Corel Word Perfect

[GavinX]

I bought a copy of Corel Word Perfect for Linux on CD from Linux Central. It has the instructions to install it but I just don't understand them. Could someone please explain it in clear step by step English? Where do I start (what do I click etc.) I am really an idiot as far as Linux is concerned and I really need some help. If you could give info on installing programs in general, I would be eternally grateful. Thanx.

[mdwatts]

What do the instructions say for installing Word Perfect?

[Molecule Man]

As root,
Put CD in your cd drive.

mount /mnt/cdrom If you get errors, you probably have more than one drive, put the cd in the other one and try again.

ls /mnt/cdrom/ You will probably see a file setup.sh, if not there should be something similiar, use whatever you find.

sh /mnt/cdrom/setup.sh Now click next through the wizard.

[GavinX]

These are the instructions as provided on the CD. The problem is that I honestly don't understand what to do. Can you explain then in Layman terms? Where do I click, where do I type the command etc....

Installation Instructions:

Download your file(s) into a separate directory and perform the following
operation on each of the file(s):

* gunzip <filename> ; tar -xvf <filename>

Example:
* gunzip gui00.gz ; tar -xvf gui00
* gunzip gui01.gz ; tar -xvf gui01
* gunzip gui02.gz ; tar -xvf gui02

Once this has been done, simply type the following command to start the
install program:

* ./Runme

Note: If you can, run the install from a terminal window from within
X-Windows as the X-based install is a more familiar interface; this is
not a required step.

Language Modules

Once you have installed Corel WordPerfect 8 for Linux, you may also may
obtain one or more of the additional language modules listed below. You
must download and install them after you install Corel WordPerfect 8 for
Linux.

[redhanded]

Since I'm a newbie, I'll not get too involved in an answer to your question, since I recently (yesterday) tried to install the same program without success. I did however get a little farther down the installation path. I created a new directory and copied the files from my cd to that temp directory. In that directory there were two files (something like large-core and small-core). The large core has only one file to gunzip, the small-core file has 5 or six files to gunzip. In your readme and install instructions they explain the difference between the two files. You chose which to install based on the stability of your system. From an X-Term as a root user, I typed: gunzip gui00.gz (Substitute the proper file name for (gui00). This then produced a file to tar. I then typed:
tar -xvf gui00 This completed the unpacking of the largecore
install. I then typed at the prompt: ./Runme......this began the installation process. The install program begins by asking you if you completely unzipped everything that you wanted to unzip?
If you select Yes, the whiz bang process begins. The final jeopardy question at the end of the install process is: Which directory do you want to install? This is where I got totally screwed. No matter which directory I chose to install to/ I ended with an error msg, and put quickly back to my prompt. Found where a few dir were installed....but really nothing...tried to find a placed where the install had occurred...nada..so I also ended up back at square one....just a bunch of files unzipped in a temp file.
I was going to search newbie for a little bit more info when I found your post. I initially put my temp folder in /home/folder/ but I thought I read somewhere that to install programs you need to install from /root...so the hunt goes on. Windows definitely spoils you when it comes to installing programs.

[cage47]

For the WP8 install. I have found that the install will barf if you try to install to a directory that doesn't exist. I usually create my directory before doing the install. (usually /usr/local/wp8) again doing this as root. Redhanded gave a good outline on extracting the tar files. But also you will need the libc-5 and the ld-so backward compatibility libraries included. These are not installed on default in Mandrake or Debian and they must be hunted down on the cd. Then again, Mandrake 8.2 doesn't include these so they need to be found else where. But they are in Debian Woody. What distro are you using. Also is this the Retail or the download version of WP 8 you are installing. Reason I ask is the retail version includes the registration key. The download version you are supposed to log onto the corel site to get the key but the registration site is no longer valid and you can't get keys for WP 8 download any more since it's been retired since WPO2K came out. If you paid for 8.0 at a store I hope it wasn't much. I swear by it as my main word processor but it is dated. But Gavin, just open a terminal (if you are not root su to root) then execute the instructions just as they are listed and as long as you have the old libs loaded and the directory already created it will load fine. One note, the program will be needed to run in terminal mode (either open a terminal and enter the path and program executable name or make a shortcut/menu item and selecting the option to start in terminal mode). I have it working in IceWM and KDE 2.2 in both Mandrake 8.2 and Debian Woody (Been using it since Mandy 7.0)

