Now, if you already have OpenOffice you can still install LibreOffice. And if you are using Windows you simply have to download the installation file from the LibreOffice download page. If you are using Fedora Linux you can download the GNU Linux file which, once unpacked, will contain all the rpm files you need. If you want to install in Ubuntu, you have to first create debs from the rpms. I am going to show you how to do just that in this article (along with showing you how to install LibreOffice in Fedora).

Installing in Fedora

As stated earlier, you need to download the package from the download site. When you do you will have a file ~/Downloads/LO_3.3.0-beta1_Linux_x86_install-rpm_en-US.tar.gz. NOTE: File name may vary depending upon location and when you download. Once you have that file downloaded open up a terminal window and follow these steps:

1. Change into the ~/Downloads directory.
2. Unpack the file with the command tar xvzf LO_3.3.0-beta1_Linux_x86_install-rpm_en-US.tar.gz which will create a new directory ~/Downloads/en-US. NOTE: The newly created directory will be based on your location and language.
3. Change into the newly created directory.
4. Change into the RPMS subfolder.
5. Su to the root user and issue the command rpm -ivh *rpm to install the main packages.
6. Now change into the sub-directory desktop-integration.
7. Issue the command rpm -ivh *rpm to install the LibreOffice menu entries.

That’s it. LibreOffice is now installed on your Fedora machine.

Ubuntu

In order to install on Ubuntu you have to create .deb files out of the .rpm files included with the downloaded packages. To do this you first have to install the application Alien. To install Alien do the following:

1. Open up a terminal.
2. Issue the command sudo apt-get install alien.
3. Type your sudo password and hit Enter.
4. Accept any dependencies.

Once Alien is installed, change into the directory containing the LibreOffice rpm files and issue the command:

alien -k *rpm

When this finishes (it will take a while), issue the command:

sudo dpkg -i *deb

The above command will install the newly created .deb packages. Now you need to do the same thing with the desktop-integration files. So change into that sub-folder and issue the command:

alien -k *rpm

followed by the command:

sudo dpkg -i *deb

Now you will see LibreOffice in your Applications > Office menu. You can open it up and use it exactly as you would have used OpenOffice.

Final thoughts

One thing to note is that LibreOffice, as of this writing, is still in beta. But it is still very reliable and will improve at a far greater rate than OpenOffice ever did. I’m actually happy to see this happen. I believe that Oracle was going to bury OpenOffice and let it gather dust.

We all know how simple it is to install downloaded applications on the Windows platform. What would you say if I told you it was just as easy to install a downloaded application on the Linux platform? And not just on Ubuntu…but on other Linux distributions. Would you be surprised? Would you be in disbelief? Well, for those disbelievers I have the proof for you today. In this article I will show you how to install downloaded applications, in Linux, with a double click.

What this applies to

Before you think this is going to show you how to install an application from source with a double click, think again. This will only apply to the packages created for a systems package manager. What that means is you can install .deb files in an apt-based (or dpkg-based) system (such as Ubuntu) or .rpm files in an RPM-based system (such as Fedora). If you are wanting to install from source, you will have to employ the command line tool. For the rest…you are just a double click away from installation goodness.

The dependency issue

There can, of course, be issues with this installation. The biggest issue will be dependencies. If a file you are attempting to install has unmet dependencies it will not install. When this happens you can try to meet those dependencies by using your Add/Remove Software tool. Or you can attempt to download the dependency files (after googling them and finding the right version) and install in the same way you are going to install the main application. This is one of the many reasons why it is always best to use your package management system. There are, of course, times when you need a package installed that it not in your package management system and there are no repositories for that tool. That is when this method will come into play.

How it works

Believe it or not, it works in much the same way as it does on the Windows  platform. Let’s see just how this works. I am going to install a package (one that I will writing about very soon) called Hot Copy. For that tool I have downloaded the .zip file (which contains binaries in both .deb and .rpm format. That file will have downloaded to my ~/Downloads directory. Here are the steps for installation (I will be explaining this from the GNOME desktop).

