Installation of LibreOffice on Linux.

As a general rule, you are advised to install LibreOffice via the installation methods recommended by your particular Linux distribution (such as the Ubuntu Software Center, in the case of Ubuntu Linux). This is because it is usually the simplest way to obtain an installation that is optimally integrated into your system. Indeed, LibreOffice may already be installed by default with your Linux operating system.

The community-supplied LibreOffice installers are provided for users having special needs, and for out-of-the-ordinary cases.

Before starting the installation process, check the System Requirements page concerning the prerequisites for installing the community-supplied LibreOffice on a Linux system.

If you have a previously-existing installation of the community-supplied LibreOffice package for Linux, first follow the instructions in the "De-Installation of a Previous Version of Community-Supplied LibreOffice for Linux" section to remove it.

When you are ready to start installation, go to the Downloads page and, in the left-hand dropdown list, choose the package suitable for your system, i.e. for a 32-bit or 64-bit deb-based system (for Debian, Ubuntu, ...), or for a 32-bit or 64-bit rpm-based system (for Fedora, Suse, Mandriva, ...).

If you want to install LibreOffice in a language other than US English, you should also choose a language pack for obtaining a LibreOffice installation in your preferred international language. When you have made your choices, download the package(s).

At this point, you may also want to to install the "LibreOffice built-in help" package which is separate from the installation package. You can use LibreOffice without this package, however, it will then go to the "Help" page on our website instead. A separate "Help" package makes it possible to keep the installation package smaller for downloading purposes.

Instructions below apply to all final releases of 3.3 and 3.4.

Installation of LibreOffice on Debian/Ubuntu-based Linux systems

The instructions here are for installing LibreOffice in US English, on a 32-bit system; there will be slight differences in some directory names if you are installing LibreOffice on a 64-bit system, but the process is basically the same and – hopefully – you will not find these instructions difficult to follow.
For instructions on how to install a language pack (after having installed the US English version of LibreOffice), please read the “Installing a Language Pack” section.
1) After downloading the installer archive file, use Nautilus to decompress it in a directory of your choice (your Desktop directory, for example). After decompressing it, you will see that the contents have been unpacked into a directory called LibO_3.3.0rc1_Linux_x86_install-deb_en-US or LibO_3.4.5rc2_Linux_x86_install-deb_en-US. Open a Nautilus file manager window, and change directory to that directory.
2) The directory contains a subdirectory called DEBS. Change directory to the DEBS directory.
3) Right-click within the DEBS directory and choose “Open in Terminal”. A terminal window will open. From the command line of the terminal window, enter the following command (you will be prompted to enter your root user's password before the command will execute):
sudo dpkg -i *.deb
4) The above dpkg command does the first part of the installation process. To complete the process, you also need to install the desktop integration packages. To do this, change directory to the desktop-integration directory that is within the DEBS directory, using the following command:
cd desktop-integration
Now run the dpkg command again:
sudo dpkg -i *.deb
The installation process is now completed, and you should have icons for all the LibreOffice applications in your desktop's Applications/Office menu.

Installation of LibreOffice on Fedora, Suse, Mandriva and other Linux systems using RPM packages

The instructions here are for installing LibreOffice in US English, on a 32-bit system; there will be slight differences in some directory names if you are installing LibreOffice on a 64-bit system, but the process is basically the same and – hopefully – you will not find these instructions difficult to follow.
For instructions on how to install a language pack (after having installed the US English version of LibreOffice), please read the “Installing a Language Pack” section.
1) After downloading the installer archive file, use Nautilus to decompress it in a directory of your choice (your Desktop directory, for example). After decompressing it, you will see that the contents have been unpacked into a directory called LibO_3.3.0rc1_Linux_x86_install-rpm_en-US or LibO_3.4.5rc2_Linux_x86_install-rpm_en-US. Open a Nautilus file manager window, and change directory to that directory.
2) The directory contains a subdirectory called RPMS. Change directory to the RPMS directory.
3) Right-click within the directory and choose “Open in Terminal”. A terminal window will open. From the command line of the terminal window, enter the following command (you will be prompted to enter your root user's password before the command will execute):
For Fedora-based systems:
su -c 'yum install *.rpm'
For Mandriva-based systems, enter the following commands (enter your root user's password when prompted):
su
followed by
urpmi *.rpm
For other RPM-using systems (Suse, etc.):
su rpm -Uvh *.rpm
4) The above command(s) does the first part of the installation process. To complete the process, you also need to install the desktop integration packages. To do this, change directory to the desktop-integration directory that is within the RPMS directory, by entering the following command at the command line of a terminal window:
cd desktop-integration
Now run the installation command again:
If you have a Fedora system, execute this command:
su -c 'yum install libreoffice3.3-redhat-menus-3.3-1.noarch.rpm'
If you have a Suse system, execute this command:
su -c 'rpm -Uvh install libreoffice3.3-suse-menus-3.3-1.noarch.rpm'
If you have a Mandriva system, execute the following command from the command line of a terminal window (enter your root user's password when prompted):
su
Then execute this command:
urpmi libreoffice3.3-mandriva-menus-3.3-1.noarch.rpm
The installation process is now completed, and you should have icons for all the LibreOffice applications in your desktop's Applications/Office menu.

Notes Concerning Desktop Integration for Linux Distributions Not Covered in the Above Installation Instructions.

