Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

I'm new to Puppy (running fossa 9,5 from USB), but I quite like it (I used to have Ubuntu in the past and I still have Lubuntu on one of the partitions). Normally I used LibreOffice for Linux, but I've found this AbiWord and I wanted to try it, especially is super-fast. However it shuts down after a while of using it, when I try to save a file. Hence I need to get LibreOffice, so I thought I can try "get LO download and install" option from the menu. It asked me which version I want. I chose 7.5 and it downloaded and installed LibreOffice or at least it looked like it did, or maybe it only downloaded it (get Vivaldi browser option didn't work as well for me, but it was quite easy to install it manually). Well, at the end it asked me if I want LibreOffice to be my default application, so I think it installed it as well. However LibreOffice didn't appear in my menu. I thought I'll download it manually. There are rpm and deb options to get - I downloaded deb or exactly LibreOffice_7.5.0_Linux_x86-64_deb.tar.gz and I extracted it. Now I have a lot of options to install it. I chose "create a pet package", bars on computer performance graph jumped for a while, but they are back to normal now and I cannot see LibreOffice has been installed. Which step I did wrong?
I just clicked the "get LibreOffice" in the menu again, but this time I get the following message:

Regards,
Damian

@szept

You forgot to tell us what version of Puppy you are using. In any event, since you are new, using a .sfs package will probably be easiest for you. Check here for some newer versions.
https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?t=5642
You should use the Puppy package manager (PPM) to remove what you have previously installed, then just click the .sfs file to add it to the file system. You may have to restart x (the graphical server) before the menu entry shows.

wizard

@szept

Morning:

You can use a lot of pets, you can find a lot of information about software to install, you can,... but for me, the bests results are installing these @mikewalsh portable apps.- https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?t=5104

Really simple, you place them where u want, make a direct acces to the LAUCH file and start working.

It's possible you must make associations to libre office, but is really simple.- Right click on the launch program, select MAKE SHORTCUT, copy the location and now go to SETUP , make deffault applications, go to WORD PROCESSOR and paste there the shortcut... IT WORKS,.

Hope it helps.

MORE INFO about sites to visit and receive more info (is possible you wanna use then when u more inmersed into puppy world)

http://www.protopage.com/pp4mnkt3am#Pub ... PPy_Linux

Ok, I'm going to try it out. Thanks!

Ditto what's been written before. I'd add only the following two options, neither of which create menu entries. You can download a LibreOffice AppImage, https://www.libreoffice.org/download/appimage/ or a deb package, https://www.libreoffice.org/download/do ... breoffice/ and rather than install the latter, unpack it. As such it will be a portable.

I've attached a pet which --on my desktop-- creates menu entries to an AppImage. [Did it more as an exercise as I find the LibreOffice SFS more convenient]. But you can use it as a template to see how easy it is to build menu pets under Puppys. Just extract it.
The script to start LibreOffice-Write is found in the /root/my-applications/bin folder [as are scripts to start the other modules]. LibreWrite.sh in pertinent part reads:

/mnt/home/Pup-Apps/LibreOffice.AppImage --writer

/mnt/home/Pup-Apps/ is the path to the AppImage on my computer. And I renamed the LibreOffice AppImage by removing any versioning specifications.
Menu entries are created in /usr/share/applications, with specific Exec arguments calling the scripts in /root/my-applications/bin and identifying where and which icon to display.

I'm new to Puppy (running fossa 9,5 from USB),

Have you done a shutdown and made a save?

Are now booted using the save?

Do that before trying to install anything.

If you made a save file and not a save folder.
You need to make it at least 2GB or bigger in size.

The menu entry get LibreOffice should have worked.
But if you do not have enough free space, in the save, to hold it all.
It will be a bad install.

The bad thing is, nothing will warn you that there is not enough free space, in the save.

bigpup wrote: ↑Mon Feb 06, 2023 2:12 am

Have you done a shutdown and made a save?
Are now booted using the save?

Yes.

If you made a save file and not a save folder.
You need to make it at least 2GB or bigger in size.

I've chosen the maximum 4GB save file and I didn't put much yet, so should be pretty empty.

