LibreOffice updates

[xfrank]

Just a question (maybe a newbie-question). I regularly do a manual install of LibreOffice to get immediately the last version. It is a straightforward, quick, operation by the terminal, and works very well. But when I check in the Mint Software Manager, LibreOffice is not marked as installed. Ok, probably the Manager don't recognize LO because was manually installed. But the question is, when updates arrives, they try to actualize the LO version I have installed or not? and what is the best way to manage LO: doing manual installs or installing from the Software Manager? (waiting a bit more for the latest version).

[daveinuk]

Hi xfrank, no expert by any means but if you're installing manually there's normally a recommendation whereever you install from to add a PPA to your sources list so you get the latest updates as they happen. I'ves done this with things like clamav when it's been outdated and I've installed a newer version, then addded a PPA to my software sources list and then you keep up to date. HTH

[xfrank]

thanks daveinuk, but... ppas are not supposed to work only in Mint-Ubuntu? is possible to add ppas to LMDE without cause any harm to the system?

[GeneBenson]

Hi xfrank,

Have a look at the status of LO in Synaptic Package Manager. Does LO show as installed and is it showing the same version as you installed? If it is showing as installed and the version is the same as what you installed then everything is okay. I believe LO is installed by default so it should show up as installed. If it's not showing up as installed then you won't get any updates for it. If it shows as installed and the version number is lower then what you installed then you will get updates when they enter the repository.

As far as PPA's go, some will bork your system and some will not. How conscientious are you at making backups?

Hope this helps.

[dclement]

Hi xfrank,

[...]But when I check in the Mint Software Manager, LibreOffice is not marked as installed.

I've seen this when I was doing a bit of testing on a PC where I can afford things to break.

I've noticed that Synaptic does show under a different name the LibreOffice packages which has been installed manually. Surely you will find them if you use its search feature.

Trouble is, Synaptic knows nothing about updates for these packages. How could it? There's a PPA for LibreOffice 4.0, one for 4.1, another for 4.2... and the names are different.

I ended up uninstalling (from Synaptic) the manually installed packages and reinstalling them from the Debian Testing repo, which I had added temporarily to my sources. If you're really keen on getting the bleeding edge, you can even pick the packages from Debian Sid, or even Experimental -- provided you don't forget to remove this repo. from your sources afterwards.

As of today: Mint repos. have 4.1.3, Testing has 4.1.5 and Experimental has 4.2.2 (same as the PPA for Ubuntu).

Best regards, Daniel

[xfrank]

thanks GeneBenson and dclement! I understand... I need bleeding edge because I use LO everyday for my work. Seems to me too risky to activate PPAs or get from Experimental or Sid the last version of LO. I have not the habit to do backups, if something breaks... (but precisely for this, I'm very cautious on doing everything).
For the moment, the best solution for me is to download and install manually the new versions of LO. Is quick, easy and not harmful at all.

*I revised Synaptic and here my LO is shown installed as "libreoffice4.2". However, Synaptic has "libreoffice" (4.1.3) as the installable version.