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Updating Ubuntu 5.10 for Current Versions of OpenOffice and FireFox

Posted by tadelste on · 20 comments
LXer.com; By Tom Adelstein
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My days of trying and writing reviews for every Linux distribution have slowed. I'm currently using Ubuntu 5.10 and I'm fairly happy with it. Spending most of my days as editor-in-chief of a popular news site, writing a system administrative book under contract and keeping up with a free lance writing career doesn't give me much time to play these days.

I kept waiting for the upgrades to two packages I use the most as a writer and they haven't made it into the repositories. So, I went looking. I discovered that neither Ubuntu or Debian have what I needed. So, I did what Linux guys do, I found people who did it themselves.

On Digg.com

I had already installed FireFox 1.5 but it wouldn't upgrade. We have several computers here and I noticed how quickly SUSE 10 got their upgrade out. So, I knew someone had to know something I didn't.



I went to the Ubuntu Wiki and found an article by Ben Scholl. Ben had updated it yesterday. So, I landed on the site at the best time. His howto called FirefoxNewVersion really helped. It entails downloading the FireFox tar.gz from Mozilla.



The main thing I got out of the article was how to enable FireFox's own updating to work. Ben wrote: "This is the only way to get update notification working, but doing this has security implications in a multi-user environment." I didn't have that concern and I wanted to get 1.501 which supposedly has the memory leak fixed. I wound up reinstalling the new Firefox from Mozilla and by just following Ben's instructions, got it working fine.



Next, OOo 2.

The Ubuntu folks say: "The latest versions of K/Ubuntu came with very, very late betas of OpenOffice.org 2, but since then OOo came out of beta, but K/Ubuntu hasn't been updated".



That's fine. Scott Granneman wrote a nice Howto in his blog. I want to thank him personally for doing that.



Scott wrote:



Fortunately, in open source fashion, one Ubuntu user has compiled OOo2 & made it available for users to download. I'm using it, & things work just fine.
Click the link above or following his simple instructions:



To upgrade your OOo2, you need to edit your /etc/apt/sources.list file, AKA your repository list if you use Synaptic. I use the command line, so I first ran this:



sudo vim /etc/apt/sources.list



Then I added this line:



deb http://people.ubuntu.com/~doko/OOo2 ./



I saved & closed the file, & then ran the following commands:



sudo apt-get update



sudo apt-get upgrade



APT wanted to update OOo2, so I told it to go ahead. A bit later, I had the latest & greatest OOo2 running on my Kubuntu machine. Beautiful.



There you have it. I've noticed a significant increase in performance with the browser. I'm glad I upgraded to the new version. Also, I can tell a difference in the performance of my word processor. I just seems to run smoother.

I generally say if it ain't broke don't fix it. But in this case, I'd prefer Ubuntu to put these two applications in their update manager and be done with it.

I really shouldn't complain. The price was right eh.

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Comments (20)

Sound like good news

It sounds Like Ubuntu is really becoming a well rounded distro, thanks to the community.

Might give it another try. Libranet was my favorite 'easy' debian, and mepis is the current placeholder (not as nice as libranet, but more up to date). Ubuntu has always caused me more issues than just using vanilla debian. I don't mind the debian installer, I'm used to it I guess.

It sounds like the Ubuntu community is really a factor. That is god news, and makes me think I'll have to give the next version a test again.

Desperate now: Which distro shoud I use?

Just build my new PC, and thought I might stop using Gentoo, because I don't like compiling anymore (just like Tom don't have that much time for fiddling anymore, just want to get my work done). I was downloading Kubuntu when I read this story.

It boils down to this: I like the ports system Gentoo and FreeBSD offer, since it makes sure I can always update my system to the newest software. As I understand, this isn't possible for Debian systems (or am I wrong here?), as they work with 'stable' branches, and it is difficult to mix that stable branche with testing branches, because of the library-problem. On the other hand, I like the 'ready for use' Ubuntu-mentality, everything integrated, and working out of the box, especially streaming media etc..

So, which distro provides me a ports system to update all my software to the newest (stable) versions available, the option to choose how to configure all stuff like EVMS (á la Gentoo), and offers me the 'works out of the box' / integrated experience (á la Ubuntu), without the need to compile?

Or doesn't this distro exist (I know it does, but Genux costs money, and their site is offline)?
You can mix the repositories in Debian. You can put the various repositories in your /etc/apt/sources.list file. You can get what you want. Also, enough unofficial repositories exist out there.

I'm plenty happy with Ubuntu now that I nailled these two issues.

Here's the only rub. I don't know if any Linux person can be 100% happy with any distribution after they've learned how to use Gentoo - I mean really learned it. I think it's a pain, but once it's built, it's marvelous.

