Trouble installing Open Office

Question

I'm trying to install OpenOffice on Ubuntu 16.04 64 bit.

1. I uninstalled LibreOffice per the command line

   sudo apt-get remove --purge libreoffice-core
   

2. I originally downloaded the Apache_OpenOffice_4.1.3_Linux_x86-64_install-deb_en-US.tar.gz, unzipped it on the Desktop and manually went through, double clicking on every *.deb package and letting the software center install it. This did not work. There was no item in the menu for OpenOffice and there was nothing when I did a search.

3. I then tried to install the DEBs from the command line:

   cd en-US/
   cd DEBS/
   sudo dpkg -i *.deb
   

   This did not work either

4. I then tried another removal of LibreOffice just to be sure:

   sudo apt-get purge libreoffice
   

   And still there was nothing in the menu even when searching. A command line command of "soffice" only yielded:

   /usr/bin/soffice: 175: exec: /usr/lib/libreoffice/program/oosplash: not found
   

5. I then tried:

   sudo add-apt-repository ppa:upubuntu-com/office
   sudo apt-get update
   sudo apt-get install openoffice
   sudo apt-get install libxrandr2:i386 libxinerama1:i386
   sudo chmod a+rx /opt/openoffice4/share/uno_packages/cache
   

   Still received the same results as before.

6. I then tried the following:

   cd desktop-integration/
   sudo dpkg -i *.deb
   

   Still, same results as above.

7. I then downloaded the newest JRE 64 bit and unpacked/installed in the /usr/java directory.

   sudo tar zxvf jre-8u111-linux-x64.tar.gz
   

   And I still don't have a working OpenOffice.

Is this a wild goose chase? Does OpenOffice simply not work on Ubuntu 16.04?

Answer 1

Try to use the GDebi package manager to install *.deb packages. Install it by running:

sudo apt-get install gdebi

Then, to install a package, right click your *.deb package → Open with → GDebi Package Installer → Install package.

I like this because you can see detailed dependencies that you needed in status.