Mr. Linux - HELP! I can't get Corel Office 2000 to install on Slackware Linux!!!

Well HELP is here!!! With assistance from Avi Schwartz's scripts I wrote a single script that will get WPO2000 installed for you on Slackware Linux 7!!!

(4/19/00) I have also been told that this script will work on SUSE 6.3

Worked like a champ on my SuSE 6.3 system.  Nothing needed to add, ZERO,
ZIPPO problems.  I do have most of the SuSE 6.3 distribution installed,
so that may have helped with not needing to add/update anything.

What I ran into getting this thing installed and what this script does (4/7/00):

• You need to install as root. My script checks this.
• You cannot re-install without removing, via RPM, the packages. During the Corel GUI installation phase, one of the RPM setup scripts causes RPM or the GUI installer to fail in this condition. My script checks for this too.
• If your CDROM is not mounted, my script will find it and mount it!
• The Corel installer is ignorant of BSD style init script layouts. If they don't exist, my script will create the necessary SYSV directories and files to fake the installer.
• It'll create some wrapper RPM and other scripts needed to fake the installer. Thanks Avi!
• Some of the packages seem to want a user called and group called "builder". My script will create them if they do not already exist as UID and GID 99: AKA nobody, as I have no idea why this is needed.
• The my script launches Corel's GUI installer and waits till completion.
• Corel sets up their KDE icons in a totally different directory than Slackware's standard. This script will move everything necessary so you can see them on your KDE panel.
• If you are installing from KDE, I see this and restart the panel so that you can now use all your new spiffy icons. Corel recommends logging out and then back in. C'mon it's almost like a Windows reboot to us. You don't need to do that!!! :-)
• I remove the rpm and other wrapper scripts I created. I do, however, leave installed /etc/rc.d/init.d/functions (unless it already existed) and /sbin/daemon (which fontastic seems to need).
• If you didn't have the CDROM mounted, I unmount it. If you had it mounted, I leave it alone... :-)

• CDROM install is not REQUIRED. If a path is specified, you can install from a pre-mounted directory or NFS.
• I restart the FontTastic daemon so that you can unmount the CDROM. No matter how I tried to fire off the installer, it always seemed to launch the daemon from the CDROM directory, thus making it impossible to unmount it when you were finished...
• The libncurses 4 package is no longer needed. Andrew from Corel told me that just a sym-link to version 5 will do. Now I sym-link it if I can't find it, post GUI install.
• I clean up any EMPTY /etc/rc.d/rc?.d directories since Slackware doesn't use them.
• On a clean Slackware install (thanks to VMware) I noticed an error in the beginning that FontTastic wanted to touch a file in /var/lock/subsys. So, if it does not already exist, I'll create it.
• Now I leave run-parts installed (a script I create on the fly to fake the installer out - thanks again Avi!) as the program "setupWPO2000 --force" seems to need it.
• I ran into a problem with the way I add the user and group builder into /etc/passwd and /etc/group. I use NIS at work and had to make my script NIS aware. 3:37pm 4/12/00
• Someone running Slackware 4 e-mailed me about a libc runtime error. I have now added a check to see which version they are running. WPO2000 REQUIRES glibc version 2 or better to run. This is available on Slackware Linux 7 (or better). 4/13/00 - ok, I was corrected. Slackware 4 DOES have glibc 2.0.7 runtime libs available. I used the rpm.tgz package from Slackware 7 which is statically linked so it will run fine on Slackware 4. I can install just fine, but the fonttastic font server segfaults and WPO appears to be dependent on it. I cannot get WPO to run on Slackware 4. I tried using the glibc runtime kit from ye olde Star Office package with no luck either.

• Changed the CDROM detection to look for just "cdrom" and not "/dev/cdrom" in /etc/fstab...

• check whoami instead of $logname. I changed this because I dissalow root logins on my machines and force people to su. su doesnt change $logname (even when using su -)
• make sure /sbin is in the PATH first so that the correct rpm wrapper is found. PATH=/sbin:${PATH} ; export PATH
• I don't have KDEDIR set by default (its in a wrapper script) so I added a line at the top of the script KDEDIR=${KDEDIR:-/opt/kde} ; export KDEDIR to set it to something likely if its not already set to something.

If you have problems installing with this script, please let me know!!! I will try to help you in any way possible.

Some notes:

• Make sure you have the /etc/rc.d/rc.sysvinit set as executable. This will allow the FonTastic daemon to launch from /etc/rc.d/init.d whenever you boot.

• I found out what's happening with the printers, but I have more testing to do. It has to do with the format of the printcap file that WPO parses when the app starts. It apparently wants it to look like Corel Linux's version. Sheesh! Hopefully I can put a fix in my script to auto-magically get the printers going! Woohoo!
• 4/12/00 - I ran a clean Slackware install and WPO2000 SAW the default printer which throws a wrench into the works as far as how I was going to fix it!?!?! I sure wish I knew how Corel is searching for printers that is screwing up some installs!!!

(4/25/00) The solution to the printing problem:

I'm not sure what triggers off this problem. But you can fix this by putting comments in between your printers in your printcap file. WPO somehow parses this and sees something it doesnt like, because irregardless of the comments, I installed on another machine without these comments and it worked fine. Yet if I insert these comments on a system it doesnt like it seems to be happy the next time I load WPO. I don't think a re-install is needed.

Example printcap file:

##PRINTTOOL3## LOCAL laserjet 300x300 letter {} LaserJet Default {}
lp:\
        :sd=/var/spool/lpd/local:\
        :mx#0:\
        :sh:\
        :if=/var/spool/lpd/local/filter:\
        :lp=/dev/lp0:
##PRINTTOOL3## LOCAL laserjet 300x300 letter {} LaserJet Default {}
local:\
        :sd=/var/spool/lpd/local:\
        :mx#0:\
        :sh:\
        :if=/var/spool/lpd/local/filter:\
        :lp=/dev/lp0:

The "Control Panel" this package is referring to is the COREL LINUX CONTROL PANEL. Corel Linux has a customized KDE Control Panel that you can set up printers with. You can see a snapshot of the Corel desktop with the Control Panel here. It is pretty nice, but only applicable to Corel Linux. I guess they REALLY want you to have ALL Corel components installed on your PC as they have no regard for any other distros. I'm rapidly losing my patience with this stuff...