Introduction to LibreOffice
LibreOffice is a full-featured
office suite. It is largely compatible with Microsoft Office and is descended from
OpenOffice.org.
Note
Development versions of BLFS may not build or run some packages
properly if LFS or dependencies have been updated since the most
recent stable versions of the books.
Package Information
-
Core Download:
https://download.documentfoundation.org/libreoffice/src/24.8.3/libreoffice-24.8.3.2.tar.xz
-
Core Download MD5 sum: ff89c67ce6a49c966abbb2ac3ae8e26c
-
Core Download size: 268 MB
-
Estimated disk space required: 7.8 GB including the
additional files if downloaded during the build (702 MB
installed). Installing the whole set of languages requires
more than 25 GB (around 3 GB installed)
-
Estimated build time: 33 SBU with parallelism=8 (will vary
due to download time)
Additional Downloads
Note
Around 80 smallish tarballs and zip files will be downloaded
during the build. The download time will vary with the local
internet speed and server load. The download time is about 3
minutes on a fiber connection and probably not much more than 10
minutes on an ADSL connection. If you have not installed one or
more of the following dependencies, they will also be downloaded
during the build.
LibreOffice Dependencies
Required
Archive-Zip-1.68, UnZip-6.0, Wget-1.25.0, Which-2.21, and Zip-3.0
Note
An Internet connection is needed for building this package.
Recommended
Note
Most of these packages are recommended because if they're not
installed, the build process will compile and install its own
(often older) version, with the side effect of increasing both
build and installed disk space along with increasing build time.
apache-ant-1.10.15, Boost-1.87.0,
CLucene-2.3.3.4, Cups-2.4.11, cURL-8.11.0, libepoxy-1.5.10,
libjpeg-turbo-3.0.1, LLVM-19.1.0
(clang is preferred for rendering with skia), GLM-1.0.1, GLU-9.0.3,
GPGME-1.24.1, Graphite2-1.3.14, gst-plugins-base-1.24.10, GTK+-3.24.43,
harfBuzz-10.1.0, ICU-76.1, libatomic_ops-7.8.2, Little
CMS-2.16, librsvg-2.59.2, libtiff-4.7.0,
libwebp-1.5.0, libxml2-2.13.5
and libxslt-1.1.42, lxml-5.3.0, Mesa-24.3.2, nss-3.107, OpenLDAP-2.6.9 (if connecting to an LDAP
server), Poppler-24.12.0 (currently broken), PostgreSQL-17.2, Redland-1.0.17, and unixODBC-2.3.12
Optional
Abseil-cpp-20240722.0, Avahi-0.8,
BlueZ-5.79, DConf-0.40.0, desktop-file-utils-0.28, Doxygen-1.12.0 (not relevant if using
--disable-odk), evolution-data-server-3.54.2,
GDB-15.2, GnuTLS-3.8.8,
KDE Frameworks-6.9.0,
libpaper-2.2.5, MariaDB-11.4.4
or MySQL,
MIT Kerberos V5-1.21.3, NASM-2.16.03, Qt-6.8.1, SANE-1.2.1,
Valgrind-3.24.0, VLC-3.0.21,
Apache Commons
Codec, Apache
Commons HttpClient, Apache Commons
Lang, Apache Commons
Logging, BeanShell, box2d, CoinMP, Cppunit,
Firebird,
glyphy, Gnome VFS,
hamcrest,
Hunspell,
Hyphen,
iwyu,
junit4,
libabw,
libcdr,
libcmis, libebook,
libepubgen,
libetonyek,
libexttextcat,
libfreehand,
liblangtag, libmspub,
libmwaw, libnumbertext,
libodfgen,
libpagemaker,
libqrcodegen,
libqxp,
librevenge
(WordPerfect Document importer), libstaroffice,
libvisio,
libwpd,
libwpg,
libwps, libzmf,
lp_solve, mdds, MyThes,
odfvalidator,
officeotron,
OpenCOLLADA,
Orcus,
SystemTap, and VIGRA
There are many optional dependencies not listed here. They can be
found in the download.lst
file in the
sources directory.
Editor Notes: https://wiki.linuxfromscratch.org/blfs/wiki/libreoffice
Installation of LibreOffice
First, fix build failures introduced by the latest Boost, icu, and
poppler packages:
patch -Np1 -i ../libreoffice-24.8.3.2-boost_fixes-1.patch &&
patch -Np1 -i ../libreoffice-24.8.3.2-icu76_fixes-1.patch &&
patch -Np1 -i ../libreoffice-24.8.3.2-poppler_24.10-2.patch
Next, fix a bug with linking to zlib, fix a bug that prevents the
install from failing, and prevent compression of man pages:
sed -i '/icuuc \\/a zlib\\' writerperfect/Library_wpftdraw.mk &&
sed -i "/distro-install-file-lists/d" Makefile.in &&
sed -e "/gzip -f/d" \
-e "s|.1.gz|.1|g" \
-i bin/distro-install-desktop-integration
If you have downloaded the dictionaries, help and translations
tarballs, create symlinks to them from the source directory so they
won't get downloaded again:
install -dm755 external/tarballs &&
ln -sv ../../../libreoffice-dictionaries-24.8.3.2.tar.xz external/tarballs/ &&
ln -sv ../../../libreoffice-help-24.8.3.2.tar.xz external/tarballs/ &&
ln -sv ../../../libreoffice-translations-24.8.3.2.tar.xz external/tarballs/
The instructions in the package unpack some tarballs into a
location it cannot find later. Create some symlinks to help the
build system out:
ln -sv src/libreoffice-help-24.8.3.2/helpcontent2/ &&
ln -sv src/libreoffice-dictionaries-24.8.3.2/dictionaries/ &&
ln -sv src/libreoffice-translations-24.8.3.2/translations/
Note
During the build process, some packages will be downloaded
(including the ones listed as recommended and optional
dependencies) if they are not present on the system. Because of
this, build time may vary from the published time more than
usual.
