Installing OpenOffice 3.1 in Ubuntu/Debian

OpenOffice 3.1 has been released with some cool features that we so long waited. The way to install it, is pretty much the same when you installed OpenOffice 3.0. So to start, I have Ubuntu 9.04 as my OS, other debian-based OSs and Ubuntu derivatives are applicable too.

1. Uninstall your previous version.

sudo apt-get remove --purge openoffice.org-*

rm -rf /home/[yourUsername]/.openoffice.org

2. Of course, download OpenOffice 3.1 first (in my case 'OOo_3.1.0_LinuxIntel_install_en-US_deb.tar.gz').
Download Link

3. Next, launch the terminal and extract the package.

tar -xvzf OOo_3.1.0_LinuxIntel_install_en-US_deb.tar.gz

4. Now, enter to its directory by issuing the following commands.

cd OOO310_m11_native_packed-4_en-US.9399/DEBS/

5. Install all the packages inside.

sudo dpkg -i *.deb

6. Next, install the shortcuts.

cd desktop-integration

sudo dpkg -i *.deb

7. Now you should have OpenOffice ready in your menu.

These are the steps I made for me to complete my installation without conflict. Of course there are other methods like from the repository, but yesterday when I installed mine, the update was still not uploaded. Also, you may notice that the splash screen is still on OpenOffice 3.0, its normal, maybe the just forgot to change it.

Get Dropbox to Work on Jaunty Jackalope

I did a fresh install yesterday, and I got a problem on installing the latest Dropbox. The error was like this,

The program 'dropbox' received an X Window System error.
This probably reflects a bug in the program.
The error was 'BadIDChoice (invalid resource ID chosen for this connection)'.
(Details: serial 734 error_code 14 request_code 53 minor_code 0)
(Note to programmers: normally, X errors are reported asynchronously;
that is, you will receive the error a while after causing it.
To debug your program, run it with the --sync command line
option to change this behavior. You can then get a meaningful
backtrace from your debugger if you break on the gdk_x_error() function.)

To get it working, I did the following,
1. Install Dropbox's nautilus and daemon package

2. Download latest build of Dropbox (as of April 28, 2009), here

3. Issued the following command on the terminal

cd ~

rm -r .dropbox-dist/

tar -xzf dropbox-lnx.x86-0.6.510.tar.gz

4. Restart nautilus (I did a logout)

and voila! Dropbox is now working!

Credit goes to Adam Michael Roach, I modified it to fit the current versions and releases.