How to install latest LibreOffice version on Debian 10

LibreOffice is a free and open-source office-suite productivity software. It is a free alternative for Microsoft Office. It has applications for database management, spreadsheets, presentations, word processor, and graphic editing. It runs on Linux, macOS, and Microsoft Windows. Since the LibreOffice has multiple versions. The current versions are 6.3.x and 6.4.x. For this particular article, I am going to install the latest LibreOffice version 6.4.

Prerequisites

  • The machine uses Debian 10.
  • The user must be familiar with the Sudo command and be a sudo user.

Installing LibreOffice on Debian 10

For installing LibreOffice in Debian 10, you need to follow the following steps:

Step 1: Open the Terminal in Debian 10

Go to the bottom left of the Desktop and click on the Menu icon.

Open Debian Terminal

Go to the search bar on the top left.

Type “Terminal” there and click on the “Multilingual Terminal”.

Terminal

Click on the “Multilingual Terminal” and it will show the following display.

Linux command prompt

Step 2: Uninstall any pre-existing LibreOffice suite versions

If you have any pre-existing LibreOffice suite software in your machine or PC, you first have to uninstall it. By running the following command, you can uninstall any existing LibreOffice suite in your PC or a machine.

 $ sudo apt-get remove libreoffice-core

Uninstall old Libreoffice version

By running the above command, it will ask you whether you want to continue or not?. Type “Y” and press enter. On pressing enter, it will start uninstalling the LibreOffice and on completion, you will get the following display:

Continue with package removal

If you also want to remove the LibreOffice configuration files, run the following command:

 $ sudo apt-get remove --purge libreoffice-core

Remove LibreOffice inkl. config files

Running the above command will ask you for your confirmation whether you want to continue or not. Type “Y” and hit enter. On pressing enter, it will start uninstalling the configuration files of LibreOffice. On successful completion, it will give you the following display:

Continue with config file removal

Step 3: Install LibreOffice version 6.4

Now to install the version 6.4 of LibreOffice, you need to follow sub-steps:

Step 3.1: Download the latest LibreOffice Debian packages

Go to the official download page of LibreOffice www.libreoffice.org/download/ and download the LibreOffice version 6.4. The user has the option of selecting 64-bit deb or 64-bit rpm depending upon his/her PC or work requirements. For this particular article, I am selecting Linux (64-bit) (deb) and click on Download.

Download LibreOffice

Step 3.2: Now extract the downloaded .deb packages

The .deb packages will be in the “Downloads” directory. The packages will be “compressed” and have a “file extension of .tar.gz”. Look in the Downloads for a file named as:

LibreOffice_6.4.6_Linux_x86_deb.tar.gz

or

LibreOffice_6.4.6_Linux_x86-64_deb.tar.gz

Look at the below-attached highlighted image.

LibreOffice Debian package archive

After finding the file, right-click on the file name and click on "Extract here" as shown in the below image. Extract all the language packs. You can delete tar.gz archive(s) after the extraction process.

Expand archive

After extraction, you can now see the extracted file in the Downloads too as highlighted in the below-attached image.

Step 3.3: Install LibreOffice .deb packages

Open the Debian Terminal. Go to the directory where .deb packages are present, which is in Downloads. Change the present directory by running the following command and press enter:

 $ cd ~/Downloads/LibreOffice_6.4.6.2_Linux_x86-64_deb/DEBS

List of packages

  • Now, after going into the required directory. Install all “.deb packages” by running the following command:
 $ sudo dpkg -i *.deb

Here * represents all packages that end with .deb. The above command will install the “.deb” packages.

Installing LibreOffice

Step 3.4: Launch LibreOffice 6.4

Now, after installing all of the .deb packages from the Downloads directory. You don't need to restart your PC or machine. Launch the LibreOffice by running either of the following commands:

 libreoffice6.4

or

 /opt/libreoffice6.4/program/soffice

Running any of the above command launch the LibreOffice 6.4 and will give you the following display:

Latest LibreOffice on Debian 10

Uninstalling LibreOffice version 6.4

If you want to uninstall the LibreOffice for any reason, run the following command:

 $ sudo apt-get remove libreoffice6.4*

Removing LibreOffice

After running the above command, it will ask you whether you want to continue or not?. Type “Y” and press enter if you want to uninstall LibreOffice.

If you want to remove the development version of LibreOffice, run the following command:

 $ sudo apt-get remove lodev*

Remove development libraries for LibreOffice

Conclusion

This article is extremely helpful to new users for installing LibreOffice suite software version 6.4 in Linux (Debian 10). The article also explains and demonstrates the commands required for uninstalling LibreOffice suite if a user wants for any reason or to remove the already existing LibreOffice suite dependencies and configuration files.