Also...

When I run the downloaded LibreOffice_7.5.0_Linux_x86-64_deb.tar.gz file it asked me to extract it. It created a LibreOffice_7.5.0.3_Linux_x86-64_deb folder. Then I did the Create a pet package on it and it was processing something until I got the following.

Does it mean it actually installed it, but I won't find it by the Findrun? Where might it be?

I will try the .sfs package, but I'd like to solve this puzzle first

Some deb packages do not provide the needed files to produce a menu entry.
Sometimes they are there, but the menu did not get updated to use them.

To try and get a menu entry.

In a console (terminal) enter:

fixmenus

Press enter
That should rebuild the menu.

If still no menu entry.

Look in /usr/share/applications
For a menu entry to be made, there has to be a .desktop file for the program
So look here to see if there are any .desktop files for anything about LibreOffice.

There is always the chance that what you downloaded did not download 100% perfect.
A fresh new download could be what is needed.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In my frugal install of Fossapup64 9.5

To let you know that it works.

I just did an install using the menu -> Document -> Get LibreOffice.
It downloaded basically what you did, extracted it, and turned it into a SFS package, loaded it into the file system, and put menu entries in Menu -> Document.
The LibreOffice.sfs is stored at /mnt/home location.

When this was being done, it should have asked if you want to do everything running in RAM instead of using space on the drive.
If you selected to do it in RAM.
If computer has less than 4GB of RAM that could cause problems doing this process.
.
.
.

This is some information you need to know:

Installing Additional Software
https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic. ... 307#p14307

There are a few updates to Fossapup65 9.5
Quickpet icon on desktop.
Quickpet -> Info -> Fossapup updates
Reboot and update the save, so these changes are now being used.

@szept :-

Part of the problem for Menu entries is that, although Puppy does try to adhere to freedesktop.org standards insofar as is possible, certain of the 'mime-type' categories used don't always seem to match with what's used by the Linux 'mainstream'. Sometimes, a bit of editing may be required.

I also get the impression from m'colleague's posts over the years that he's of the opinion that most member's problems are caused by their NOT following instructions to the letter! By & large, he's right!

----------------------------------------------------

LibreOffice is a bit of an 'odd' one, anyway. The package will install into /opt. Inside that, you'll find a directory like 'libreoffice7.2'. Inside that, you need to look within the directory labelled 'program'. Inside THAT, the actual launch scripts are labelled like

• 'simpress'

• 'sdraw'

• 'scalc'

• 'sbase'

.....although the only one you really need, IMHO, is the one labelled

• 'soffice'

This is the one that will fire-up the 'launcher', which will permit access to all the other parts of L.Office. They provide individual launchers for every part of LibreOffice, but to me this just makes the Menu look cluttered & untidy. Merely my personal opinion.

(So far as I know, the strange script names are a legacy of the split between OpenOffice and LibreOffice some years back, when L.Office was 'forked-off' as its own separate project.)

------------------------------------------------------

If you need to create your own Menu entries for anything, I did put together a guide a while back. You can find it here:-

https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?t=3420

Hopefully, it may perhaps help.

Mike.

szept wrote: ↑Mon Feb 06, 2023 6:14 pm

Also...

When I run the downloaded LibreOffice_7.5.0_Linux_x86-64_deb.tar.gz file it asked me to extract it. It created a LibreOffice_7.5.0.3_Linux_x86-64_deb folder. Then I did the Create a pet package on it and it was processing something until I got the following.

Does it mean it actually installed it, but I won't find it by the Findrun? Where might it be?

I will try the .sfs package, but I'd like to solve this puzzle first

Before getting back to that I'll mention that you'll notice the file you downloaded was over 200 Mbs compressed. If you create a pet and install it, it installs decompressed* taking up over 600 Mbs of your 2 Gb SaveFile. And wasting a significant amount of RAM even when not in use. Which is why an SFS, portable or AppImage is preferred. When not in use, less than 2 Mbs of RAM are required, and SFSes and AppImages are compressed.