Step 1

Open up Nautilus to the ~/Downloads directory. In this directory you will see the .zip file you downloaded.

Figure 1

Step 2

Double click on the newly downloaded file. This will open up the archive file to display all of the contents. In the case of this file there will be two directories and a help file. The two directories will be for each of the different hardware architecture (x86 for 32 bit systems and x86_64 for 64 bit systems). Double click on the directory for your machines architecture to reveal the included installation files (see Figure 1).

Step 3

Figure 2

For the Ubuntu installation I am going to install both .deb files in this package. First I will double click the hotcopy .deb file. When I do this it will open up the GDebi package installation tool. When this new window opens (see Figure 2)  all I have to do is click the Install package buttton. GDebi will ask for the users password to complete the installation. You might recognize GDebi from any time you have downloaded a .deb file from the web. it’s the same routine.

When the installation is complete GDebi will report the installation is finished and you can then close the progress window and then close the GDebi window.

That’s it. And, believe it or not, the process is pretty much the same on the Fedora distribution as well.

Final thoughts

I bet you never thought installation applications in Linux was this easy. Well, Linux has come a long, long way since the early days when the command line was a requirement. Now, it seems, the command line is only an option. Although I can’t imagine myself using Linux without the command line (it’s how I was taught after all), it is completely possible to do so.

Although, at first blush, it might seem the YaST Software Installation tool might be more suited for the power user (at least as far as GUIs are concerned), when you finally examine the tool, you will see otherwise. The OpenSuSE Add/Remove Software tool is easy enough for any experience level. So, with that said, let’s take a look at the YaST Package Manager.

Starting the tool

Figure 1

As I said in the intro, there is more than one way to start this tool: From within YaST itself or from within the main menu (Start > Computer > Install Software). NOTE: If you’re looking for the command line tool, we’ll cover that in another article. When you first start the tool you will have to enter your root password and then the tool will start running through a few checks. Once the tool is up and running, you will be greeted with what should be a fairly familiar window.

The tab that gets focus, by default, is the Installation Summary tab. This shows you every package you currently have installed on your system. If you click on a package you can get plenty of information about that package.

But let’s say you want to install a particular piece of software on your OpenSuSE system. How do you go about doing that? Simple. The first thing you have to do is find the package. Let’s say you want to install the game Frozen Bubble on your OpenSuSE machine. You could do this two different ways.

Figure 2

1. RPM Groups. If you click on the RPM Groups tab you will see all packages grouped together by category (see Figure 2). To find the software you want to install first find the main group (or category) it would fall under. In the case of Frozen Bubble, we would look in the Games group. In some cases a group will hold sub-groups.

Once you have found the software you wish to install, mark it for installation and then click the Accept button. Depending upon what you are installing, you might have to accept an EULA or dependencies.

2. Search. This is simple. Click on the Search tab, enter the package your looking for, mark the results for installation, and click accept. Of course you can narrow your search results by searching for any of the following: Name, keywords, summary, description, RPM provides, RPM requires, or file list.

Patterns

The YaST Package Management system also has a handy feature that allows you to view software by Patterns. Patterns are software packages that are grouped together by function: Graphical Desktop Environment,  Desktop Functions, Base Technologies, Server Functions, Proprietary Software, and Development. From these Patterns you can easily select a piece of software (such as KDE 4 or GNOME) and, with a single click select every piece of software necessary to install that pattern.

Final thoughts

You have now seen how simple the YaST Package Manager is to use. In my next article I will show you how to manage repositories in this same tool so you can further enhance the YaST Add/Remove Software experience.

You might think that Luckybackup is a tool only an end-user could love. Not so. Although Luckybackup is simple to use, open source, and free it’s a worthy candidate for business backup as well. Oh sure, you’re not going to image your machines with this backup tool, but you can backup your data. In this article I am going to show you how to install and use Luckybackup.