It should be easily possible to install LibreOffice on other Linux distributions not specifically covered in these installation instructions. The main aspect for which differences might be encountered is desktop integration.
The desktop-integration directory also contains a package named libreoffice3.3-freedesktop-menus-3.3-3.noarch.rpm. This is a package for all Linux distributions that support the Freedesktop.org specifications/recommendations (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedesktop.org), and is provided for the optimal installation of other Linux distributions not covered in these instructions.
Nowadays, most Linux distribution comply with the Freedesktop.org specifications. But, at the time the package was added, many distributions did use their own methods for making their desktop environments aware of installed/removed applications, and had their own methods for registering MIME types.
The Freedesktop.org specifications/proposals standardize this to use some well-known paths and utilities to update that information.
Affected are the icon theme specification, the MIME types specification and the desktop files specification (application launcher definitions).
To install the desktop integration on such systems, use the following command (you will be prompted to enter your root user's password beforehand):
su rpm -Uvh libreoffice3.3-freedesktop-menus-3.3-3.noarch.rpm

Installing a Language Pack.

1) Go to the Downloads page and download the language pack for your desired language. From the Nautilus file manager, extract the downloaded archive into a directory (your Desktop directory, for instance). Ensure that you have exited all LibreOffice applications (including the QuickStarter, if it is started).
2) Change directory to the directory in which you extracted your downloaded language pack.
3) Now change directory to the directory that was created during the extraction process. For instance, for the French language pack for a 32-bit Debian/Ubuntu-based system, the directory is Desktop/LibO_3.4.5rc2_Linux_x86_langpack-deb_fr.
4) Now change directory to the directory that contains the packages to install. On Debian/Ubuntu-based systems, the directory will be DEBS. On Fedora, Suse or Mandriva systems, the directory will be RPMS.
5) From the Nautilus file manager, right-click in the directory and choose the command “Open in terminal”. In the terminal window you just opened, execute the command to install the language pack (with all of the commands below, you may be prompted to enter your root user's password):
For Debian/Ubuntu-based systems:
sudo dpkg -i *.deb
For Fedora-based systems:
su -c 'yum install *.rpm'
For Mandriva-based systems, execute:
su
Then execute this command:
urpmi *.rpm
For other RPM-using systems (Suse, etc.):
su rpm -Uvh *.rpm
Now start one of the LibreOffice applications – Writer, for instance. Go to the “Tools” menu and choose “Options”. In the “Options” dialog box, click on “Language Settings” and then click on “Languages”. Dropdown the “User interface” list and select the language you just installed. If you want, do the same thing for the “Locale setting”, the “Default currency”, and the “Default languages for documents”.
After adjusting those settings, click on “OK”. The dialog box will close, and you will see an information message telling you that your changes will only be activated after you exit LibreOffice and start it again (remember to also exit the QuickStarter if it is started).
The next time you start LibreOffice, it will start in the language you just installed.

De-Installation of a Previous Version of Community-Supplied LibreOffice for Linux.

The instructions given below make use of the Synaptic Package Manager. While Synaptic is standardly installed on many Linux distributions, it is not on others. Therefore, you may have to install it before proceeding further. While Synaptic may not be installed, it will generally be available from your Linux vendor's software repositories.
To install Synaptic, either use the software installer provided by your Linux distribution (such as the Ubuntu Software Center provided by Ubuntu Linux), or else open a terminal window and enter the following commands (you will have to enter your root user's password beforehand):
sudo apt-get install synaptic
You may be prompted to approve the installation of some dependencies for Synaptic. If prompted, approve the installation of the dependencies.

Note for KDE users: If apt-get complains that Synaptic is not available, launch KPackageKit and enable all repositories, by checking the appropriate boxes in the “Settings” page. Then, from the command line of a terminal window, update from the repositories by running the command sudo apt-get update (you will have to enter your root user's password before the command will be executed). After doing this, resume the installation of Synaptic.

Once you have ensured that Synaptic is installed on your system, proceed as follows to de-install an existing installation of LibreOffice:
1) Launch the Synaptic Package Manager.
2) Click in the Search box.
3) Enter the string “libreoffice”. You may need to click on the “Search Results” button before you see this filtering string applied.
4) This search will display a list of matching packages. In this list, there will be one package named simply “libreoffice3”. Right-click on that package name and, in the context-sensitive menu that opens, choose “Mark for Complete Removal”.
You will be prompted to accept the marking of a number of additional changes. Accept these additional changes.
In the packages list, scroll down until you see the first package that is not yet marked for removal. Right-click on that package name and, in the context-sensitive menu that opens, choose “Mark for Complete Removal”.
Do the same for the next package. You will be prompted to accept the marking of a number of additional changes. Accept these additional changes.
Continue right down to the bottom of the list and mark every single listed package for complete removal.
Note: Complete removal is the best option: “Mark for Removal” removes the installation, but does not delete the files from your system; “Mark for Complete Removal” also deletes the files from your system.
5) Click on “Apply”. A dialog box will open, to prompt you for confirmation. Click on “OK”. Allow the de-installation process to complete.
6) Afterwards, the package list may still contain a few more packages. Mark all of those remaining packages for removal, as explained in step 4 above.
7) Click on “Apply”. A dialog box will open, to prompt you for confirmation. Click on “OK”. Allow the de-installation process to complete.
LibreOffice will now have been removed from your system.
To ensure the cleanest-possible removal of a previous installation of LibreOffice, you can optionally also execute the following command in a terminal window, and then manually delete any remaining files discovered, using Nautilus or the file manager provided by your particular Linux distribution:
locate libreoffice | less
Skipping this optional step will not have any serious consequences for your system. You will just have a small number of obsolete files taking up a fairly small amount of disk space.

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