FC3 and StarOffice 5.2

[Rick Stevens]

Graeme Nichols wrote:
> Hello Rick,
> 
> On Fri, 2005-01-07 at 06:28, Rick Stevens wrote: 
> 
>>Graeme Nichols wrote:
>>
>>>Hello Folks, 
>>>
>>>Could some kind soul please tell me if FC3 (with kernel 2.6.9, I think.
>>>The kernel that comes with the distro anyway) has any problems with
>>>StarOffice 5.2.
>>>
>>>I am currently on FC2 with kernel 2.6.6 because FC2 with kernel 2.6.8
>>>clobbered StarOffice 5.2. Wouldn't run! I had to regress to kernel 2.6.6
>>>to get StarOffice 5.2 working.
>>>
>>>Why worry with SO 5.2 you might ask. The simple answer is "I like it in
>>>preference to OO" Also, I have a whole heap of stuff written in SO 5.2
>>>and want to stay compatible with some other users of SO 5.2
>>>
>>>I have been sitting on the FC3 CDs for some time now but want to upgrade
>>>to Evolution 2 so now is probably the right time, BUT... not if SO 5.2
>>>gets clobbered in the process.
>>>
>>>All information and experiences gratefully received.
>>
>>I don't use SO anymore, but OO can save in SO format so it is backwards
>>compatible with SO.  At least I've had no problems working with old SO
>>files.
> 
> 
> Yep! that's true Rick but my experience is that they're not 100%
> compatible. Close enough for most practical purposes but not 100%, which
> I need.

Oh.  Ok, I get it.

> 
> 
>>As to SO's compatibility with 2.6 kernels...that I don't know.  I don't
>>have SO installed on any FC2 or 3 systems.  I still have it installed
>>on my old FC1 system, but that's a 2.4 kernel.
> 
> 
> <rant>
> 
> SO and the 2.6 kernels do not co-habit gracefully. In fact, I am not at
> all impressed with the 2.6 kernels and their compatibility and bug
> reports to the kernel folk are treated as though one is a complete idiot
> and comprehensively ignored. My bug reports to the kernel folk about 2.6
> kernels and USB related problems resulted in me being told I didn't know
> what I was talking about, there were no USB problems, just incompatible
> hardware/bios, even though I and a lot of others suffered USB problems.
> As the 2.6 kernels have progressed through the various releases some
> bugs have been fixed and others introduced. 2.6 kernels might work just
> fine on the kernel developer's machines but in my humble opinion that is
> not good enough. New kernels should never be released until they have
> been comprehensively tested on the widest possible amount of hardware
> and users. Interestingly, there are no 2.6 kernels in the enterprise
> versions of RedHat I believe.

That's because EL is STILL based on Red Hat Linux 7.2.  EL4 will be
based on Fedora Core 2 with a 2.6 kernel.

As to the USB compatibility issues, newer 2.6 kernels (such as the
latest for FC2 and FC3) are far more stable with USB than predecessors.
Also keep in mind that 2.6 kernels depend on udev and a new model of the
hotplug software.  There were teething problems and many people don't
quite grok udev, device mapper and hotplug yet.

> Now that I have got that out of my system, the next question is, If I
> upgrade to FC3 and SO simply fails to load and run (a la 2.6.8 kernel),
> can I go back to an earlier kernel, say 2.6.6 or even earlier (2.4 for
> example) under FC3? And another question if I may, can Evolution 2 be
> installed under FC2 without major dependency problems do you know
> offhand? I know I can try all this and see but I would like to know what
> other's experience has been before I burn my bridges. If no one else has
> any experience of these questions then I have been known to jump
> blindfolded :-)

You can revert to any kernel you wish, so long as you stay within the
main version (e.g. don't try to go back to a 2.4 kernel if you're
running a 2.6 kernel...the modutils and stuff are TOTALLY different).

> Rick, all the best for the New Year,

Thanks, and the same to you, kemosabe!  :-)
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- Rick Stevens, Senior Systems Engineer     rstevens at vitalstream.com -
- VitalStream, Inc.                       http://www.vitalstream.com -
-                                                                    -
-      To err is human, to forgive, beyond the scope of the OS       -
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