Installation

Installation is simple. If you’re lucky Luckybackup will be found in your distributions repositories. If that’s the case, just fire up your package manager tool, search for “luckybackup” (No quotes), select Lucky Backup for installation, and click apply. That’s it. If you’re not luck, and Lucky Backup isn’t in your repositories, then you will have to go to the Lucky Backup download page and download the binary for your distribution. Once you have that file it’s as simple as either letting your browser auto-detect and let a tool like GDebi install the package, or install from command line like so:

rpm -ivh luckybackup-XXX.rpm

Where XXX is the release number.

Using Lucky Backup

Figure 1

I am going to walk you through the steps for creating a remote backup using Lucky Backup. The remote backup I am going to illustrate uses ssh for the network transportation. For simplicities sake I am going to illustrate how you can do a backup with user intervention. To really make this work, you will want to set up password-less secure shell communication. You can see how this is done in my article “Five handy secure shell tips and tricks“.

Once installed open up a terminal window and issue the command luckybackup. This command will open up the user-friendly gui (see Figure 1) where you add all of the backups you want to create.

Let’s walk through the steps of creating an ssh-based backup.

Step 1: Click the Add button.

Figure 2

Step 2: Fill in the necessary pieces of information in the new window (see Figure 2). This information will include:

• Name: Name to give the backup.
• Type: Full or incremental.
• Source: What you want to backup.
• Destion: Directory on local or remote host to store backup.

REMOTE TAB:

• User remote host: Check this box.
• Destination: Check this box.
• User: Username on remote machine.
• Host: IP Address of remote machine
• Ssh: Check this box.

Step 3: Click Okay to save your settings.

Step 4: Click Start to begin the backup process.

If your backup was setup correct you will immediately be informed such and, in the terminal window where you started Lukcybackup from, you will prompted for the remote users password. Enter the password in that terminal window and hit enter. Your backup will begin.

As I mentioned earlier, to avoid having to be prompted for your password (this will be necessary for scheduled backup) you will need to set up password-less secure shell.

Final thoughts

That was simple. That is exactly how a backup tool should work. Give Lucky Backup a try, you may not find a Linux backup tool as simple to use.

I have touched on this topic before in my article “Installing From the Command Line“. That was just grazing the surface. In this article you will learn a bit more about the rpm command line package management system.

As you may (or may not know) the structure of the RPM command is:

rpm {ARGUMENTS} [OPTIONS] filename

both ARGUMENTS and OPTIONS will depend upon what you are doing. The possibilities are:

• Install: For installation you lead with the i argument (e.g. -ivh)
• Upgrade: For upgrade you lead with the U argument (e.g. -Uvh)
• Remove: For removal you lead with with the e argument (e.g. -evh)
• Query: For querying if a package is installed lead with the (e.g. -q)

RPM also has some very important other tools and arguments that I want to focus on. Some of these arguments should only be used as a last resort and some of them could become necessary over time.

Special Upgrade or Install Arguments

There are some lesser known arguments for upgrading or installing worth mentioning. The first of these I want to mention is:

–oldpackage This argument allows you to replace a newer package with an older package. This can come in handy when a newer version of a package comes with bugs or removes features that you liked.

–nodeps This argument tells rpm to not do a dependency check before installing or upgrading a package. Use this wisely and sparingly or you will have packages that will not run. I take advantage of this argument when installing packages that have features (which depend upon packages not installed) that I do not want or need. But before using this I make sure my system meets all other dependencies.

–force This argument will force an install even if it conflicts with another package (the same package or another package). Using this argument can be dangerous and should be used only if you know for sure it will not break your system.

–test This will run a test transaction. No packages will actually be installed and all conflicts will be reported.

–nosignature This will not verify a package or package header signature before installing.

–excludedocs This will tell rpm to install the package but not the package included (if any) documentation.

Erasing Options

Here are some helpful erasing options.

