Alien Pastures

My thoughts on Slackware, life and everything

Tag: libreoffice (Page 9 of 20)

LibreOffice 5.0.0 Release Candidate

June 25, 2015 / / 7 Comments

libreoffce_logo Libreoffice is steadily nearing its 5.0.0 release moment. According to the release schedule, this is supposed to be unearthed somewhere early August. The source code for its first release candidate was made available a few days ago.

Because major new releases always give me headaches when updating the build script, I decided to tackle this issue ahead of time so that I can do a release of the final product without delays. But it turned out that two iterations of the script were enough to build a package for libreoffice-5.0.0.rc1 without errors. The application starts and seems to work properly, but who am I to judge that… I use vim most of the time when I write texts.

Therefore I uploaded the packages I have created. Their useability is limited to computers running 64-bit Slackware-current. The download location is:

http://www.slackware.com/~alien/testing/libreoffice/

where you can find the packages (all the dictionaries but no language packs, just the “en_US” localization of the interface) as well as the build script and patches.

lo-5.0.0.rc1-about

Please share your feedback with me on this blog page if you decide to download the packages and give them a spin.

Have fun! Eric

 

First victim of slackware-current update 20150421 healed: LibreOffice

April 24, 2015 / / 11 Comments

Three days ago, there was a massive update to Slackware’s development tree. More than 50% of all packages in Slackware have either been rebuilt, upgraded or added new.

The result of these massive (core) library updates was to be expected: all kinds of 3rd party packages stopped working because the libraries they were dynamically linking to, have disappeared. My KDE 5 packages definitely need a big make-over, but since those packages are considered “testing” anyway, even for Slackware’s development standards, I thought it was more important to concentrate first on a package which to many is a productive tool for every day use: LibreOffice.

Three weeks ago, a version of LibreOffice was released which I had not yet packaged: LibreOffice 4.4.2. For some time now, my LibreOffice packages which I am compiling on Slackware 14.1 would not run in combination with my Ktown packages of KDE 4.14.3 for Slackware-current – thanks to the updated harfbuzz package that I shipped together with my KDE packages. Users of LibreOffice could simply downgrade to the harfbuzz package of Slackware-current and LibreOffice would work again. A simple enouigh fix without serious consequences to their KDE desktop.

And now finally, all those KDE packages, including the latest harfbuzz, have been added by Patrick to Slackware-current itself… causing permanent breakage for LibreOffice. A libreoffice package compiled on Slackware-current was the only option to fix this.

I wanted to grab that LibreOffice 4.4.2 source I just mentioned, but noticed that the mirror carried 4.4.3 “prerelease” sources too. Since we are all happily beta-testing Slackware here, I thought that I should grab these 4.4.3 sources instead. And so I did, and built packages out of them. People on LQ have already confirmed that they work like a charm.

My LibreOffice 4.4.3 packages for Slackware-current are ready for download from the usual mirror locations (mirrors should be fully sync-ed in 24 hours, taper is already uptodate):

New packages for Slackware 14.1 will arrive too, eventually. But my first priority now, is to fix KDE 5 and whatever else is no longer working… not looking forward to compiling Qt 5.4.1 for two architectures. But, I may not wait until I have compiled all packages (both 64-bit and 32-bit). If the 64-bit packages for KDE 5 are done and I am satisfied that they run without issues, I will upload those right away. I don’t think there are that many people running Slackware-current with my Plasma desktop on 32-bit.

Have fun! Eric

 

LibreOffice 4.4.1

March 2, 2015 / / 9 Comments

A new LibreOffice is here – the first bugfix release for the 4.4.x series. Over a hundred bugs were fixed since version 4.4.0 saw the light a month earlier.

