This is the official Frequently Asked Questions for StarOffice 3.1 for
OpenLinux. We ask you to read this before posting questions to Usenet or Star
Division GmbH. Of course, if this FAQ does not help you, feel free to ask us.

This is version 1.1 of the FAQ as of 04/25/97.
This FAQ is currently maintained by hr@stardivision.de
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Part 1: Questions concerning requirements
Question 1.1: What kind of system is required to run StarOffice?

Part 2: Questions concerning installation
Question 2.1: Where can I find the installation description?
Question 2.2: Why do I have to install twice?
Question 2.3: Must StarOffice be installed by root?
Question 2.4: I can see an intro bitmap. Then the application SEGVs!
Question 2.5: I get mysterious SEGVs. No application will start.

Part 3: Questions concerning customisation
Question 3.1: How do I print with StarOffice?
Question 3.2: Why does the printer configuration change when I
              load a document?

Part 4: Common problems with StarOffice 3.1
Question 4.1: Why do I need libc-5.4.4 or newer?
Question 4.2: Why does 'setup' report 
                "line 1 : Syntax error at token 'I' expected declarator : i.e.
                 File ..."?
Question 4.3: Why doesn't 'help' start?
Question 4.4: Why do I need 'svdaemon' and 'svportmap' anyway?

Part 5: Known Bugs and workarounds
Question 5.1:  Some icons appear solid black.
Question 5.2:  Fonts have look bad on the display.

Part 6: Miscellaneous stuff
Question 6.1: Where to obtain further information.
Question 6.2: Where can I get StarOffice for Linux ?


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Part 1: Questions concerning requirements

Q 1.1: What kind of system is required to run StarOffice?

The requirements are:
 - Linux x86 ELF system
 - at least libc-5.4.4 or newer. Please let me repeat this: you need at least
   libc-5.4.4 or newer. See question 4.1.
 - a working XServer supporting one (or more) of the following visual types:
     8-Bit Pseudocolor
    16-Bit Truecolor
    24-Bit Truecolor
 - approx. 120 MB free disk space for a full installation

Because there are as many system configurations as Linux systems, there are
probably some systems on which StarOffice won't work for yet unknown reasons.
If you happen to have such a system, please send us bug reports. We cannot fix
bugs we don't know of.

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Part 2: Questions concerning installation


Q 2.1: Where can I find the installation description

Please read the the accompanying documentation of your StarOffice
Distribution. It will contain the necessary information for installing
StarOffice.


Q 2.2: Why do I have to install twice?  

The installation procedure consists of two steps: the system installation and
the user installation. The system installation is done by unpacking the
RPM-files (Caldera Open Linux) or by 'untaring' the Tar-Archives
(Beta4). 

*Please read the accompanying README*. 

The system installation is valid for every user and contains all common files
(e.g. demo documents, the actual applications and their libraries). Every user
accesses these instances, which only reside once on the disk. The user
installation contains configuration files, which are different for every user.

Q 2.3: Must StarOffice be installed by root?

No, not all. The system installation can be made from any account.  But
remember: every user accesses the system installation, so make sure that
everything has the correct permissions:

rx for directories, r for normal files, rx for executables and libraries

If you do not want to give these permissions to everyone, make sure that the
user doing the system installation belongs to the same group as every
StarOffice user.

Q 2.4: I can see an intro bitmap. Then the application SEGVs!

Probably your XPPATH environment variable points to the wrong directory.
It should point to the subdirectory xp3 in the (system) installation.
Usually it gets set via .sd.sh or .sd.csh .

Or the directory has wrong permissions: it and its subdirectories need
r and x permission. Try
   chmod -R a+rx xp3
from the (system) installation.

Q 2.5: I get mysterious SEGVs. No application will start.

Your (system/user) installation may have wrong file permissions (see Q 2.3
and Q 2.4). Try a chmod -R a+rwx on your installation.
Caution: After this anyone can do anything with it.