[redhanded]

Thanks for the tips. I'm installing in RH 8.0 and I tried to install to a pre-existing directory without success. I'll create a dir in /usr/local before I begin the ./Readme and at the last prompt indicate /usr/local/WP8 and see if it works. Glad you said something about starting the program from a term. Being weaned from windows, you start looking for the shortcut to the program on the desktop or in the start menu.

I paid Linux Central 2.95 for a demo version of WP8. I suspect that Gavin has the same cd. I'm not sitting in front of the program now, but my memory says that the libraries were present on the cd.

Thanks again. I'll let you know how it turns out.

[redhanded]

Still trying..without success to install WP8. Steps that I've taken:

Copied files from CD to: /usr/local/tmp
Created dir: /usr/local/wp8

As superuser:

cd /usr/local/tmp/core-lg
ls shows core-lg.gz
gunzip gui00lg.gz
tar -xvf gui00
./Runme

Get the question have you gunzip tar all your files:Y
Begins installation process.....

Happens quickly. But the first error message that I managed to see was something about an ELF.
All following lines relate to not be able find files.
Then: Install is complete where do you want install directory: I type: /usr/local/wp8

Next msg says: error: Invalid install area

back to prompt.

So I'm still lost in redhat 8.0 paradise.
I tried to do a find files for libc-5 and ld-so without finding them. Checked google and I think these libraries should be present in 8.0. Did NOT see them anywhere on the CD.

I also tried to find some log of the install/or lack of install to view the install process without success.

[cage47]

The WP8 is an old a-out binary. These programs are no longer supported but the backward compatibility libraries can be found. I don't use Red Hat but have the 7.1 cd's. To night I'll check for the libs. Without these it will not load and will give you the errors you are encountering. So you are stuck until you find those libraries. I'll get you the actual names tonight when I get home from work (unless someone with Red Hat cd's wants to check) If you still need them I'll e-mail them to you if you want. (If I have them on the Red Hat cd's I have)

[cage47]

One other thing, printer support is touchy with WP8. Thing is it uses the old WP6.1 for windows drivers. You can still find the printer driver files on corel's sight if you do a search. But you also have to rename the file to reflect the linux names. The included printers are not many. And newer printers might not be found (since we're dealing with old program printer files) Otherwise works fine.

[GavinX]

Thanx for that piece of info Cage. I am finished with Corel WP for Linux: I'm kicking it out of the door!!! Do you or anyone else know of any EXCELLENT, REALLY GOOD Word Processor for Linux that is easy to install? Of course, excluding KWord and the other one in Gnome. I would really appreciate this.

[cage47]

Now I wouldn't necessarily kick it out the door. Sure it takes a little tinkering since it's old but I keep it for my primary word processing. But if you are set on moving on what about OpenOffice? I haven't heard much good about AbiWord. And Hancom Office is pricy. Star Office is an option but still a little pricy. I still use the old 5.2. Bloated but heh, it was free on a Maximum Linux cd and it works fine. personally for easy word processing I'd stick with Word Perfect. I can get you up and running. if you wanna stick it out.

[GavinX]

OK Cage, I am willing to try with it. My email is gvemmanuel@actol.net You can contact me directly so we can get it going. Thanx much for your assistance and encouragement. If this is what Linux is all about, then I'm closing up all the WINDOWS on my house. I need them no more!!

