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LibreOffice update procedure and consequential video bug

The project is to build a Linux Mint machine to have the identical functionality and ergonomics as the existing Windows 10 machine.

This stage relates to updating LibreOffice from the installed version 5.1.6.2 to the current available version (in this case, v6.0.3.2).  The process started and completed on 29Mar2018.

Environment & required functionality

The environment is Linux Mint Xfce 18.3 (“Gandalf”)

Installation experience

On 29Mar2018, https://www.libreoffice.org/download/download/ revealed that LibreOffice was on version 6.0.3.

sudo apt-update or the equivalent in Synaptics Package Manager had no effect, because, at the time, the repositories defined in Gandalf pointed to those of Linux Mint, which continued to host only an older version of Libre Office.

The download instructions resemble the typical Windows thing of downloading something and running it to install it, not the expected Mint behaviour of plugging a repository into the machine and using the machine to pull the package from the repository.

The download instructions worked fine.  A comment also revealed the repository (the PPA), which was added to Gandalf via command line interface.

On running Synaptic Package Manager, Synaptic reported an error which made no sense.  Logging off and logging on again made the error disappear.

On test-running Calc, the Help > About revealed that the update had succeeded.

But at a cost.  The menu was invisible!  The program was unusable!

Looking at a few web fora (example), it looks like Libre Office has a problem with OpenGL.  Before concluding that OpenGL is the problem, the first thing to check was whether Gandalf’s video performance is up to speed.

The solution turned out to be solving one of 24 bugs (!) reported by easylinuxtips.

After doing this, the menu was visible and usable.

User experience

I’m not sure whether many Windows users would have the nous/wit to fix the disappearing menu issue, certainly not to have picked up on OpenGL being a clue for the usefulness of the video driver bundled with Linux Mint.

But it was relatively easy for this user (a non-IT bod) to research and to fix.

Conclusion

LibreOffice successfully updated and a consequent issue resolved.

Completed 29Mar2018.

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