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I want to download and install LibreOffice 4. How can I do this?

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  • 4
    If you want to try a new LO version out before installing it, here's a nice tutorial. You might want to make a backup of your LO configuration files first, though (~/.config/libreoffice). Feb 9, 2013 at 8:27
  • 4
    From the answers below, it seems there are 4 options: 1) uninstall your existing LO and then download and manually install the latest LO; 2) use the "rather unstable" pre-releases ppa; 3) use the new "not-so-stable" libreoffice-4-0 ppa; and 4) wait for a more stable ubuntu package to be ready in the main libreoffice ppa. Therefore, it might be useful to hear from the experiences in categories 1, 2 and 3.
    – Sadi
    Mar 8, 2013 at 8:46
  • @Sadi I used my method to install it and it worked just fine. I've had no issues what so ever, though I must admit I don't tinker with it, just use the default setup for the most part.
    – Seth
    Mar 8, 2013 at 23:43

6 Answers 6

84

You can use the Libreoffice 4.4 ppa from the libreoffice packaging team, which offers stable backports for Precise (12.04), Trusty (14.04), Utopic (14.10) and Vivid (15.04).

Note: if you rely on libreoffice for work or school you may not want to risk updating, even though the backports provided are largely stable.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:libreoffice/libreoffice-4-4
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Obviously, if you don't already have libreoffice installed, you will also need to run

sudo apt-get install libreoffice

It should be noted that this ppa will only produce updates for the 4.4 series, while the main libreoffice ppa will provide updates beyond the 4.4 series, although that ppa is largely for testing and development builds.

(The original 4.0 series ppa is here at launchpad, if anyone has any special reason to use that series.)

For more information, see this very recent useful article on libreoffice 4, and the getting started guide at the official documentation site.

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  • 1
    Using this new PPA, upgrade from 3.6 to 4.0 went very well (Ubuntu 12.10 64-bit) and the applications seems very stable with noticeable performance improvements. I only had to re-install several extensions, rename several macros added to the Format menu and rename a custom menu back to Macros. Upvoted!
    – Sadi
    Mar 8, 2013 at 9:53
  • @Sadi Yes, the upgrade went smoothly for me as well; this ppa from the libreoffice team does provide stable backports with several Ubuntu tweaks included.
    – user76204
    Mar 8, 2013 at 17:47
  • Adding deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/libreoffice/libreoffice-4-0/ubuntu precise main and deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/libreoffice/libreoffice-4-0/ubuntu precise main to my software sources brought up the "Not all updates can be installed" message. Just in case that's of interest to anyone... Mar 24, 2013 at 19:30
  • 1
    @nuttyaboutnatty I see now. I usually do it all using the command-line, but you can sometimes get errors. Usually ppa-purge is a good way to correct them. I answered a question the other day relating to Libreoffice 4 installation issues.
    – user76204
    Mar 24, 2013 at 19:41
  • 2
    It is worth mentioning that if you don't have the previous version of LibreOffice installed on your system, additionally to the commands mentioned by Mik, you also need to run the following one: sudo apt-get install libreoffice Apr 17, 2013 at 10:30
65

This method is not recommended!

While using this method will still work fine, and you will end up with the latest version of LibreOffice, LibreOffice 4.2 is now available in the Trusty repositories and the recommended method of installation is using the software center or apt.

If you want to live on the wild side, or you want the absolute latest and greatest version of LibreOffice use this answer.

If you find something out of date, please leave a comment below or go ahead and fix it yourself :)


Start by downloading it:

I recommend the torrent for faster download speed and for slow connections.


To install LibreOffice 4 you will need to remove all previous versions. Run:

sudo apt-get remove --purge libreoffice-core libreoffice-common
sudo apt-get autoremove --purge

Note: I'm not 100% sure this will remove all of LibreOffice. If you experience any errors later, please let me know.


Extract the files:

  1. cd to the Downloads directory:

    cd Downloads  
    
  2. Extract the tar.gz:

    For 64 bit:

    tar -xvzf LibreOffice_4.3.4_Linux_x86-64_deb.tar.gz  
    

    For 32 bit:

    tar -xvzf LibreOffice_4.3.4_Linux_x86_deb.tar.gz
    

Install the program:

  1. cd to the programs folder:

    For 64 bit:

    cd LibreOffice_4.3.4_Linux_x86-64_deb/DEBS  
    

    For 32 bit:

    cd LibreOffice_4.3.4_Linux_x86_deb/DEBS
    
  2. Install part one (for both 32 and 64 bit):

    sudo dpkg -i *.deb
    

You're done! You can now remove both the directory and the tarball:

rm -r ~/Downloads/LibreOffice_4.3.4_Linux_x86-64_deb 
rm ~/Downloads/LibreOffice_4.3.4_Linux_x86-64_deb.tar.gz

Go add the re-add the applications to your launcher!

Some Kubuntu users will need to run this command to fix how LibreOffice 4 looks in KDE:

sudo mv /opt/libreoffice/ure/lib/libstdc++.so.6 /opt/libreoffice/ure/lib/libstdc++.so.6.old  
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  • How can I migrate my settings, in particular my custom templates, from libreoffice 3 to libreoffice 4? Spontaneously, I can think of some "manual" ways of doing it; what are the options, what's the best/safest/most convenient way to do so? Jun 20, 2013 at 7:48
  • 4
    @nuttyaboutnatty That should be a new question ;)
    – Seth
    Jun 20, 2013 at 15:16
  • How about just rewriting the whole answer instead?
    – Braiam
    Feb 10, 2014 at 1:44
  • @Braiam I guess I could add the other answer onto this one, but this one is still as valid as any of the others.
    – Seth
    Feb 10, 2014 at 1:45
  • A very good answer but makes no mention of installing the language and help packs for the users locality. Jan 31, 2015 at 8:04
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If you are running a newer version of Ubuntu you can get various versions of LibreOffice 4 right from the repos:

  • 14.10 has LibreOffice 4.3.3

  • 14.04 has LibreOffice 4.2

  • 13.10 has LibreOffice 4.1

  • 13.04 has LibreOffice 4.0.2

Install it with:

sudo apt-get install libreoffice  

Or use the software center.

If you want the absolute latest version of LibreOffice follow this answer.

0
5

You can install the beta packaged for Ubuntu from the LibreOffice pre-releases ppa:

https://launchpad.net/~libreoffice/+archive/libreoffice-prereleases

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  • 2
    I recommend expanding this to explain how to do that. Jul 22, 2013 at 7:04
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Via terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:libreoffice/ppa -y
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install libreoffice -y

By using the official ppa you'll always have the latest LibreOffice stable release, regardless your Ubuntu version (at least until it become obsolete, so 14.04, 12.04 and the upcoming 15.04 are fully supported).

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Instructions are on this Web Upd8 article: LibreOffice 4.0 Available For Download.

Differs from Seth's answer only in copying the desktop integration .deb from one location to another before the dpkg command.

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  • this installs Libreoffice 5, how doI get 4?
    – rubo77
    Aug 20, 2016 at 15:28

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