A simple tutorial showing how you can install LibreOffice in Arch Linux.
Most Arch Linux installations are custom-made. Hence you need to manually install LibreOffice by choosing the proper package.
LibreOffice comes in two variants. The latest version by number is the community edition which contains the latest features and enhancements and targets early adopters. And the business version is a little behind on features but it’s stable and solid.
Earlier, LibreOffice called them “fresh” and “still” versions. Later the name changed.
However, in the Arch Linux package repository, the names remained as “fresh” and “still”.
Here’s how to install it.
Installing LibreOffice in Arch Linux, Manjaro
First, choose which version you want to install. There are two packages available “libreoffice-fresh” and “libreoffice-still“. They are in the Arch “extra” repo.
Open a terminal window and run the following commands to install the needed version.
sudo pacman -S libreoffice-fresh
sudo pacman -S libreoffice-still
The total installation size should be within 700MB. After installation, you should find LibreOffice in the respective desktop environment’s application menu.
If you are wondering about the LibreOffice Base component (database), they are already included with the above package groups. You don’t need to separately install LibreOffice Base like in Ubuntu and other distros. If you plan to use Base in Arch Linux, set up AUR and install the hsqldb2-java package.
yay -S hsqldb2-java
Installing language packs
All the language packs are available in the Arch repository as a separate package. By default, LibreOffice detects the system language and installs the needed component.
However, if you want to install additional language packs, you can use the format below. Only change the last two bytes of the corresponding language codes.
For example, to install the “fresh” version of the french language pack, you can run the below command.
sudo pacman -S libreoffice-fresh-fr
Summing up
It’s straightforward to install LibreOffice in Arch Linux using the above steps. Once you have installed it, you can get future updates of LibreOffice via standard Arch Linux system updates. It’s simple and hassle-free steps.
I hope this guide helps.
