On Thu, Feb 17, 2011 at 07:29:58PM -0600, Gregory P. Ennis wrote:

Everyone,

I am trying to print some *.doc files from the command line with openoffice on centos 5.5 with using cups as the print server.

I can open the file from the command line with open office and then print it manually from the gui, but when I open the file and print from command line I am not getting anything.

I always used openoffice.org -p whatever.

On 18/02/2011, at 2:29 PM, Gregory P. Ennis wrote:

Everyone,

I am trying to print some *.doc files from the command line with openoffice on centos 5.5 with using cups as the print server.

I can open the file from the command line with open office and then print it manually from the gui, but when I open the file and print from command line I am not getting anything.

The commands that I have used are the following :

/usr/bin/openoffice.org -pt lpt4 /mnt/lp/document.doc -terminate_after_init

This works for me on LibreOffice on my Mac (also uses Cups)

LibreOffice 3.3 330m12(Build:1)

/path/to/soffice -headless -pt PRINTER_NAME doco.doc

Note though that if you wanted to do this outside of X11, it might fail...

On Fri, Feb 18, 2011, Gregory P. Ennis wrote:

On 18/02/2011, at 2:29 PM, Gregory P. Ennis wrote:

...

Everyone,

I am trying to print some *.doc files from the command line with openoffice on centos 5.5 with using cups as the print server.

I can open the file from the command line with open office and then print it manually from the gui, but when I open the file and print from command line I am not getting anything.

The commands that I have used are the following :

/usr/bin/openoffice.org -pt lpt4 /mnt/lp/document.doc -terminate_after_init

This works for me on LibreOffice on my Mac (also uses Cups)

LibreOffice 3.3 330m12(Build:1)

/path/to/soffice -headless -pt PRINTER_NAME doco.doc

Note though that if you wanted to do this outside of X11, it might fail...

I tried this using NeoOffice on my Macbook Pro which doesn't use X11, but I expect that it would fail on Linux without X11 as it presents the normal print dialog box to select the printer even though it's set on the command line.

Answering the question below, I ran this in background, terminating the command with "&", which left NeoOffice running, but gave me the command line back so I could continue. This is not entirely a Bad Thing(tm) as it avoids the startup time when printing multiple documents.

On the other hand, having NeoOffice present the print dialog box for every file is less than optimal, but it looks like that's a NeoOffice thing.

I tried the same command with the path to the most recent OpenOffice.org soffice which didn't present the dialog box, and terminated after the print job was complete.

Trying this on a CentOS 5 box here it works fine running the job in background where it is ready to run subsequent print jobs. This does not present the print dialog box either. I ran this test in an xterm via ssh with X11 forwarding from my Macbook Pro.

Another test using 'xterm -e ssh -x' to disable X11 forwarding failed on startup saying it can't open DISPLAY. Running the command with 'ssh -Y user@system /path/to/soffice ...'' did work nicely, and did not leave soffice running on completion.

---

Cameron,

Thanks for your suggestion!!!!

On my system that command results in printing the document on the desired printer, but does not return back to the shell prompt. If I add -terminate_after_init so that the command line is :

openoffice.org -headless -pt lpt3 document.doc -terminate_after_init

The above command returns back to the prompt but the document is not printed.

Any other ideas would be appreciated!!!

Greg

---

CentOS mailing list CentOS@centos.org http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos

On Fri, Feb 18, 2011, Gregory P. Ennis wrote:

On 18/02/2011, at 2:29 PM, Gregory P. Ennis wrote:

...

Everyone,

I am trying to print some *.doc files from the command line with openoffice on centos 5.5 with using cups as the print server.

I can open the file from the command line with open office and then print it manually from the gui, but when I open the file and print from command line I am not getting anything.

The commands that I have used are the following :

/usr/bin/openoffice.org -pt lpt4 /mnt/lp/document.doc -terminate_after_init

This works for me on LibreOffice on my Mac (also uses Cups)

LibreOffice 3.3 330m12(Build:1)

/path/to/soffice -headless -pt PRINTER_NAME doco.doc

Note though that if you wanted to do this outside of X11, it might fail...

I tried this using NeoOffice on my Macbook Pro which doesn't use X11, but I expect that it would fail on Linux without X11 as it presents the normal print dialog box to select the printer even though it's set on the command line.