Due to the large size of the package, you may prefer to install it
in /opt
, instead of /usr
. Depending on your choice, replace
<PREFIX>
by
/usr
or by /opt/libreoffice-24.8.3.2
:
export LO_PREFIX=<PREFIX>
Locales "fr" and "en-GB", you will find below, are just examples;
you should change them to suit your needs - you might want to read
the "Command Explanations", further below, before proceeding.
Note
If you set the ACLOCAL environment variable to support installing
Xorg in /opt, you will need to unset it for this package.
If you are building on a 32 bit machine, CFLAGS
is set to -Os, which breaks the build.
Prevent this by issuing:
case $(uname -m) in
i?86) sed /-Os/d -i solenv/gbuild/platform/LINUX_INTEL_GCC.mk ;;
esac
Prepare LibreOffice for
compilation by running the following commands:
./autogen.sh --prefix=$LO_PREFIX \
--sysconfdir=/etc \
--with-vendor=BLFS \
--with-lang='fr en-GB' \
--with-help \
--with-myspell-dicts \
--without-junit \
--without-system-dicts \
--disable-dconf \
--disable-odk \
--enable-release-build=yes \
--enable-python=system \
--with-jdk-home=/opt/jdk \
--with-system-boost \
--with-system-clucene \
--with-system-curl \
--with-system-epoxy \
--with-system-expat \
--with-system-glm \
--with-system-gpgmepp \
--with-system-graphite \
--with-system-harfbuzz \
--with-system-jpeg \
--with-system-lcms2 \
--with-system-libatomic_ops \
--with-system-libpng \
--with-system-libxml \
--with-system-nss \
--with-system-odbc \
--with-system-openldap \
--with-system-openssl \
--with-system-poppler \
--with-system-postgresql \
--with-system-redland \
--with-system-libtiff \
--with-system-libwebp \
--with-system-icu \
--with-system-zlib
Build the package:
make build
Now, as the root
user:
make distro-pack-install
If installed in /opt/libreoffice-24.8.3.2
some additional steps
are necessary. Issue the following commands as the root
user:
if [ "$LO_PREFIX" != "/usr" ]; then
# This symlink is necessary for the desktop menu entries
ln -svf $LO_PREFIX/lib/libreoffice/program/soffice /usr/bin/libreoffice &&
# Set up a generic location independent of version number
ln -sfv $LO_PREFIX /opt/libreoffice
# Icons
mkdir -vp /usr/share/pixmaps
for i in $LO_PREFIX/share/icons/hicolor/32x32/apps/*; do
ln -svf $i /usr/share/pixmaps
done &&
# Desktop menu entries
for i in $LO_PREFIX/lib/libreoffice/share/xdg/*; do
ln -svf $i /usr/share/applications/libreoffice-$(basename $i)
done &&
# Man pages
for i in $LO_PREFIX/share/man/man1/*; do
ln -svf $i /usr/share/man/man1/
done
unset i
fi
If you have installed desktop-file-utils-0.28, and you wish
to update the MIME database, issue, as the root
user:
update-desktop-database
The suite and main modules can be started from the menu. From a
terminal, the suite can be started with the libreoffice command and the
modules with the libreoffice
--<module>
command, respectively, where <module>
is one of base,
calc, draw, impress, math, web, or writer. Modules cannot be
started using their shell starting script names (see "Installed
Programs", below), if LO_PREFIX is other than /usr
, unless the $LO_PREFIX/bin
directory is appended to the PATH.
Command Explanations
--with-vendor=BLFS
: This
switch sets BLFS as the vendor which is mentioned when you click
"About" from the Help menu on the toolbar.
--with-lang='fr en-GB'
:
This switch sets what languages to support. To list several
languages, separate them with a space. For all languages, use
--with-lang=ALL
. Note that the
translations file is not needed and won't be downloaded if using
only en-US as a language.
Note
For a list of the available languages, look in solenv/inc/langlist.mk
.
--with-help
: Without this
switch, the help files are not built.
--with-jdk-home=/opt/jdk
:
This parameter will silence a warning that the configure script
attempted to find JAVA_HOME automatically (even though that is
passed in the environment). Omit this if you disabled java.
--with-myspell-dicts
: This
switch adds myspell dictionaries to the LibreOffice installation set.
