[Dropped] Upgrade OpenOffice without an Internet connection

[jfbuk]

Hi,

I am trying to help someone upgrade from an older version of Open Office (3.0.1) to a more recent version.

There are some particular challenges:

1. They are running an old version of Ubuntu (version unknown) with Gnome 2.26.1 as a GUI. I believe it is a 32bit install.
2. The machine they are using has no network access (and this no internet access) but does have a working CD drive and available USB ports.
3. My Linux knowledge is limited but am very familiar with Windows and other platforms

Is it possible to upgrade OpenOffice using a CD or USB drive containing the relevant installation files and is there documentation available on how to create a CD/USB drive with the necessary files ?
What OpenOffice version options would be suitable ?
How does the upgrade need to be initiated ? At the Linux command line , from an executable on the CD/USB drive, ..... ?

Thanks

John

[Hagar Delest]

Hi and welcome to the forum!

I would recommend LibreOffice, it may be less dependent on the system.
Download the .deb packages from the official web site, in 32bit, then move the downloaded archive on a USB key.
Once the archive moved to the destination system, follow this tutorial (copy it as a text file so that you have it when installing): [Tutorial] Installing Apache OpenOffice on GNU/Linux. Use the DEB based systems instructions.

Please add [Solved] at the beginning of the title in your first post (top of the topic) with the *EDIT button if your issue has been fixed.

[Villeroy]

I doubt that any recent version of OpenOffice or LibreOffice runs on a 20 year old system. In case of OpenOffice the side bar is the only one noticable difference between version 3.x and 4.x (and IMHO that side bar is useless).

[MrProgrammer]

I am trying to help someone upgrade from an older version of Open Office (3.0.1) to a more recent version.

It is important to consider why you want to upgrade. Some common reasons might be:
A: To support a newer version of your operating system
B: To receive security fixes
C: To obtain new features

If your operating system is old and will continue to be old, A does not apply.
If your operating system is not connected to the internet, B does not apply.
This leaves C.

Of course there have been numerous improvements to OpenOffice since version 3.0 (2008). But do you really need any of them? Or are the features in 3.0 sufficient for your needs? Only you can decide that. If OpenOffice has been working just fine for many years, and there is no good reason to upgrade it, perhaps it is not worth spending any time on that project, especially if your Linux skills are limited.

For me, the only significant feature in the last 15 years is:
Q-PCD MSInteroperability-31: Stable sorting (fixed by 3.1 in 2009)
It solves problems like this one: Sort table by more than 8 columns

I do occasionally use Support 1048576 rows (fixed by 3.3 in 2011) when helping others on the forum, but I really don't need more than 65536 rows in any of my spreadsheets and I could use a database if I needed to process enormous amounts of data prior to 3.3.

[Mountaineer]

...
I would recommend LibreOffice, it may be less dependent on the system.
...

Don't!
While I prefer LibreOffice they moved to python3, and I'm pretty sure they need a Python not availabe around 2009.

So while I think Villeroy exaggerated the age of the distribution a bit (the named gnome was released April 2009) it is a task for experts to update a system wich is so old, if you don't have access to an "old" repository for this version of ubuntu.

My advice would be to backup personal data and update the whole OS. CD-Install or better DVD or even better USB-Stick, if the system can boot from stick will be much easier. Depending on memory small distributions like Xubuntu, MX-Linux or very small ones like Bunsenlabs may be advised.
As gnome changed a lot over the years check if new gnome is acceptable. Otherwise I always recommend to look for xfce.

For future updates: It is possible to set a CD or better mounted usb-harddrive as "repository", if necessary.

[Mountaineer]

...
1. They are running an old version of Ubuntu (version unknown) with Gnome 2.26.1 as a GUI.
...

According to the following link the gnome-version was integrated in ubuntu "jaunty" in May 2009:
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/jaunt ... 09781.html

On "support" for end-of-live ubuntu Jaunty 0904 I found:
https://superuser.com/questions/339537/ ... u-versions

I didn't check, if anything is still available....

[Jan_J]

Don't!
While I prefer LibreOffice they moved to python3, and I'm pretty sure they need a Python not availabe around 2009.

LibreOffice installers developed by Document Foundation are essentially standalone. They do not need any specific system tool, apart from binary compatibility. Python installation is included into LO installation.
Main problem in upgrading is low level C libraries compatibility.

I have on one of my machine Libre 6.2 and Apache OpenOfifice 4.1.7 running on CentOS 7 altarch i686. LO 7.x cant be installed on that system, unless recompiled back to 32-bits.
A few years ago I tried to run them on CentOS 5, with only partial success. Some dynamic libraries occured incompatible to the system. But I used some time AOO 4.1.x on CentOS 6.

[Mountaineer]

...
LibreOffice installers developed by Document Foundation are essentially standalone. They do not need any specific system tool, apart from binary compatibility. Python installation is included into LO installation.
Main problem in upgrading is low level C libraries compatibility.
...

but most maintainers at ubuntu/mint etc have chosen to use systems python instead, remove base ...
So switching to tdf-download is an option to avoid the problems with python, but as you noted, there are new problems lurking... And you have to remember you have left the usual path. As this machine does not get updates, this may not matter much.

[Villeroy]

OpenOffice.org 3.0 still produces valid ODF documents that can be opened with any recent version of LibreOffice, OpenOffice and various other programs. In very rare cases you may encounter problems when opening later versions of the ODF standard as produced by LibreOffice 7.