Arch Linux

rcintra

Member

From: Brisbane, Australia

Registered: 2010-04-18

Posts: 3

[SOLVED] OpenOffice and manually installed Sun Java

Hi everyone,

I have recently migrated from Kubuntu to Arch and couldn't  be happier so far. But I am still getting used to the new system and could not find a solution for one particular problem I am experiencing.

I am a Java developer what means that I need to keep in my system different versions of it. The way I've used to do in Kubuntu was: I installed manually the JDK from Sun. That is, I downloaded the bin file from java.sun.com, extracted it and move it to a directory in my system (usually /usr/lib/<jdk><version). Then I updated the JAVA_HOME environment variable and I also have the $JAVA_HOME/bin included in my PATH. Well, I did it on my brand new Arch system and it worked like a charm. The problem was when I tried to install OpenOffice.

I noticed when I tried to install OpenOffice that it was going to install also openjdk6 as a required dependency. I don't need and don't want to install openjdk6. So i tried to insert the option "--ignore openjdk6" in the pacman command. But the problem is that I noticed that openoffice requires that "java-runtime" package that is installed when you install packages like openjdk, jdk, jre, etc.

Is there a way that I can workaround this? I want to use java through my "manual" installations, and I don't want to install java throught arch repository. I see two options here: 1) there is a way to force the installation of openoffice without the need of having "java-runtime" also installed; 2) I can "fake" the installation of "java-runtime", I mean, the java-runtime will exist in my system but I will not have installed any of the openjdk, jdk or jre packages. Of course other workarounds are very welcome !

Thanks a lot in advance!

Cheers,

Rafael

Last edited by rcintra (2010-04-19 11:31:25)

skottish

Forum Fellow

From: Here

Registered: 2006-06-16

Posts: 7,942

Re: [SOLVED] OpenOffice and manually installed Sun Java

Welcome to the forums.

You can install packages with the '-d' switch, but that's going to be something that you'll have to maintain continously. A cleaner approach would be to write you own packages for each Java install that you want to have. Make the newest one provide 'java-runtime' so that you don't hit compatibility problems.

rcintra

Member

From: Brisbane, Australia

Registered: 2010-04-18

Posts: 3

Re: [SOLVED] OpenOffice and manually installed Sun Java

Thanks for you quick reply, skottish. I am at work right now and will try it later when I get home. Cheers!

rcintra

Member

From: Brisbane, Australia

Registered: 2010-04-18

Posts: 3

Re: [SOLVED] OpenOffice and manually installed Sun Java

Just an quick update. I was able to install the OpenOffice by ignoring the dependency on "java-runtime" by using the -d option in pacman. Definitively later I will create my own Java packages providing the "java-runtime" to avoid the compatibility issues.

Thanks skottish for your help.

Cheers!