As always, the updated SlackBuild script has been submitted to SlackBuilds.org and pre-built packages can be found on my site.

I also built the usual language packs and they are being uploaded as well and should be available later tonight.

Officially stable

This is the first release from the 3.4 series that is officially declared stable enough for enterprise use. So now we can all retire our 3.3.x installations and start using 3.4.2.
I admit that I’ve been using the 3.4 versions since 3.4.0, but I’m not an “enterprise” user, just a private person that uses lots of spreadsheets and writes a few documents.

Previous script works

This release was a nice test for the changes I introduced with the 3.4.1 update…
I tried building the 3.4.2 version with “VERSION=3.4.2 ./libreoffice.SlackBuild” and it worked flawlessly
So if you downloaded the 3.4.1 version from SlackBuilds.org’s git repo or from my site, you do not have to download the newer version – nothing has changed except the version number and the md5 checksums.

New script and packages

While we’re waiting for the next public update on SlackBuilds.org, you can get the new script or the complete packages from my site.
Well, actually, they’re still being uploaded as I write this, but they should be there in a while

When I first “created” the SlackBuild for LibreOffice (I actually adapted rworkman’s OpenOffice.org script with his permission) it was because I was convinced that it would substitute OpenOffice.org eventually, as “open source” and “Oracle” did not sound like a happy marriage. And it seems that I was right, as the future of OpenOffice.org is at least doubtful, with Oracle trying to dump it at the Apache Foundation, but that causes some serious license or at least philosophical conflicts. At best, OO.o’s future looks “murky”. I also think the future of Java looks very complicated as long as Oracle is involved, but that’s a whole other story…

Back to the LibreOffice SlackBuild.

It (the script) is a bit of a messy hack to transform the pre-compiled packages into Slackware packages so that they can be maintained and installed or upgraded using the standard Slackware tools, like “installpkg” and “upgradepkg”. It does not really “build” the software, like AlienBOB’s script does. If you want to build LibreOffice from source, and have the resources (=hardware), expertise and patience (=couple of hours) to do so, get his script and give it a try. This might really give you a better and faster LibreOffice, but be warned: this is not for everyone. So, with the idea of serving a larger audience, I’ll keep maintaining my own script, so that everyone searching for a solution at slackbuilds.org or using sbopkg can “build” a LibreOffice Slackware package in just a couple of minutes.

And then I started to receive feedback.

I already maintained quite a few SlackBuild scripts – some more popular than others. But I never received so many e-mails as I have received about LibreOffice… And when a new version is released, I have a problem. Because the download link to the “source” gets broken, as it is moved to the “old” directory on their server.
I do respond to every message I receive, but I also have a full-time job (writing SlackBuild scripts does not pay the bills) so an answer might take a few days. And with all the new releases of LibreOffice, I have been receiving *lots* of e-mails complaining that the link to the source is “broken”. So here is a little explanation on what to do when a new version is released:

1. Get the previous sources from the “old” directory

The Document Foundation keeps previous versions of LibreOffice available for download. But only previous versions, so I cannot link to them when they’re still current. You can download these previous versions from here. Just pick the version you want (and which the SlackBuild was written for), pick “rpm” and the architecture you need (”x86″ for 32-bits and “x86_64″ for 64-bits). There you will find the “install-rpm” files needed to build the previous release.

2. Get the latest sources and try to use them

With the latest version of my SlackBuild script, you might be able to build the newer version. I tried to make it as flexible as possible, but the folks that package the LibreOffice binaries have changed the naming scheme and package structure a few times in the past, so I cannot guarantee that it will work. But it’s worth a try.

Having said all this, I submitted today the new scripts for LibreOffice and for the latest language packs.
As always, if you can’t wait for the scripts to be approved by the SlackBuilds admins, you can get the pre-built packages (or just the SlackBuild script) from my site.

I put them in my Slackware 13.37 repository, but they should work just as fine on Slackware 13.1, as these are repackaged from the original binaries built by the Document Foundation.

Feel free to download the pre-built packages or the SlackBuild script from my site.

The new script is in the “pending queue” on SlackBuilds.org waiting for one of the admins to approve it.

In the mean time, you can get it from my site, where I also uploaded pre-built versions for Slackware and Slackware64.
For the Language Packs, I built versions for en_GB (British English) , pt_BR (Portuguese from Brazil) and nl (Dutch).

Just as a friendly reminder: These scripts use the binary files from LibreOffice (RPMs) and transform them into Slackware packages.
If you want to build LibreOffice completely from source, you can use alienBOB’s (Eric Hameleers) script from here, but be sure to have a fast machine and / or some patience .

Actually, this was a nice popularity test… I received *lots* of e-mails asking about an update for LibreOffice, which reached the stable stage with version 3.3.0.
Next in order of requests was Zabbix, for the new version 1.8.4.
And third in line was FreeCiv – the game.

These updates were long over due but they are all in the pending queue on SlackBuilds.org now.
As I write this I’m also uploading everything to my site, for those who can’t wait

I’ll do some more updates soonish, so keep following the news here…

As with the previous Beta2, I created the packages from the binary RPM distributions and uploaded packages for the base LibreOffice suite and for the en_GB, pt_BR and nl Language Packs.

The SlackBuilds have been submitted to SlackBuilds.org and the packages have been uploaded to my site.

So you installed one of the beta versions of LibreOffice and it seems to work fine. But you had OpenOffice.org running in your local language and can’t get used to “File”, “Tools”, etc. menus and want them back in your own language you got used to after all these years.

Language Packs

The Document Foundation does not offer localized versions like OOo did, instead they offer a single version per operating system / architecture, with a standard US-English interface and (as of the beginning of October) “Language Packs” to localize the user interface, help files, etc.
These Language Packs come in several forms, and for Linux there is a choice between “DEB” and “RPM” packages, both for 32- & 64-bits. The RPM’s actually contain several other RPM’s for the different modules of LibreOffice.

On Slackware

To make everything “manageable” I created a SlackBuild script to transform the RPM Language Pack into a Slackware package that can be easily installed, upgraded or removed with the standard package tools.
This script can be downloaded here and is used as follows:

• open a shell as root: $ su -
• untar the tarball with the script: # tar xf libreoffice-langpack.tar.gz
• go to the directory with the script: # cd libreoffice-langpack
• download your language pack in this directory, from here (32-bits) or here (64-bits)
• run the script for your language: # LOLANG=<your_language_code> ./libreoffice-langpack.SlackBuild ([1] [2])
• install the created package: # installpkg /tmp/libreoffice-langpack-3.3.0_beta2_<your_language_code>* ([1])

Note [1]
Substitute <your_language_code> with the code of the language pack you downloaded, like pt_BR, nl, etc.
Note [2]
This script builds a package for LibreOffice installed in /opt/libreoffice3, like my packages do, as they are repackaged binaries. If you use LibreOffice compiled from source with AlienBob’s SlackBuild, or one of his packages, LibreOffice will be installed in /usr/lib{,64}/libreoffice/ In this case, start the script with a special variable:
# LOLANG=<your_language_code> ALIEN=yes ./libreoffice-langpack.SlackBuild
and the package will be prepared for installation in /usr/lib….

Pre-built packages

There are many language codes and I cannot build packages for all of them, but I selected three I use most: en-GB (”British English”), pt-BR (”Brazilian Portuguese”) and nl (”Dutch”).
These can be downloaded from my site.

Packages for both the 32- and 64-bits versions are available on my site. Remember that it is still a beta release and is not recommended for production.