Note: this was written in March 2002. Many things have changed since then. But I still think this is a useful piece.

Get OpenOffice 642 first. You can download the binary (install642_linux_intel.tar.gz) from the official OpenOffice Web site, at http://www.openoffice.org, or from one of the mirror sites listed at http://www.openoffice.org/dev_docs/source/build_641d/#mirrors. I got mine from http://www.mirror.ac.uk/sites/sf1.mirror.openoffice.org/642/ -- it was a nice, fast connection.

After you've download the large tar file, test it to verify its integrity:

$ tar ztvf install642_linux_intel.tar.gz

You should see a listing of the files that will be installed and no error messages. If you get an error message, then you need to download it again.

If the test passed, now untar it for real:

$ tar zxvf install642_linux_intel.tar.gz

After the untarring, you should have a new directory called install. cd into that directory, su to root, and then run the following:

# ./setup /net

Now, you may get an error message that looks like this (I did, on my Red Hat 7.2 system):

/tmp/sv001.tmp/setup.bin: error while loading shared libraries: libstdc++-libc6.1-2.so.3: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

I went to http://rpmfind.net and searched for the correct file. I downloaded and installed compat-libstdc++-6.2-2.9.0.16.i386.rpm and libstdc++-2.96-98.i386.rpm, but both were already installed on my system. Hmmmmmm.

At this point, I wanted to know more about the missing file, libstdc++-libc6.1-2.so.3. I ran the following:

$ locate libstdc++-libc6.1-2.so.3

And I got nothing. Nada. OK. Well, if the entire file doesn't give me anything useful, I'll truncate it to see if there are similar files on my system. So I tried the following:

$ locate libstdc++

This time, I got a listing of about 15 items. Most of them were in the /usr/lib directory. Ah, now we're getting someplace. I did a cd to /usr/lib and typed ls. Nope! Shouldn't have done that -- I got a listing back of hundreds and hundreds of files. I should have known better than that. So in an effort to see only the files I need, I ran this command:

$ ls -l libstdc++*

And I got back this list:

  -r-xr-xr-x    1 root     root      1144432 Jul 11  2001 libstdc++-2-libc6.1-1-2.9.0.so
  -rw-r--r--    1 root     root       478454 Sep  4  2001 libstdc++-3-libc6.2-2-2.10.0.a
  -r-xr-xr-x    1 root     root       419374 Sep  4  2001 libstdc++-3-libc6.2-2-2.10.0.so
  lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root           30 Mar  9 16:36 libstdc++-libc6.1-1.so.2 -> libstdc++-2-libc6.1-1-2.9.0.so
  lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root           30 Mar  9 16:53 libstdc++-libc6.2-2.a.3 -> libstdc++-3-libc6.2-2-2.10.0.a
  lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root           31 Mar  9 16:26 libstdc++-libc6.2-2.so.3 -> libstdc++-3-libc6.2-2-2.10.0.so
  lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root           20 Mar  9 16:36 libstdc++.so.2.7.2 -> libstdc++.so.2.7.2.8
  -rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root      1025339 Jul 11  2001 libstdc++.so.2.7.2.8
  lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root           18 Mar  9 16:36 libstdc++.so.2.8 -> libstdc++.so.2.8.0
  -rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root       375773 Jul 11  2001 libstdc++.so.2.8.0
  lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root           22 Mar  9 16:36 libstdc++.so.2.9 -> libstdc++.so.2.9.dummy
  -rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root         5476 Jul 11  2001 libstdc++.so.2.9.dummy

OK, now we're getting someplace. There's a file that's tantalizingly close to the one that OpenOffice needs but is missing: libstdc++-libc6.2-2.so.3. Notice that it's actually a symbolic link pointing to another file -- libstdc++-3-libc6.2-2-2.10.0.so -- that must be the file that really does the heavy lifting. So, based on the evidence I see here, I should be able to fix my OpenOffice problem by doing the following as root:

# ln -s /usr/lib/libstdc++-3-libc6.2-2-2.10.0.so /usr/lib/libstdc++-libc6.1-2.so.3

In other words, I created a symbolic link named libstdc++-libc6.1-2.so.3, which is what the error indicated OpenOffice was looking for but could not find, and pointed it to the correct file: libstdc++-3-libc6.2-2-2.10.0.so.

I now went back to where I had left the untarred OpenOffice installation files, and once again ran the installation command:

# ./setup /net

Success! The install proceeded without the error message! (By the way, I left the symbolic link in place after the install. I could have taken it out, but I thought I'd go ahead and leave it in case I ever wanted to install OpenOffice 642 again. So far, things on my system have worked just fine.)

When the install asked me where I'd like to place OpenOffice, I said /opt/OpenOffice.org642. The install went along nicely, and then it was completed.

But not quite. I had installed OpenOffice as root & made it available to all the users on my system, but I hadn't installed it for those individual users. Big difference. Each user needs to run a brief install of OpenOffice that places a few MBs of files in their home directory. To do this, the user (not root) runs this command:

$ /opt/OpenOffice.org642/setup

During the install, choose the Workstation install, which places a few MBs into your home directory. Also, place the files in /home/[username]/.OpenOffice.org642. Notice the "." in front of the directory. That way, it's in your home directory, but it's not visible. I like to have an uncluttered home directory, so I try to install software with a dot in front of its directory name, which makes it invisible unless you run ls -a.

The last thing to do is place a shortcut to OpenOffice on your Panel. Right click on a blank area of your Panel and choose Panel > Add > Non-KDE Application. For the path to your application, use /home/[username]/.OpenOffice.org642/soffice. Choose an icon you like as well. Click OK and you're done. Click on your new OpenOffice icon, start OpenOffice up, and begin using a great -- and free! -- office suite!