LibreOffice used to offer a 'tar.gz' package --note, no preceding deb-- which when decompressed was the portable I mentioned. I guess they stopped. You can use the deb.tar.gz. But after decompressing the tar.gz to get the deb*, you then decompress the deb to just get a folder which essentially is the portable I mentioned. Right-Clicking the portable will bring up a GUI with the options to create a pet or an SFS. But neither will have a menu entry.
When SFS-loaded the files will occupy /opt. The easy workaround is to also install the Menu-pet. Double-check that the script points to /opt/libreoffice7.x/program/ various scripts, i.e. swriter. T'Other Mike use of just soffice is OK. But I often use swriter and occasionally scalc so have entries for both.
The more taxing work-around involves using PaDS** to combine a libreoffice pet and a libreoffice menu-pet to create an SFS including both. I've gotta run so can't provide details; and you'd have to do that each time you upgrade libreoffice.

-=-=-=-=-
* A package (deb, pet, rpm, txz, etc) has two elements: (1) the folders & files constituting the application and (2) instructions used by the operating system for which it was built and by which its builder expects it to be installed to decompress the package and disburse its contents into locations used by that operating system. Those locations now differ from one 64bit operating system to another. But that doesn't matter if the application places most files in /opt with only those needed for menu entries in /usr. All operating systems will use the file in /usr/share/applications to generate menu entries. Those files (ending with the suffix .desktop) are text files with arguments as to where the executable and icon to be displayed are located.

Puppys have built-in instructions for pets, debs and txzs, maybe some others. UExtract can be used to decompress dozens of types of packages.

I don't know why the simple tar.gz or tar.xz offering was discontinued.

** The application PaDS, https://www.forum.puppylinux.com/viewto ... 6355#p6355 can be used to create an SFS by combining many packages. I think I once had an application that downloaded as 82 individual debs. I just placed them all in a folder --e.g. named my-application-- Right-Clicked the folder, selected 'combine to SFS' from the popup menu, and PaDS serially decompressed the packages, copied their content into a work-directory it created, then dir2sfs that work-directory to create (in this example) my-applications.sfs. I know you could combine a libreoffice.deb and a libreoffice-menu.pet to create an libreoffice.sfs. I think you could use PaDS to produce an SFS from just the libreoffice.deb; then install a menu-pet. For future reference, the name of the folder can not be identical to the name of any package within it.

pp4mnklinux wrote: ↑Sun Feb 05, 2023 8:13 am

You can use a lot of pets, you can find a lot of information about software to install, you can,... but for me, the bests results are installing these @mikewalsh portable apps.- viewtopic.php?t=5104

Really simple, you place them where u want, make a direct acces to the LAUCH file and start working.

It's possible you must make associations to libre office, but is really simple.- Right click on the launch program, select MAKE SHORTCUT, copy the location and now go to SETUP , make deffault applications, go to WORD PROCESSOR and paste there the shortcut... IT WORKS,.

How are these portables different to .sfs format?
What is that Vanilla Dpup 9.2.x?

mikeslr wrote: ↑Sun Feb 05, 2023 4:39 pm

Ditto what's been written before. I'd add only the following two options, neither of which create menu entries. You can download a LibreOffice AppImage,

Is the appimage the same as .sfs or is it something different?

bigpup wrote: ↑Mon Feb 06, 2023 7:25 pm

In my frugal install of Fossapup64 9.5
I just did an install using the menu -> Document -> Get LibreOffice.
It downloaded basically what you did, extracted it, and turned it into a SFS package, loaded it into the file system, and put menu entries in Menu -> Document.
The LibreOffice.sfs is stored at /mnt/home location.