[redhanded]

I have the CD's for Redhat 8.0. Would these libraries most likely be located on them? I also have an old cd with Redhat 6.x.
And I'm certain they can be downloaded from somewhere. Question is, what do you do with the libraries when you get them? Do they need to be present in the same folder as Runme for the install to work? Or do they need to be placed in a lib folder first?

I don't recall anywhere in the install instructions or readme that mentioned any dependencies, but what the heck.

And if your really bored...what exactly is backward compatibility?

And this may sound like a strange question too, since I tried to install this program 4 times now, have I unknowingly created a bunch of unnecessary folders and files that are residing unused on my hard drive, only to take up space?

This is the first program that I've tried to install. So it's more a learning process than any dependency on WP8. They say Star Office is as simple as loading the CD and it's installed. But I believe the majority of the programs out there require the gunzip/tar/runme type install - so I better learn it. Thanks again for your help.

[windoze killa]

I would recommend going with Openoffice. Cheap (free), easy to use and M$ Office compatible.

[cage47]

(Damn, deleted the post by accident) OK here goes again. Step by step. First, the libc-5 and ld_so files are on the Mandrake 8.0 cd's but not on the 8.2 cd's and won't be on the 9.0 cd's. This is because they are no longer supported. But they are on the 8.0 and all earlier copies of Mandrake. So my educated guess is that they won't be on the Red Hat 8.0 Cd's. I'll check the 7.1 cd's when I get home. But they are probably in the 6.1 cds. Now they will be rpms so these will be installed just like any other Redhat rpm. in KDE Konqueror just click on it and it will bring up the package manager and install the files, should do the ld_so file first. These are not Word Perfect files.

next, the reason you don't see any mention of this in the Read me file is that Word Perfect 8 is old. It was written when distros were based on libc-5. They are now based on glibc (Hope I explained this part right). Compare it to installing a Windows 3.1 program in Windows 95. Not all win3.1 programs will install in 95 (trust me they don't, I lost use of my backgammon program for this reason, pissedme off). So the readme file reflects the instructions for installing on the older distros. It even mentions CDE compatibiltiy. Heck this hasn't been used in ages. It was a precursor to KDE/Genome as a Desktop Environment. (That should explain backward compatibility)

Now without the libc-5 and the ld_so libraries loaded no matter how many times you try, this WILL NOT LOAD. Now if you created the /usr/local/wp8 directory like I did, nothing got loaded. And if there are files there, or empty directories you can delete everything in the wp8 directory before you try again.

As far as Star Office and what Windoze killa said, Word Perfect dosen't read MS Word files, but don't think WP ever did. Star Office does a great job of that. Now I don't know about the retail version, but the download version requires you to run the tar command to extract it (best to the /tmp dir) and then run the setup program from there, but their read me file is good with the instructions. I can't stand the bloat that was included with 5.2 and you can't even find it for download anymore, and 6.0 isn't available for download. But the 5.2 worked fine for what it was made to do, even if a little slow.

But installing the old WP 8 is a good way of learning to install on Linux. It handles the backward compatibility, dealing with dependencies, and some manual setup (ie you will have to make the menu entry your self. make sure to use the start in terminal mode option when making the entry or the desktop icon)

Gavin, I get off work in a little over two hours and will e-mail you from home with what I find.

I've used wp since 5.1 days and am partial but I still consider it invaluable for good down and dirty word processing. But word of advice, don't try going to Word Perfect Office 2000 for linux. It's just the windows versino ported to Linux in WINE. Too many horror stories. Now taht thing is a BEAR to get working right. Personally I have WPO2K on my windows machine and love it, but avoid the linux versino like the plague. Personally I'd like to see Corel get their thumbs outta their arses and get another full Linux-coded WP out. But then again, they ahven't even put out a new windows version out.

[redhanded]

Followed your instructions....Found libc-5 and ld-so on my old redhat distribution. Both were rpm files like you said. Installed the ld-so file first then the libc-5 (both by just clicking on the icons as I found them on the cd) both loaded without a problem.

Went through the WP8 install procedures again and the program installed without a hitch in my folder
/usr/local/wp8.