Answering the question below, I ran this in background, terminating the command with "&", which left NeoOffice running, but gave me the command line back so I could continue. This is not entirely a Bad Thing(tm) as it avoids the startup time when printing multiple documents.

On the other hand, having NeoOffice present the print dialog box for every file is less than optimal, but it looks like that's a NeoOffice thing.

I tried the same command with the path to the most recent OpenOffice.org soffice which didn't present the dialog box, and terminated after the print job was complete.

Trying this on a CentOS 5 box here it works fine running the job in background where it is ready to run subsequent print jobs. This does not present the print dialog box either. I ran this test in an xterm via ssh with X11 forwarding from my Macbook Pro.

Another test using 'xterm -e ssh -x' to disable X11 forwarding failed on startup saying it can't open DISPLAY. Running the command with 'ssh -Y user@system /path/to/soffice ...'' did work nicely, and did not leave soffice running on completion.

---

Cameron,

Thanks for your suggestion!!!!

On my system that command results in printing the document on the desired printer, but does not return back to the shell prompt. If I add -terminate_after_init so that the command line is :

openoffice.org -headless -pt lpt3 document.doc -terminate_after_init

The above command returns back to the prompt but the document is not printed.

Any other ideas would be appreciated!!!

Greg

---

Some Additional Information :

On Fedora14 with OpenOffice 3.3.0 I was able to execute the following successfully :

openoffice.org -pt lpt4 document.doc

Looks like there are some Bugs in OpenOffice 3.1.1

Is there a way to request that CentOS maintainers or rpmforge to upgrade the rpm to 3.3.0? The OpenOffice Forums are down today, apparently they are moving to a different server.

Thanks to everyone for their assistance!!!!

Greg

On Sat, 19 Feb 2011 13:41:04 -0600 Gregory P. Ennis wrote:

Is there a way to request that CentOS maintainers or rpmforge to upgrade the rpm to 3.3.0?

Is there any reason not to simply install the openoffice or libreoffice rpms from their respective websites? I've been doing that for some years, myself, and it works well. Just exclude the openoffice and ooobasis (or libreoffice and libobasis) rpms in /etc/yum.conf to avoid any conflicts.

It's my understanding that the "official" openoffice rpms from Redhat are missing some functionality that the program as downloaded directly from Sun/Oracle or the Document Foundation have.

Frank,

Thanks for the suggestion, I have had difficulty stepping out of the CentOS rpm barrier in the past so I did not try. Knowing you have succeeded gives me some confidence to proceed. Does OpenOffice have yum repository or do you recommend downloading the source code. Looks like their download website is down until the 21st of February.

How do you like libreoffice compared to openoffice?

Thanks again,

Greg

On Sat, 19 Feb 2011 17:44:42 -0600 Gregory P. Ennis wrote:

Thanks for the suggestion, I have had difficulty stepping out of the CentOS rpm barrier in the past so I did not try. Knowing you have succeeded gives me some confidence to proceed. Does OpenOffice have yum repository or do you recommend downloading the source code. Looks like their download website is down until the 21st of February.

openoffice.org 3.3.0 is currently available for download from this url:

http://download.openoffice.org/

I just checked.

libreoffice 3.3.0 is currently available for download from this url:

http://www.libreoffice.org/download/

I just checked.

You can download the binary rpms for whichever distribution you are using from there. For example, if I want libreoffice 3.3.0 for Linux x86_64 architecture I would download this:

http://download.documentfoundation.org/libreoffice/stable/3.3.0/rpm/x86_64/L...

That gets you an archive with a bunch of rpms in it. (Look in the RPMS directory). Just install those rpms with "rpm -i *.rpm". Then install the redhat rpm in the desktop-integration directory that's also included in that archive. (That created the menu items for you.)

You can also install the English language helppack if you wish. Again, for example:

http://download.documentfoundation.org/libreoffice/stable/3.3.0/rpm/x86_64/L...

Install the rpm that you find in that archive the same way.

That's all there is to it. Don't let the long list of downloads scare you. Just find the architecture and the language that you want and download that. It's only two archives if you want the helppack.

How do you like libreoffice compared to openoffice?

I don't see much of a difference, for what I use it for.

------------------------------------------------------- Frank,

Thanks much for your help!!!!

Greg