Open Office Package.

[doug at safeport.com]

The package linked to from http://www.freebsd.org for openoffice.org-2.0.2:

   ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/i386/packages-6-stable/All/openoffice.org-2.0.2.tbz

did not (at least on May 1st) reference its requirements so that a pkg_add would
pull them in. According to Kris Kennaway there should be a link in
pub/FreeBSD/ports/i386/packages-6-stable/Latest/.

Having installed, 2.0.2 works wonderfully. There is a lot on freebsd-questions
about various problems. From an advocacy point of view this is like kde, too
complex, and perhaps too large to build. It would be nice if something like

     setenv PACKAGEROOT ftp://ftp2.FreeBSD.org
     pkg_add -r openoffice

just did the right thing. I preinstalled Java as per instructions while trying
to do the build. when I installed the package, I still got a java-less install.
so far I do not know enough to miss anything. As a FreeBSD-er I would like to
see native java supported but that is just an aside to this email.

I got a response on questions that the reason I was have so much trouble was
because I did not use the binary package from openoffice.org. For lots of
reasons (ease of use for new guys) this is the wrong answer for FreeBSD (I
think).

You must get tons of emails, there is no need to bother answering this. I sent
this only because having installed OpenOffice, I like it, and I think making it
easier to install would help FreeBSD people and the OpenOffice project.

Thanks for you time.


Doug


_____
Douglas Denault
http://www.safeport.com
doug at safeport.com
Voice: 301-469-8766
  Fax: 301-469-0601