Went to a terminal and typed: /usr/local/wp8/wpbin/./xwp and the program began by asking for a registration key and letting me know it was a 30 day evaluation program - I told it, I'd register later and it's working.

I really appreciate the help. The next step will be getting /usr/local/..... down to one step to start the program, but I think I saw somewhere in here where you can create shortcuts instead of changing directories or typing the entire path at a command prompt. If you don't find the libraries you need Gavin, let me know and I will e-mail them.

Thanks again...

[cage47]

Are you using KDE in Redhat? If so here's how to make the shortcut. Got to the K menu, go to configure panel, choose menu editor. Find a place in the menu you want it and at the top choose add entry. Then enter the path name (eg. /usr/local/wp8/wpbin/xwp for mine) Enter the shortcut name and just below the icon selection there should be a box to "open in terminal mode"
by default this is unchecked. So check this and that's all you need. It will open an extra terminal window when WP starts but it won't hurt anything and it will close itself when you exit windows.

Now the only catch is the registration key. If you can't find one e-mail me at cage47@prodigy.net and I'll tell you how to get one.

Redhanded, yes, Gavin will need those rpm's. I checked the 7.1 cd's only to find the files not there. And I'm not sure how well my mandrake rpm's will work. His e-mail is here so maybe just send them to him.

[redhanded]

So I was noting the steps necessary for an install, for future reference, and a nagging question remains. How does one know if a particular program being installed requires additional files for an install?
You mentioned backward compatibility. Is it just personal knowledge that say WP8 was two years old and two years ago current programs required these two libraries? Or should a usr installing a program check a web site for required libraries prior to install (not sure if a place like that exists - maybe sourceforge)...get my drift. Or do you just discover that your install failed and start hunting for references to failed installations?

If you were teaching people to install programs in linux you would think there would be a standard line regarding the install of programs to verify. Windows programs indicate that a program is compatible with particular versions of windows. Does the same apply to particular linux kernels? Like: The Rule is: Check to see if your kernel supports the application, additional libraries may be needed. ????

I emailed Gavin the rpms necessary for install.
Later

[cage47]

Personally, I found these instructions about a year and a half ago. I found them on Deja.com in the newsgroups. I have the instructions for installing this printed in one of my 3-ring binders (i've accumulated 5 of em full of little tidbits and how-tos). The best thing is to lurk in these forums and here and ask. Someone like me will have the info. As for one sight to get this info. Don't know of any ONE. I got the info on the Mandrake install from one person. The instructions for Debian are slightly different, it needs one more old lib file. That I got from another person. I got the tip on the terminal mode setting when I upgraded to Mandy 8.0 back when from someone else. It's a gradual process. But I jump on anyone when I see questions on this because not many people use it as much any more and I've rounded up a lot of the info. I'm not by far the difinitive word on installing programs but since I keep WP for myself I keep up on the little tweaks for this one. And sometimes I come across tips that work on other programs. I would suggest printing out this thread or writing the steps yourself and saving them somewhere for future reference. I'm thinking of making a how-to for this and stashing it on my website when I switch over to my new isp next week. It goes the same with anything in Linux. If you don't know how to do it, there's someone out there that probably does and it's just a matter of asking the right question in the right place.

It all depends on the program. The old Star Office 5.2 had good information for installing included. But since this program was retired by Corel finding info for it is becoming increasingly hard. It was easier while it was available but since then requests for info on it dwindle and so does the accessible info. That goes for just about any program. If it becomes discontinued,orphaned, or obsoleted it's hard to find info. Unless someone keeps an archive (like packrats like me) Hell I've got a 4-cd set of Infomagic's Linux Quickstart 2.0 from when Debian was only 0.6. Just keep it for reference.