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Part 3: Questions concerning customizing

Q 3.1: How do I print with StarOffice?

StarOffice can print using either Postscript or PCL. We recommend printing via
the Postscript interface even if you have a PCL printer (e.g. Laserjet
series), because the PCL interface is buggy. If you do not have a Postscript
printer (most probably won't) we recommend printing Postscript via the
GhostScript interpreter (which most will already have and be happy
with). Assuming you have a printfilter which recognizes Postscript and puts it
to the proper print queue (further called <queue>, on standard installations
<queue> is simply lp), here is an example how to set up StarOffice for printing
Postscript:

Edit the file Xpdefaults which should be in the Xp3 directory of your
system-installation. Add the following line to the [ports] section:

lp=lpr -P<queue>   (if you use a Berkeley style printer spooler; most will)
lp=lp -d <queue>   (if you use a System V style print system)

Add the following line to the [devices] section:

lp=??? PostScript,lp

That should do the trick. Select lp as printer in the applications.  If you
have the beta version 2 or newer (you should have, all but the beta4 are
already expired) the Berkeley case is already in Xpdefaults with <queue>=lp.

To make this the default print queue put the following line to the top of the
[windows] section:

device=lp

Q 3.2: Why does the printer configuration change when I load a document?

It's not a bug, it's a feature. The printer configuration is saved with the
document.

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Part 4: Common problems with StarOffice 3.1

Q 4.1: Why do I need libc-5.4.4 or newer?

'Setup' won't work with older libraries. We had to choose: either linking
against older libraries and face problems with newer libraries or the other
way round. We chose the newer libraries. We think this is in the interest of
the Linux community. We have reports that the applications itself work with
older libraries, but 'setup' will certainly not.

You can get a new libc from the following URL:

ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/GCC

or from every mirror site. Please read the release notes before installing a
new libc, because there are many ways to lose if you do something wrong
here. We have reports that it might be necessary to reboot after installing a
new libc.

Q 4.2: Why does 'setup' report 
       "line 1 : Syntax error at token 'I' expected declarator : i.e. File ..."

You need a newer libc. At least libc-5.4.4. See Question 4.1

Q 4.3: Why doesn't 'help' start?

You need to start 'svdaemon ' and 'svportmap'. See readme.01 or readme.49.

Q 4.4: Why do I need 'svdaemon' and 'svportmap' anyway?

'Svdaemon' is required for the help functionality and 'svportmap' for the
interapplication communication.

Q 4.5: 'Svportmap' reports " unable to register Sv.....,udp"

'Svportmap' requires a active rpc-portmapper. This is the standard daemon
'rpc.portmap' which should be enabled at boot time on every netaware Linux
system. Some distributions (eg. SUSE) disable this daemon by default. Enable
the rpc-portmapper before executing 'svportmap'.

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Part 5: Known problems and workarounds

Q 5.1: Some icons appear solid black.

This happens if you choose a color depth of 15 bit (32768 colors) on some
X-Servers, ie. Accelerated X. Please choose a color depth of either 8, 16 or
24 bit.


Q 5.2: Fonts have look bad on the display.

We have heard from various sources that StarOffice uses ugly fonts when
displayed on an Accelerated X server. There is currently no workaround. We're
working on it.

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Part 5: Miscellaneous stuff

5.1: Where to obtain further information

There is a newsgroup dedicated to discussion about StarOffice for linux.
You can access it via
    news://starnews.stardivision.com/stardivision.support.unix

If you have suggestions concerning StarOffice for linux, mail them to
    suggest-linux@stardivision.com

5.2: Where can I get StarOffice for linux?

You can get the non-commercial version via FTP from ftp.gwdg.de or its
mirrors. The commercial version will be sold by Caldera,
Inc. (http://www.caldera.com). If you plan to bundle the non commercial
version of StarOffice on your CD, you have to contact Caldera first. 