–nodeps This is the same as the installation version

–repackage This will repackage the application you are removing. Very handy if you decide you want to re-install the package.

Updating rpm database

One very important use of rpm is to rebuild the rpm database. I have had the rpm database become corrupt for one reason or another. At that point rpm will have trouble doing anything. When you find rpm not being able to execute tasks, one of the reasons will be a corrupt database. You will most likely see some sort of warning referencing a problem with the database. To fix this issue use the –rebuilddb option. This is used like so:

rpm –rebuilddb -v

and will take some time to complete.

Final Thoughts

And there you have it. A closer look at the rpm package manager with regards to lesser known arguments and options. I hope this helps you get to know the rpm system a little better.

In this article I am going to show you the basics of some of the more popular package management systems as well as the basics of installing via source. I will not spend too much time on each (otherwise this article could grow rather overwhelming). By the end of this article you should know how to install, querey, and remove applications with the more popular tools.

Source

Let’s start from the source. Generally when you download a package for installation that ends with tgz, gz, bz2, or *zip this will be a source installation. For these installations you are going to take advantage of some powerful compilation tools. But before you can start the compilation you have to unpack the source directory. If your file ends with a “bz2″ you will first have to ucompress the file will the command bunzip2 APPLICATION.tar.bz2. This will result in a new file like APPLICATION.tar. Tar is an archive system that rolls up directories into a file. To unpack the directory you would issue a command similar to tar xvf APPLICATION.tar. Unpacking the directory would then result in a directory (in our example) APPLICATION.

If the downloaded file ended in tgz or gz then you have a compressed archive and you simply have to add the “z” switch to the tar command to both uncompress and unpack the archive. This command would look like tar xvfz APPLICATION.tgz, which would result in the directory APPLICATION.

Once you have your directory unpacked you need to change into that directory (with the command cd APPLICATION). Once inside this directory issue the ls command. You will most likely see either a README file or an INSTALL file. Open those up and see if there are any special instructions for installation. If there are no special instructions then the standard compilation steps will most likely work. Here’s how this works:

• su to the root user
• From within the APPLICATION directory issue the command ./configure. This will generate a make file for the compilation.
• Issue the command make.
• Issue the command make install

That’s it. If all went as planned, the application should be installed.

RPM

RPM is the Red Hat Package Manager. Installing via RPM is actually quite simple. Here’s how this works. Once you have downloaded the rpm file you want to install, open up a terminal window and issue the following commands:

• su (you will be prompted to enter the root password)
• rpm -ivh filename.rpm (where filename is the actual name of the file you downloaded)

That’s it. If all went well your package should now be installed.

If you want to make sure your package was installed you can issue the command rpm -q filename and you should see the name of the package and the version that is installed.

If you want to remove that package you just installed (or another package) issue the command:

rpm -e filename

and the package will disappear.

APT-GET

This is one of the best installation systems available. With apt-get you do not have to download a package, you just have to know the name. Here’s how apt-get works (I am going to assume Ubuntu is the distribution, so you’ll make use of sudo). Open up a terminal window and issue the following:

sudo apt-get install package_name

to install the needed package.

To remove a package with apt-get you would issue the command:

sudo apt-get remove package_name

to remove the package from your system.

URPMI

The urpmi system is from the Mandriva distribution and is similar to apt-get. To install a package with urpmi you would open up a terminal window, become the root user, and issue the following command:

urpmi package_name

to install the needed package.

To remove a package with this system you would issue the command:

urpme package_name

and the package will be removed.

DPKG

This is the Debian installer and is as easy to use as any other. To use dpkg you will open up a terminal window and issue the following command to install a package:

sudo dpkg -i package_name

to install a package.

To remove a package issue the command:

sudo dpkg -r package_name

and the package will be gone.

Final Thoughts

There you go. A very basic description of package management with the more popular tools. Yes, there is much, much more to them than what you have just read, but this will give you enough of a foundation to get you going