My LibreOffice 4.4.1 packages for Slackware 14.1 and -current are ready for download from the usual mirror locations:

Have fun! Eric

Forgot to tell you about the new LibreOffice 4.4.0 packages

February 12, 2015 / / 32 Comments

I won’t bother you with the week in hell we are experiencing at the IT Helpdesk. It’s not over yet, and it leaves me exhausted every evening when I get home after long hours. I need to recharge my battered but faithful old Nokia work phone twice a day to be able to do all the emergency calls during office hours. Oh, but now I did bother you 😉

Rather than writing blog articles and helping people, I decided to wind down during the evenings by baking bread. The kneading process relaxes the mind while it exercises the muscles (and relieves back pains). My son does not mind… he eats all I bake anyway. Sourdough in the weekend and regular yeasted breads during the working week. The aromas coming from the oven right now are making me feel hungry again at 10:30 PM.

And so I forgot to write about the LibreOffice packages that I released a couple of days ago. I started working on 4.4.0 when it was released on 29 January, and I really had high hopes for fixing the harbbuzz issue which has plagued me and my LibreOffice package since the packages were released for my first KDE preview. The Plasma 5 needs a newer harfbuzz library than the version in Slackware. but LibreOffice chokes on the new package with a symbol error. Downgrading harfbuzz to the Slackware original fixes LibreOffice… and to be honest, I have not yet encountered issues in KDE Plasma 5 due to the downgrade, so that is a a fairly safe workaround when you are running Slackware with Plasma 5 and need LibreOFfice.

What I have been trying – but without success – was to compile the harbuzz library statically into the LibreOffice programs. That is a supported option, there is a configure switch for it, but regardless of what I tried, some of the other libraries would eventually pick up the Slackware harfbuzz as a dependency again… resulting in ICU related symbol errors. I talked to Pat about upgrading both harfbuzz and icu4c in slackware-current but he considers that a non-trivial upgrade with potential breakage of lots of programs. So, this upgrade will happen at a point where other programs in slackware-current need an upgrade or rebuild anyway. I put my money on a new KDE 4 😉

After a week of trying long and hard, and letting the virtual machine compile new packages during the day, I finally gave up and released LibreOffice 4.4.0 packages that work on Slackware 14.1 and -current, for as long as you do not upgrade your hardfbuzz package.

No, I can not just forget about a newer harfbuzz because it is required during compilation of Plasma 5.

Some news for LibreOffice 4.4.0 so that you know it is a good idea to upgrade (all the details are in the release notes of course): enhancements in the visual department should be mentioned (aka a User Interface redesign), as well as an improved Track Changes functionality, and better interoperability with the OOXML file formats of the big competitor.

My LibreOffice 4.4.0 packages for Slackware 14.1 and -current are ready for download from the usual mirror locations:

Have fun! Eric

LibreOffice 4.3.5 built for Slackware, with 4.4.0 not far off

December 21, 2014 / / 15 Comments

There was an announcement a few days ago by The Document Foundation about their latest release. LibreOffice 4.3.5 is now available for download. When browsing the download directories, I noticed that sources for 4.4.0 are already present there, but since there is no public announcement yet, I chose to ignore those sources for now. The 4.3.5 release targets “individual and enterprise users” and fixes 70 bugs compared to the previous version – which is perfect for a Slackware 14.1 user.

But I think the upcoming 4.4.0 version will not be as stable and therefore I may not be compiling packages for it as soon as the sources go public. Maybe I will target only slackware-current, but only if I have time (a libreoffice package compilation for a single architecturetakes roughly 14 hours here in a virtual machine).

My LibreOffice 4.3.5 packages for Slackware 14.1 and -current are ready for download from the usual mirror locations:

Reminder to all of you who also have my KDE 5 packages installed: do not use the updated harfbuzz from my ‘ktown‘ repository because it will break LibreOffice. If you are using Matteo Rossini’s slackpkg+ extension to slackpkg then you can configure it so that Slackware’s own harfbuzz package is preferred over the version which accompanies my KDE 5 packages. See this LQ thread for the details.

Have fun! Eric

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