Install OpenOffice.org 3.0 on Ubuntu

In installing openoffice3 in ubuntu we have to first remove the existing openoffice from our system

sudo apt-get remove openoffice*.*

download a copy of OpenOffice.org 3.0 (OOo_3.0.0_LinuxIntel_install_en-US_deb.tar.gz worked for me) and extract the download:

tar -zxvf Ooo_3.0.0_LinuxIntel_install_en-US_deb.tar.gz

That will create a directory called something like OOO300_m9_native_packed-1_en-US.9358
Switch into the DEBS directory in that directory:

cd OOO300_m9_native_packed-1_en-US.9358/DEBS/

Now all you need to do is install all of those .deb packages:

sudo dpkg -i *.deb

That will do the trick. Once you’ve given your password your system should install all of the required files.

With that done you should have just one thing left to do: Install the desktop integration package. That should be in the DEBS folder:

cd desktop-integration

From that folder install the package:

sudo dpkg -i openoffice.org3.0-debian-menus_3.0-9354_all.deb

If everything works out you should be able to open OpenOffice.org 3.0 from the Applications menu on your desktop.

Disclaimer: It is always a good idea to backup your important stuff before removing applications and installing new ones.

One other problem with removing my previous version of OpenOffice.org was that my aspell spellchecker got messed up. Coincidence? Maybe, but if you have the same problem you may need to re-install aspell-en to get your spellchecker for apps such as pidgin working again.

.bz2 extension handling

The .bz2 extension belongs to the bzip2 compression utility which replaces gzip. You may unpack the .tar.bz2 files directly using one of the following commands:

        using the newer version of tar:
tar xjf 

      or, using the older version of tar:
tar xIf 

      or, with all versions of tar:
bunzip2 -c  | tar xf -