Like you, I don't have the time any more.

I like Debian distros because of the strength of the community. So, I run debian on my server and Ubuntu on my desktop.

Ultimately, they're all Linux and the community supports you. This article got the LXer treatment and people who wondered and didn't know how to find these upgrades now have someone reaching out saying, here's the solution.

If you're a working man, you'll probably like Ubuntu.
I'll concur. I used Fedora and Red Hat for several years but in the end got sick of having to tie up loose ends after upgrading a Fedora Distro. There was always 20 odd annoying things that needed putting right. I guess you learn a bit about linux chasing these things down but a lot of it is pretty useless knowledge.

Ubuntu had maybe one quarter the problems out of the box and what wasn't set up could be fixed by looking in the Ubuntu forum and wiki where there is a virtual ton of info.

I have upgraded the distro twice without any serious issues. If you can't find the latest and greatest, source compilation and package installation with checkinstall works pretty well for me.

My only complaint is that cd-burning has always been a hassle. I have odd hardware (scsi burner) so this may be exceptional.
> ... source compilation and package installation with checkinstall works pretty well...

Which should be true for pretty much any distribution which checkinstall supports. I believe it supports debian based distros, rpm based distro's, and Slackware based distro's. I don't know if it supports any others.
If you like mandrake/redhat/fedora but hat the update without apt then give PCLinuxOS a try.

I've updated from .71 to current (4 releases) with zero problems (save for an alsa problem at .91 that I solved with a touch).

Overall, I think Ubuntu is much overrated...it does nothing that you can't do with Debian. So for myself, I try things that are a mix of the
DesktopBSD because it has the benefit of the freebsd ports collection, it works out of the box a la ubuntu and of course KDE.
Banjax: I suggets you give Gentoo a try. It's a great desktop operating system. I think you would like it. You'll find a lot of freebsd software included. You just need the drive, motivation and some time.

I've used OpenBSD for web servers in the past and found Gentoo has a similar concept with regard to upgrades. Of course, it's Linux.
RR4 ( and the 64-bit RR64) Linux is a good way to try out gentoo on your equipment. http://www.lxnaydesign.net/index.php?option=com_content&task...

Gentoo has a liv cd, but it is not as fully featured as rr4. rr4 is gentoo based, but with more desktop goodies.

If you like rr4, you follow the gentoo instructions for installation.

You like ports and are familliar with BSD, so I would say stick with BSD, or use a gentoo based Linux. After that I would suggest a debian based linux. Apt is not ports, but it is good and handles dependancies well.

have fun.
Slackware? Slackware's a distro for desperate people!

(deem G/D/R implied)
> Slackware's a distro for desperate people!

Yes. Those desperately seeking speed and stability, that is.
> Slackware's a distro for desperate people!

And those with a lot of time on their hands. Hours and hours of compilation before you get to actually use anything :)
Er, you mean Gentoo surely? Last time I installed slackware there was no compiling required. On the other hand Slackware is ferocious. Either you know how to set it up or it doesn't work. No wizards, no nice gui's, just .conf files. Great to learn on, if you like banging your head against a wall. If you want your computer to work with as little hacking as possible (and there's nothing wrong with that) then either SuSE, Mandriva or K/Ubuntu is the way to go.

The distro you use doesn't have to be hard or difficult. Mandriva is as much Linux as Debian is. The hardcore will snort in derision at anyone who uses anything that has a GUI tool box. Personally, I just smile to myself and carry on.

It's enough to use Linux.



Quoting:It's enough to use Linux.


That's it in a nutshell.
hkwint: got to agree with tadelste and salparadise, just "use linux". Preference is preference. I have some weird Linux system I built myself. I am probably one of the only people out here, who actually uses a LSB based linker...... :)

Community

Thanks for these entries Tom. I really love this community.
You're welcome.

Ubuntu BackPorts is your friend

Tom:

I guess you know this already, but it is worth mentioning that the guys down at Ubuntu Backports (UB) do the compiling, tweaking and quality assurance for you if you wish to install updated packages hassle-free (http://backports.ubuntuforums.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page)

These guys are my heroes. They also provide useful information and various tools to help you with your task.

On a sidenote, John Dong of UB and others had an interesting discussion about upgrading Firefox in Ubuntu which I think everyone thinking about doing it should read (if interested read the article and the comments at http://distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=20051212&mode=1).

I agree about the backport guys. I have had deep appreciation for them since I first installed an Ubuntu distro.

If you follow the howto in the article, the author doesn't advocate removing the existing 1.07.

Try using the Ubuntu Automatix

I love using Ubuntu, but found the same problem with Firefox and OO.

I recommend Ubuntu users check out the Automatix utility. It is really easy to install both apps with it.

You can find it here.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=66563

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