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Trying to install openoffice on Ubuntu 13.10 64bit. The install goes with out a hitch but the application does not show up in my GUI applications window. Is this because of desktop integration? When I try to install the desktop integrator I get this...

jacob@jacob-desktop:~/mydebs/en-US/DEBS/desktop-integration$ sudo dpkg -i *.deb(Reading database ... 172964 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking openoffice-debian-menus (from openoffice4.0-debian-menus_4.0-9714_all.deb) ...
dpkg: error processing openoffice4.0-debian-menus_4.0-9714_all.deb (--install):
 trying to overwrite '/usr/bin/soffice', which is also in package libreoffice-common 1:4.1.2~rc3-0ubuntu1
/usr/bin/gtk-update-icon-cache
gtk-update-icon-cache: Cache file created successfully.
/usr/bin/gtk-update-icon-cache
gtk-update-icon-cache: Cache file created successfully.
Processing triggers for gnome-icon-theme ...
Processing triggers for hicolor-icon-theme ...
Processing triggers for shared-mime-info ...
Processing triggers for gnome-menus ...
Processing triggers for desktop-file-utils ...
Processing triggers for bamfdaemon ...
Rebuilding /usr/share/applications/bamf-2.index...
Processing triggers for mime-support ...
Errors were encountered while processing:
 openoffice4.0-debian-menus_4.0-9714_all.deb
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    If you don't mind which to use (they're pretty similar), prefer libreoffice, as it's in your distros repos anyway. Easy updates.
    – Aurelia
    Nov 25, 2013 at 16:37
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    LibreOffice works okay on my system, so I'm not comfortable messing with its installation at this stage. I just want to see if Open Office is better for what I'm trying to do. (Previous experience has shown that each package has advantages.) I therefore skipped deleting the symlinks, and after running the dpkg -i *.deb step, I was able to type /opt/openoffice4/program/soffice from the command line, and it seems to be working just fine.
    – Michael Scheper
    Jan 15, 2019 at 1:47

2 Answers 2

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The installation doesn't go without a hitch:

Errors were encountered while processing:
 openoffice4.0-debian-menus_4.0-9714_all.deb

This means there were error processing the packages, hence reading back:

dpkg: error processing openoffice4.0-debian-menus_4.0-9714_all.deb (--install):
 trying to overwrite '/usr/bin/soffice', which is also in package libreoffice-common 1:4.1.2~rc3-0ubuntu1

This means that you are trying to install OpenOffice.org while having LibreOffice installed. Eithe remove LibreOffice and continue the OpenOffice.org installation or forget about OpenOffice.org(or go for force-overwrite).

To do the first you must run:

sudo apt-get -f remove libreoffice-common

Then install OpenOffice.org.

Force Overwite

One way can be telling dpkg to force overwrite the exiting file. This command can be risky as in some cases, you may end up overwriting necessary files.So use it at your own risk.

To enable force-overwrite mode , pass -o Dpkg::Options::="--force-overwrite" parameter to apt-get.

sudo apt-get -o Dpkg::Options::="--force-overwrite" install <package-name>

If you are trying to install a file using dpkg pass --force-overwrite to dpkg command.

sudo dpkg -i --force-overwrite <some_file.deb>

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  • Uhm... yeah... right sips coffee
    – Aurelia
    Nov 25, 2013 at 16:37
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    Official OpenOffice linux instructions do not force to remove completely LibreOffice. Only to remove a pair of symlinks. I followed those instructions, yet now I'm facing this same issue.
    – superjos
    Oct 8, 2015 at 14:08
  • @superjos I'm not sure what is the relationship between the file collision of the two packages and OO.o instructions. Explain yourself?
    – Braiam
    Oct 8, 2015 at 14:13
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    OpenO instructions say to not remove LibreOffice, just delete the symlinks that LibreO creates to "fake" the command soffice. So in theory they should be ok installed together. Then, while installing OpenO desktop-integration packages, I got the error mentioned in this question. The colliding file is one of those symlinks that OpenO instructions ask you to remove.
    – superjos
    Oct 8, 2015 at 14:18
  • @superjos that's only the case for "manual" installations, which obviously isn't this case due the use of a package manager (dpkg) which tracks each package installed files and prevents collisions.
    – Braiam
    Oct 8, 2015 at 14:22
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In order to make that error disappear this is what I did:

  1. follow OpenOffice instruction here, in particular remove LibreOffice symlinks to "fake" soffice executable

  2. when it's time for installing desktop-integration packages, force the install: sudo dpkg --force-all -i *.deb. I know this is usually discouraged ...

That of course overrides the error we are experiencing, but I already deleted the symlink manually anyway.

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