[nflug] (Re)Installing Firefox, Thunderbird, and OOo under Kubuntu

[Boice]

Boice wrote:
> Joe wrote:
>   
>> Hi.  I am now a happy user of kubuntu dapper.  Almost everything I
>> need works (until I head off into wine land for my Windoze apps.)
>> except my blinking modem.
>>
>> Anyway, I have OpenOffice.org, Firefox, and Thunderbird installed via
>> adept and naturally, they're not the latest versions.
>>
>> In the past (Mandrake 9.1), when I tried to install these myself it
>> was easy to do as single user installs, but I never figured out how to
>> install them so all users could access them.
>>
>> I want to keep up with the latest versions - especially for ff and tb
>> to keep them secure.
>>
>> 1) What's the (a) right way to do this for each of these packages?
>>
>> Do I uninstall them from adept first?
>>
>> Can I keep any configurations I have done or do I need to do them all
>> over from scratch?
>>
>> I haven't used tb to get any email yet, so I don't have any to lose. 
>> It's all still on the Windoze side until I get things working.
>>
>> TIA
>>
>> Joe
>>
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>>
>>     
> Hi, Joe.
>
> Ordinarily, one would install as "root" and then all users will have
> access to the installed progs you have mentioned.
>
> Ubuntu has an [to me, irritating] approach of having no root user, but
> allowing sudo commands to be issued via one's regular user password.
> https://help.ubuntu.com/6.06/kubuntu/desktopguide/C/root-and-sudo.html
> You can install or upgrade progs through adept package manager using sudo:
> https://help.ubuntu.com/6.06/kubuntu/desktopguide/C/adept.html
>
> If --as the primary user-- you did this, and other users still are not
> able to launch those programs, you can try making a root account for
> your kubuntu installation. See:
> https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RootSudo
>
> Personally, I found Ubuntu  a pain to maintain on a multi-user machine,
> and switched the family's computer back to Mepis when Mepis version 6
> came out.  If you like the KDE desktop, I'd recommend Mepis 6 over
> Kubuntu Dapper.  I've heard complaints that KDE wasn't as stable on
> Ubuntu as Gnome.
>
> I just installed Xubuntu Edgy on my personal multi-boot machine, but
> haven't had much chance to really put it though it's paces. My general
> impression so far is that Edgy may be more stable than Dapper, when it
> was supposed to be the other way around!  I won't swear to that,
> however. It's just an initial impression. However, since I spent a lot
> of irritating hours as an alpha-tester for Dapper,  that may have
> colored my [dim] view of 6.06.
>
> If you don't have any configurations that are irreproducible, you could
> get away with attempting an upgrade without backing up the configuration
> files for OO, Firefox & T-bird. Not sure how "adept" handles it, but in
> synaptic package manager, you have the option to uninstall a prog or
> COMPLETELY uninstall it.  "Completely" also removes the user's
> configuration files & options.  "Plain" Uninstalling just the old
> version and also installing the updated version ought to keep your
> config files OK.
> Probably.
> Possibly.
> Maybe.
>
> Not a bad idea to back up the data in your /home partition to a separate
> partition on your HDD, or to a USB thumbdrive, or a rewritable DVD or
> something. 
>
> I don't always need it right away, but sometimes I've saved myself hours
> of tears and self-loathing by making a few spare data partitions to keep
> "historical records" of config files.  In one case I rescued something
> that had not been missed for a couple months. But when I realized I
> wished I had access to the old config info, it made my day sweet to
> actually be able to dig it out.
>
> cheers,
> John
>
>
>
>
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>
>
>   
As an update to this topic, I want to add a link to a forum thread that
discusses some problems encountered updating Open Office, and how they
were overcome:

http://www.mepislovers.com/forums/index.php?topic=3446.0

--John
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