installing OpenOffice & "command-line is my friend"

I have made this into a separate thread, since my response is rather long, and I don't want to hijack it and steal somebody else's fire. On Saturday 30 June 2018 14:17:39 dep wrote: Experience is relative; hard to measure, unless we have been in the same circumstances, with the same resources, etc.; so I will try to cut everybody slack, if they please remember to do the same for me. As a hedge against human and/or inhuman error, I use both methods. Yes, I do use the Open Office repository, so that I can upgrade when newer packages become available. However, even though I have a very fast Internet connection, the power here often goes out several times in a single day; once, about one-third of the city had the grid knocked out (which managed to destroy my old desktop). And even though the nearest wireless access point is right outside my door, and I have a good wifi antenna pointed directly at it, maybe fifteen feet away, I rarely get above 50% reading on wicd for that point - yet it is the strongest and nearest connection. So ... yes, I also keep all the deb packages that I have downloaded, and once I figured out the steps for purging all LibreOffice packages and dependencies that conflict with OpenOffice, using this command: sudo apt-get purge libreoffice libreoffice-* Then I generally use the command sudo dpkg -i -E -G /media/~/openoffice/*.deb to install it, then just run sudo apt-get -f install to correct anything. (Assuming here that /media/~/openoffice points to your backup folder on another hard drive or flash drive, or wherever ... whatever you name it.) If you do install from the repositories, then you may run into a problem with language packs, etc., and find everything in Brazilian Portuguese, and end up having to reinstall. This is why what deloptes says is right: once you have things set up as you want them, better to install with dpkg, and reduce the possibilities that can mess you up. If you want to upgrade your packages, save the new packages in a backup file; e.g., sudo mv -v -f /var/cache/apt/archives/*.deb -t /media/~/openoffice/ My use of commands, by the way, is "obscure" only until you get used to them; and I don't actually bother to type them out most of the time, but rather keep a list of oft-used commands, then just copy and paste from my list. You should repeat the mantra, "Command-line is my friend!" until you learn this deep and wonderful truth of Linux. What I am saying is, I generally look up the commands for what I need, online or in manpages* (which live in your shell), then I adjust them to do what I want, and copy them to my list of commands. I use the commands, then I learn why they work later; I only try to avoid those commands that get serious warnings. [*If you don't know how to find your manpages, you just need to run, e.g., man apt or man kpdf Also, apt --help kpdf --help will give a short list of common commands for most of your apps. Practically everything in your system can be controlled, adjusted or hacked from the command-line, and the manpages give the most complete list of commands.] There are a couple of dependencies that look almost identical in both LibreOffice and OpenOffice, and if you aren't careful, it will re-install LibreOffice, but without getting rid of OpenOffice; or you may find that you have installed OpenOffice without getting rid of everything in LibreOffice. And therein is the problem. The same with whenever you run sudo apt-get dist-upgrade If you do this before you have purged LibreOffice, added OpenOffice repositories, and installed OpenOffice (whether using apt, aptitude, synaptic, gdebi, or dpkg, or whatever trips your trigger), then when you upgrade you may find that Debian or Devuan reinstalls LibreOffice; sometimes it will uninstall OpenOffice, sometimes not. I believe that the 'Buntus tend to behave the same. What I am saying, then, is make sure that you purge everything LibreOffice, then add OpenOffice repositories and install OO. After that, I generally have no problems. In any case, once you get the steps in the right order, you should be okay. If this will be of some help to anybody out there, I will give a short list of my steps, to purge LibreOffice and install OpenOffice, using both apt and dpkg, in the hopes that this will somehow lead to WORLD PEACE. Bill