Q4OS Forum

detoo

Member

Registered: 2019-01-17

Posts: 86

Is it OK to install pre-compiled .tar files by hand? [SOLVED]

My SoftMaker FreeOffice tarball is ready to run. If I unpack it and install the files by hand in the appropriate directories, will this break anything? In other words, do all installed programs have to be packaged as .deb files? Thank you.

Last edited by detoo (2019-01-23 07:55)

Dai_trying

Member

From: UK

Registered: 2015-12-14

Posts: 2,992

Re: Is it OK to install pre-compiled .tar files by hand? [SOLVED]

It should be possible to install that way but if you have any issues and ask for support we would need to know exactly what you have done and any error messages in order to help.

And do you really need to use an external package for your office needs? there are many available to install through the normal repositories which is really the preferred way to do things.

chris_elvidge

Member

Registered: 2016-05-15

Posts: 17

Re: Is it OK to install pre-compiled .tar files by hand? [SOLVED]

I have done this with tarballed Firefox - it worked well. I would advise a "local" unpack (into your home directory) first to check where the tarball thinks it will put its files. After you've checked this is all OK, you can switch to / as root and unpack again.

detoo

Member

Registered: 2019-01-17

Posts: 86

Re: Is it OK to install pre-compiled .tar files by hand? [SOLVED]

Dai_trying wrote:

And do you really need to use an external package for your office needs?

The 2018 FreeOffice version is available externally as a .deb, but unlike previous versions it no longer saves to several legacy file formats (including .doc). This is why I would prefer to use my older tarball. Once a new version is released, SoftMaker purges previous FreeOffice versions and no longer issues activation keys for existing ones.

Also, I am fully aware of AbiWord and LibreOffice; both have issues that I would rather avoid.

Thanks again -- to both of you -- for the help!

Last edited by detoo (2019-01-23 07:43)

Dai_trying

Member

From: UK

Registered: 2015-12-14

Posts: 2,992

Re: Is it OK to install pre-compiled .tar files by hand? [SOLVED]

You're welcome, and I know a few users who prefer FreeOffice so it should work without issue.

detoo

Member

Registered: 2019-01-17

Posts: 86

Re: Is it OK to install pre-compiled .tar files by hand? [SOLVED]

And for the most part it did. I just had to edit the menu entries in /usr/share/applications to read:

Categories=Presentation;Office;
Categories=Spreadsheet;Office;
Categories=WordProcessor;Office;

Now everything works!

Last edited by detoo (2019-01-23 07:54)