--with-system-boost
: This
switch enables using system boost. From time to time, recent
versions of boost break the build of libreoffice. In this case, it
is possible to use the bundled copy of boost by removing this flag.
--disable-dconf
: This
switch disables compiling LibreOffice with the GNOME DConf configuration system support.
--without-junit
: This
switch disables the tests for the deprecated HSQLDB driver which is
written in Java.
--without-system-dicts
:
This switch disables the use of dictionaries from system paths so
that the ones installed by this package are used.
--disable-odk
: This switch
disables installing the office development kit. Remove if you want
to develop a LibreOffice based
application.
--enable-release-build=yes
:
This switch enables a Release Build. LibreOffice can be built as a Release Build or
as a Developer Build, because their default installation paths and
user profile paths are different. Developer Build displays the
words "Dev" and "Beta" in several places (e.g, menu and splash
screen).
--enable-python=system
:
This switch tells LibreOffice to
use the system installed Python 3
instead of the bundled one.
--with-system-icu
: This
switch tells the build system to use the system installed version
of ICU.
--with-system-*
: These
switches prevent LibreOffice from
trying to compile its own versions of these dependencies. If you've
not installed some of the dependencies, remove the corresponding
switches.
make
distro-pack-install: This does a normal install,
but if you add a DESTDIR environment variable it will also install
a lot of (text) gid_Module_* files in the DESTDIR, to help
distributions which want to break the package into parts.
--with-parallelism=<count>
: This
switch tells LibreOffice to use
<count> CPU cores to compile in parallel. (Do not include
literal angle brackets.) The default is to use all available cores
on the system.
--disable-cups
: Use this switch if you
don't need printing support.
--disable-dbus
: Use this switch if
you've not installed D-Bus-1.8.0 or later. It also disables
Bluetooth support and font install via PackageKit.
--disable-firebird-sdbc
: By default,
the ability to connect to a firebird database is enabled. Add this switch
if you do not need that feature.
--disable-gstreamer-1-0
: Use this
switch if you have not installed gst-plugins-base-1.24.10.
--disable-postgresql-sdbc
: This switch
disables compiling LibreOffice
with the ability to connect to a PostgreSQL database. Use it if you have not
installed PostgreSQL and you do
not want LibreOffice to compile
its bundled copy.
--disable-skia
: Use Cairo-1.18.2 for
rendering instead of skia.
--enable-lto
: This switch will enable
Link Time Optimization, which results in slightly smaller libraries
(about 40 MB). This is said to make LibreOffice programs load faster (and possibly
run faster, e.g. when recalculating a spreadsheet). On an 8-core
machine with 16 GB of memory, the difference in compile times was
minimal, but an extra 2 GB was used for the work files. On machines
with fewer processors or a lack of memory, the compile might be
much slower.
--without-java
: This switch disables
Java support in LibreOffice. Java is needed for the deprecated
HSQLDB driver, which allows reading databases created by other
programs or in earlier versions of libreoffice base. It is also needed for some optional user
interface components.
--without-fonts
: LibreOffice includes a number of third-party
TrueType fonts. If you have already installed some or all of the
same fonts, you may prefer to use the system versions.
--enable-evolution2
: Enables support
for Evolution address books through Evolution Data Server. Note
that Evolution Data Server must be installed for this feature to
function.
--enable-qt6
: This switch enables
support for integration with Qt6 and the Qt6 theming engine. If
Qt-6.8.1
is not installed in /usr
, the include
and library directories must be specified in the QT6INC
and QT6LIB
environment variables.
--enable-kf6
: Builds with KDE/Plasma
integration. If Qt-6.8.1 and/or KDE Frameworks-6.9.0 are
not installed in /usr
, the include
and library directories must be specified in QT6INC
, QT6LIB
,
KF6INC
, and KF6LIB
, respectively. This includes a style plugin
and KIO integration.
--with-system-abseil
: This switch
enables using a system version of the Abseil C++ libraries instead
of the bundled copy. Add this switch if Abseil-cpp-20240722.0 is installed and
you wish to use it instead of the bundled copy.
Contents
Installed Programs:
libreoffice, lobase, localc, lodraw,
loffice, lofromtemplate, loimpress, lomath, loweb, lowriter,
soffice and unopkg; several programs under
$LO_PREFIX/lib/libreoffice/program
Installed Libraries:
several libraries under
$LO_PREFIX/lib/libreoffice/program
Installed Directory:
$LO_PREFIX/lib/libreoffice
Short Descriptions
libreoffice (or
soffice)
|
is the main libreofice suite (symlink to
$LO_PREFIX/lib/libreoffice/program/soffice)
|
lobase
|
is the database manager module shell starting script
|
localc
|
is the spreadsheet module shell starting script
|
lodraw
|
is the vector graphics editor and diagramming tool module
shell starting script
|
loimpress
|
is the (PowerPoint) presentations editor and displayer
module shell starting script
|
lomath
|
is the mathematical formula editor module shell starting
script
|
loweb
|
is the HTML editor module shell starting script
|
lowriter
|
is the word processor module shell starting script
|
unopkg
|
is a tool to manage LibreOffice extensions from the
command line
|