Yes, you can run Linux StarOffice 8 on NetBSD-current. (Tested only using the SuSE 9.1 emulation stuff.) These instructions are from memory.
1. The installer won’t run. It will unpack (by default into /var/tmp/unpack_staroffice), but the script it calls won’t run.
2. You could make that script run, but it won’t work.
3. So just install the rpm files by hand, in /var/tmp/unpack_staroffice/RPMS, as root:
rpm -i –force –ignorearch –ignoreos –nodeps *.rpm
4. You will get a very cryptic error from staroffice-core05u*, which has to do with a script failing. After the rpms are done:
# echo Command after installing
# searching for the PRODUCTINSTALLLOCATION for the different platforms
PRODUCTINSTALLLOCATION="/opt/staroffice8"
LIBTABNAME="libtab.so.1"
X=`perl -e "print time()+7776000"`
X=`perl -e "printf qq/ORTRTA%c%03oB%c%03oI%c%03oN%c%03oD/, 0x5c, $X>>24&0xff, 0x5c, $X>>16&0xff, 0x5c, $X>>8&0xff, 0x5c, $X&0xff"`
cat $PRODUCTINSTALLLOCATION/program/$LIBTABNAME |\
perl -pe "s/ORTRTA.B.I.N.D/$X/" > $PRODUCTINSTALLLOCATION/program/tmptab.dat
mv $PRODUCTINSTALLLOCATION/program/tmptab.dat $PRODUCTINSTALLLOCATION/program/$LIBTABNAME
chmod 444 $PRODUCTINSTALLLOCATION/program/$LIBTABNAME
This is the relevant chunk of the script, modified to actually run.
Save that script, run it (as root).
StarOffice8 is now installed. Run /opt/staroffice8/program/soffice to bring it up, put in your registration key, and so on.
For $69, you can get a license to run a program so much better than Microsoft Office as to cause me physical pain. I spent $100 to get a really super-cheap version of MS Office with my ThinkPad. You know what? I have better luck exchanging files with other users of MS Office using StarOffice than I do with that shiny, fully updated and patched, copy of Office XP. When I open some documents made in Word for Mac using Office XP on Windows, I get 14" text columns; if I reset them to actually fit on an 8.5" page, the resulting document opens with about 1/4" text columns on Word for Mac.
When I use StarOffice, it just all works.
Comments [archived]
From: Karsten Kruse
Date: 2005-10-13 02:51:50 -0500
Hi,
nice to see that NetBSD does the trick for you.
If $69 causes you pain you probably jump out of the window if you install OpenOffice :).
Keep it up,
Karsten