Using OO with simple finder/ x11 (Mac OS 10.2.6)

[march123]

I'm trying to configure some stock 1books with 256 mg ram for use by some junior high students. I do not want them to have system access and prefer the simple finder. Can this work? So far I've been able to get OpenOffice startup to open X11, but have not been able to get OO to start. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

By the way, OO works fine when I have full access as administrator.

Thanks in advance!

[OPENSTEP]

Hmm...there are two possibilities I can think of. First, are you using Apple X11, or XFree86? I recall there being a lock file with Apple X11 that can be an issue for multiple users, but if X11 is launching OK that's hopefully not the issue.

I suspect you're running into difficulties with user accounts that weren't part of the initial installation. The OOo X11 GM received the majority of testing under single user accounts and there are some errors in how it handles multiple user accounts.

What error message, if any, is Start OOo giving you? Are you getting a "Could not find OpenOffice.org" error? If so, are the user accounts in /Users and not network mounted or on a different partition? If they are in /Users, you may be running into a difficulty with the startup script. Try running OpenOffice.org first from a Terminal. You can do this in a Terminal with the following incantation after launching XDarwin/X11.app (each individual command is separated by a line of whitespace...there are no explicit line breaks in any of the commands that you type):


setenv DISPLAY localhost:0.0

setenv DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH /Applications/OpenOffice.org1.0.3/program:/Applications/OpenOffice.org1.0.3/program/filter

cd /Applications/OpenOffice.org1.0.3/program

sh soffice


See if that will start OpenOffice.org, or report back any error messages that you might get. That'll narrow the problem down to whether it's a ".sversionrc" file problem (the magic file OOo needs in every user's home directory to tell it where OOo is) or whether it's some type of permissions problem elsewhere in the install.

ed

[Guest]

First, answers to your questions. I am using Apple X11. It does seem to launch without problems.

Yes, I think you are right with your solution. This is a user account that was not the installation account during the installation of OO. I was not getting any error message prior to running your unix commands. The start application would launch and would launch x11, but then no OO.

I have entered your script and have received the following error message:

Application cannot be started. The configuration file "/User/student4/.sversionrc" was not found. Do you want to start the setup application to check your installation?

I believe this is as you thought....an error in the script execution. I decided to try yes on the answer....I'm not sure this is what I want to do. It seems to be heading toward installing the program again?

Thanks for any further help that you can lend......thank for getting me this far.

Best wishes

[OPENSTEP]

OK...are you using OOo 1.0.3 GM? If so, please open the "/Applications/OpenOffice.org1.0.3/program/soffice" script in TextEdit. Can you do a search for the text "create .sversionrc if necessary". This is just checking to see if your install has the multiuser support. If not, then chances are you're not on 1.0.3 GM

If it is there, however, please do the following in a Terminal opened under that student4 account after you try starting soffice as before and report what you find:


ls ~/.sversionrc

cat ~/.sversionrc


Hopefully you should have a ~/.sversionrc file created by the multiuser support. The second line will then dump the contents of that file out to the Terminal. It'll be a URL with file:/// starting it. Can you check to see if the directory it points to exists? Checking for it in the finder should do. Theoretically it should be "/Users/student4/Library/Preferences/OpenOffice.org1.0.3".

If the .sversionrc file exists but that directory doesn't, then it'll nail down where the problem is. If the directory exists, can you check where the symbolic links are pointing to?

I'm thinking offhand that you may need to replace the "sh soffice &" in the series of steps with "./soffice &" looking at the regular expressions that are attempting to extract a full path to the script...that may be the source of the error in the script. I don't think the auto-installation may be able to handle the "sh" style invocation properly.

Sorry if this seems so technical...the automatic multiple user support is known to have definite issues in GM, but I've not encountered a complete failure of it like this yet

ed

[Terry Teague]

[march123]

Hi guys, I believe we have success. It turns out to be both of your last comments that forced me to look again. First, I didn't realize till today that what I was running was 1.0.1.3beta. I logged onto the Indiana website a few days back and downloaded what I thought was 1.0.3. I even burned a CD and wrote 1.0.3 on the side of it. I should have caught this yesterday when I had to change Ed's commands to 1.0.1, but just thought it was the folder that was wrong. I did manage to download (from another site) the 1.0.3 gold master and load it. In the simple finder I saw the same slowdown that Terry referred to in his comments, but it does work without Ed's wonderful commands. I'm wondering if this might be pushing pretty hard on the 256mb of ram. I did notice the suggestion of 512mb.

Thanks again.....I feel like such a dunce....., but one last question for Terry. What is the "window-maker Window Manager" that you referred to in your settings? As I said earlier, I'm looking for a solution that will make OO as simple as possible for some Jr. High students (maybe for me too if I can't read version numbers)

I was trying to use the COOOOL Application launcher, but it doesn't seem to like the simple finder at all. I have not been able to get it to appear as an application under simple finder. I guess I need to address this to the author.

Thanks many times over and best wishes

[OPENSTEP]

Dude, glad to hear that the version was the problem. Phew! Otherwise something would have *really* been wrong...not that you may notice some little unusual things going wrong as is, but still...

The "window-maker" style manager to which Terry is referring is called WindowMaker:

http://www.windowmaker.org/

I use it by default if I'm not using Apple X11. Basically, it makes an environment that's similar to OPENSTEP, and it's actually a part of GNUSTEP. It's really lightweight, which is why I like it, and I actually am still partial to OPENSTEP myself (thus my handle...) and just wish I had the skills to patch an 060 into my turbo cube. Anyway...

For junior high students, if you've got Apple X11 working it'll at least give you window borders that look like the regular OS X environment. That means you won't have to "train" them as to what is the close button for the window, what is the minimize/collapse button, etc. The user experience of OOo will already be somewhat confusing as it is if they're being trained in OS X applications, but at least having the tri-color chicklet buttons will help them.

Using windowmaker or another Unix window manager would cause the windows themselves to look different. The only application offhand I can think of in OS X that demonstrates this is the Stickies application. In a Stickies note, the close box, resize box, titlebar, etc., look nothing like any other OS X application. For those who used classic Mac OS or old stickies, it's easy to discern...but if you're looking for the red X it's nowhere to be found in stickies.

To preserve the red X for OOo windows, you'll need to stick either with Apple X11 or with the XFree86/OroborOSX combination that also mimics the Aqua look for window titlebars and grow-boxes in the lower right hand corner. Windowmaker also might confuse students with its second independent NeXTish Dock.

ed

[march123]

Sounds as if Apple X11 is my best choice.....stick with the chicklets. Let me say you're doing a great job helping those of us that of the newbie persuasion. All your comments are greatly appreciated.

Later

Dude....I mean Don