOo_1.0.1_LinuxIntel_install.tar.gz You should see the line:- e03cb9573ff176b47fb2101732104d83 OOo_1.0.1_LinuxIntel_install.tar.gz after your computer has taken the time needed to calculate the md5sum of the file. Please be patient, depending on the speed of your machine it may be minutes. If the number is different you have a corrupted file. Get another copy. Now unarchive the file to the intermediate install directory. tar -xvzf OOo_1.0.1_LinuxIntel_install.tar.gz This creates a sub-directory called 'install', change directory into it: cd install Become the root user:- su It will prompt for your root password here, Notice how the prompt character has changed from a dollar sign to a hash; '#'. At this point you have the choice of either a GUI wizard or a more traditional cli command. If you are in the X-11 Windowing System you might be best off using the GUI wizard. To start it issue the command:- ./setup ( if this fails with a message about authority - I forget the exact words, sorry - then issue the command:- xhost + this will allow the root user to access and use 'your' window ) if not, then use the cli or shell command:- ./install There is a bit of help obtainable by saying:- ./install --help The GUI wizard launched by the setup command is intended to be used intereactively while you are sitting at the screen, whereas the ./install command is not. i.e. ./install can be used to install StarOffice or OOO when logged into a remote workstation over a network. When either of these commands terminate you will have the OpenOfficeOrg wordprocessor installed. leave being the root user with the exit command:- exit Notice how the prompt character has now changed back to a dollar sign. Clean-up all the intermediate install files which are no longer needed:- cd ../ rm -rf install You still have the archive file in /usr/tmp, you can either move it to where ever you keep your treasured archives, or just remove it. Over to you. > Maybe the install proceedure I had followed earlier was correct and had > been clever enough to determine that as I am a single workstation ('local' > and 'at-home') without a network there was little point in wasting hard > drive space by installing in a root DIR and then having a further 1.4MB in > my local home DIRs. I'm not sure about that. Once upon a time not so very long ago 1.4MB was a non-trivial amount of disk space, but now-a-days when disks are sized by the gigabyte it's a mere bagatelle of no consequence. I would not deviate from the default install on that account. (I'm not very clear on the distinction between 'local' > and 'home', and rather feel in my case they are but two names for the same > thing.) Traditionally, the /usr/local directory tree was used as the place to install any application which is of purely local origin. i.e. something which has been created by the staff of Institution in which the UNIX system is installed. It is normally protected by the root password. Frequently third party packages are also installed in there as well. If you take the default which imho you should, OpenOfficeOrg goes in there too. Traditionally once again, but this time not quite such a venerable tradition, the directory tree /home/ has all the home directories of the users of that particular computer in it. Each /home/ subdirectory is protected by the individual passwords of the users. You have probably discovered already that a cd command on its own with no directory name following it takes you back home very conveniently. > I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that as individual needs and set-ups > are different so solutions are different also. Absolutely. Also on Linux, and to some extent every unix, there are always several different and more or less equally good ways of doing most tasks. This is the root cause of much animated discussion. -- C. S.