I haven't find anyting in /usr/share/applications. Neither restart nor fixmenus didn't create a menu entry, but(!) I found the LibreOffice-7.5.0_64_pl_Extra_xz.sfs in the home location! I wasn't sure this is the actual office, ready to play, but both next posts added another hint.

mikewalsh wrote: ↑Tue Feb 07, 2023 6:16 am

LibreOffice is a bit of an 'odd' one, anyway. The package will install into /opt. Inside that, you'll find a directory like 'libreoffice7.2'. Inside that, you need to look within the directory labelled 'program'. Inside THAT, the actual launch scripts are labelled like

• 'simpress'

• 'sdraw'

• 'scalc'

• 'sbase'

So somehow the .sfs file has been created. Not sure what caused that (get LibreOffice from menu or downloading package from the official website and playing with it), but maybe it's not so important right now. The most important thing is I have it and it's working

mikeslr wrote: ↑Tue Feb 07, 2023 2:11 pm

Before getting back to that I'll mention that you'll notice the file you downloaded was over 200 Mbs compressed. If you create a pet and install it, it installs decompressed* taking up over 600 Mbs of your 2 Gb SaveFile. And wasting a significant amount of RAM even when not in use. Which is why an SFS, portable or AppImage is preferred. When not in use, less than 2 Mbs of RAM are required, and SFSes and AppImages are compressed.

LibreOffice used to offer a 'tar.gz' package --note, no preceding deb-- which when decompressed was the portable I mentioned. I guess they stopped. You can use the deb.tar.gz. But after decompressing the tar.gz to get the deb*, you then decompress the deb to just get a folder which essentially is the portable I mentioned. Right-Clicking the portable will bring up a GUI with the options to create a pet or an SFS. But neither will have a menu entry.
When SFS-loaded the files will occupy /opt. The easy workaround is to also install the Menu-pet. Double-check that the script points to /opt/libreoffice7.x/program/ various scripts, i.e. swriter. T'Other Mike use of just soffice is OK. But I often use swriter and occasionally scalc so have entries for both.

Ok, so if I got it right - SFS, portable and AppImage are 3 different things of having an app on Puppy (or maybe other linuxes as well). PaDS are something like that as well? If too much explaning for PaDS, then just tell me what are the differences (advantages and disadv) between SFS, portable and AppImage please. Sizewise, can shortcuts in the menu can be created, etc.

P.S.
From time to time I copy my puppy save file and in case I screw something up, I just replace it - awesome stuff (I've never had a usb live linux before) and as a neewbie I'm glad I can do that

I can explain, but the best infor is when trying it, meanwhile..... https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?t=6055

Have a nice weekend, my friend @szept

I found the LibreOffice-7.5.0_64_pl_Extra_xz.sfs in the home location!

Use menu -> Setup -> SFS-load-on-the-fly program.

Left side.
Look in the drop down list of detected SFS's

Select LibreOffice-7.5.0_64_pl_Extra_xz.sfs

Select load.

Now it should show in the right side list showing it is loaded.

Close program.

Now see if there are menu entries in menu-> Document

bigpup wrote: ↑Sat Feb 11, 2023 3:51 am

Use menu -> Setup -> SFS-load-on-the-fly program.

It is on the right hand side (in mounted SFS), even after laptop restart, but still not in the menu. It's not a tragedy, but if you have any other idea, please share

Thanks!

Try in a terminal (console) this:

fixmenus

Any help?

After looking at the name of the SFS you have:
LibreOffice-7.5.0_64_pl_Extra_xz.sfs

I wonder if you have the correct one.
That extra in the name may be just added stuff for the real complete LibreOffice.

Did you add something from the extra listed items, when you first downloaded and made the SFS?
A pl help or language pack?
Or is pl your selected language for LibreOffice?

I am using LibreOffice-7.5.0_64_en-US_xz.sfs
The English US version.

Maybe just delete all of the LibeOffice SFS's that you have.

Open the Puppy Package Manager -> Uninstall
Remove any LibreOffice it shows installed.

Try again new using menu-> Document -> Get LibreOffice

It should first download a deb package of LibreOffice
Convert it into an SFS package of LibreOffice
Then load the SFS into the file system.

I'll throw in some comments...

I gave up on abiword a long time ago.

For EasyOS, the experimental distro I'm currently working on, libreoffice is builtin, despite it's size.
So, you get it out-of-the-box when bootup.

Also, and I'm probably the only pup-developer that does this, I compile libreoffice from source, so that it is completely compatible with the libraries in Easy.

The price that I'm paying by putting so much into easy.sfs is that it is big (Easy doesn't have separate adrv, etc sfs' just one big one).