Confused about OpenOffice 2.1

[billquinn]

I looked at some of the threads here on OO 2.1, especially the one started by Jim March. I would like to install OO 2.1 from the official OpenOffice.org Web site. But first, I was hoping someone might know the answers to a few questions:

(1) The instructions for installing OO 2.1 at the OpenOffice.org Web site state that the distro version should be completely removed before installing. Is this better to do with yum or rpm?

(2) Also, if I do remove it, what if disaster befalls? How can I go back to my "Fedora" version of 2.0.4?

(3) I keep Fedora Core 6 updated on a daily basis. But one of the threads indicated that yum will want to reinstall 2.0.4. (Maybe that's the answer to my question number 2 above???). The Jim-March thread indicated that this can be prevented by inserting a line in the yum.conf file. How then do I get the updates for 2.1?

(4) What will happen when yum finally starts using OO 2.1?

I am a teacher and literally use OO on a daily basis. Thus, I worry about such a big step as this. But I would like OO 2.1 because I also use Mathematica, and OO 2.0.4 apparently has a problem or bug with MathML and copy/paste operations from Mathematica to OO Writer. I am thinking these problems have been solved in OO 2.1.

Any advice/suggestions/cautions??

Thanks.

Bill

[stevea]

Originally Posted by billquinn

(1) The instructions for installing OO 2.1 at the OpenOffice.org Web site state that the distro version should be completely removed before installing. Is this better to do with yum or rpm?

yum uses rpm as the underlying toolset - so use whichever seems easiest to you. I'd strongly suggest yum (or pirut). "rpm -qa openoff*" will give you an idea about the packages involved; about a dozen in all if you have the works installed.

Originally Posted by billquinn

(2) Also, if I do remove it, what if disaster befalls? How can I go back to my "Fedora" version of 2.0.4?

Just use yum toinstall all the packages again. when you go to UNinstall openoffice with yum, it will give you a list of all the packages dependent on OO which also must be UNinstalled. Cut & paste that list to file and save it for a rainy day.

Originally Posted by billquinn

(3) I keep Fedora Core 6 updated on a daily basis. But one of the threads indicated that yum will want to reinstall 2.0.4. (Maybe that's the answer to my question number 2 above???). The Jim-March thread indicated that this can be prevented by inserting a line in the yum.conf file. How then do I get the updates for 2.1?

"yum update" should not normally try to re-install a package like OO once it is removed. The only case that would cause that is if some package update REQUIRED OO, and I don't think that's likely.

You won't get any 2.1 updates - there are none (from the fedora repositories anyway).
If 2.1.1. came you you'd have to download the 120MB again and reinstall via tarball.

Originally Posted by billquinn

(4) What will happen when yum finally starts using OO 2.1?

You'll be off on a separate branch and you'll have to reinstall the rpms from the fedora site if you choose to re-sync with the fedora releases/updates.

Originally Posted by billquinn

I am a teacher and literally use OO on a daily basis. Thus, I worry about such a big step as this. But I would like OO 2.1 because I also use Mathematica, and OO 2.0.4 apparently has a problem or bug with MathML and copy/paste operations from Mathematica to OO Writer. I am thinking these problems have been solved in OO 2.1.

Any advice/suggestions/cautions??

Uninstalling & re-installing pakages from the fedora repositories isn't really very difficult or troublesome. I would however suggest that rather than try for the 1st time with a monster package like OO you try it with some smaller simpler package that you never use. Install the Haskall compiler or cogito or some games .. and then remove it just for the experience.

[billquinn]

Thanks, Stevea. Very systematic answer! I successfully installed OO 2.1 from the OpenOffice.org Web site.