[GavinX]

Guys, I must be really stupid because I'm getting absolutely no where. First of all, how does one create a directory? After creating the directory how does one copy the files to it? Thirdly, what is a terminal window? How does one access it? Then, how does one gunzip a file then tar it? Where does one go? I need all these answers before I can do anything. The only thing that I've done is installing the RPM's and that's it. I cannot do anything else. Gee.........I'm stupid!

[redhanded]

I sent you an e-mail regarding logging in as a superuser, to mkdir, to cp files, etc. Should get you to the gunzip stage. And the terminal window thing.

One book I would recommend having available as a newbie is the book "Learning Red Hat Linux" by O'Reilly - got mine for $6 and it include a distribution of linux.. Good reference material, and its easier to use than moving back and forth in man.

But I'm assuming you're working in Redhat - guess I better go back to the original post.

Let us know if you still have problems.

[cage47]

If you have problems with Red's instructions write back here. I'm gonna be online all tonight and I get also get you setup. But don't use gaim. I can help you here. It isn't really complicated but these are basic skills that you'll need no matter what you do. These are step one things that you need to know. So take Red's directions and go from there. and write back with problems.

[GavinX]

Guys, I got the mails and posts. I am going to deal with it right now while online. As I encounter problems, I will send posts.

[GavinX]

I've got it up and running!! It feels great to have accomplished something. What I need to know now is where I can get a product key to make it permanent on my system. If you guys know of any can you please tell me? The instructions given by Redhanded were clear, precise and correct. I really appreciate the help I've received from you guys. I'm eternally grateful. I shall return the favour sometime soon. Thanx guys.

[Molecule Man]

Registration link for key (http://nas.corel.com/nasapps/wp8linuxreg/register.html)

It seems to be orphaned at the moment. And may disappear at any time, yet it has remained up for 9 months and counting.

[redhanded]

Glad to see you made, really glad to see you understood my instructions. I needed to re-enforce the learning steps so I was glad to help.

Thanks cage for your help. By the way what is your web address - I'll visit.

So now it's on to the next issue, syslog and my router. Thanks.

[cage47]

Red. Thanks. I haven't done that page yet. Just tossing around a few ideas of how to update my website. but I'm not gonna put out the address now because it's gonna change in 3 days. So if you want you can check it out then. It's mostly devoted to my family and family tree search info. But I've been thinking of posting another page with little linux gems like this on it that seem to becoming extinct. I don't have enough room to post the whole wp program though or I would.

Molecule, where the heck did you find that. I was looking for that for someone else. I thought it was gone for good.

[Molecule Man]

Most recently, from a post of mine dated Feb. on MandrakeForum. Originally it was by searching google.

[cage47]

Then again does it still give out codes? At one point I think they even had the page removed. They must have put it back. But I do remember sending someone to that sight last year sometime and they said it wouldn't generate codes. Maybe Corel got enough complaints and put it back.

[redhanded]

I registered at the site and they were still handing out registration codes.

[Rascal01]

cage, can you e-mail me the instructions as well? I recently upgraded to RH7.3 and want to install WP8. I'll have to check what errors I was getting, but I think it's the same issue as weith gavin.

Thanks.

If there any any alternatives, I might try them out. Unfortunately, I'm on a budget at the moment. I might check StarOffice, if they have an eval copy. Reading MS Word docs is a plus.

[mdwatts]

cage47
member no more


cage47 apparently is no longer a JL member.

Perhaps try a few Google for Linux searches.

[bootdoc]

I installed Red Hat 8.0 on my machine and it came with Open Office. It works great and opens Ms word files. I have WP 9.0 on windows partition and save all DOCs in both .wpd and .doc so that I can access them through my Linux drive. I think Open Office is a better suite than WP in most ways. I don't get the printer options with that I get with WP on winblose.

"If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe."
Carl Sagan "Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away."
Antoine de Saint Exupery

[Rascal01]

Thanks. I am planning on migrating to OpenOffice. I'm trying to get my computers upgraded to install RH8. Hopefully it will go without a hitch this weekend. :)

[bootdoc]

RH 8.0 was the easiest install I have done.