How can I install two versions of the same program simultaneously?

[NoOp]

On 04/01/2008 02:47 AM, Michele wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I would like to install OOo2.4 with the DEV300m5 in parallel on my ubuntu
> box, but I don't know how. They are both called openoffice, so when i try to
> install dpkg *substitutes* one version with the other.
> 
> I have found this command for RPMs in an old setup guide:
> 
> rpm -ivh --install --dbpath /home/user1/office/.rpm --nodeps --prefix
> /home/user1/office/ openoffice*.rpm
> 
> where /home/user1/office/.rpm is the directory where the second installation
> should be.
> 
> Is there an equivalent command for dpkg? is there an alternative method
> altogether?
> 
> TIA,
> 
> Michele
> 
> 

OK, here is what I did... it isn't eloquent, but it works. Note: I had
previously uninstalled *all* (U)OOo and the ubuntu-desktop, and had
installed the standard OOo (debs) 2.4.0 from Openoffice.org:

1. First I uninstall *all* the previous OOo's that I had.
2. I then reinstalled 2.3.1:
ftp://ftp.ussg.iu.edu/pub/openoffice/stable/2.3.1
<ftp://ftp.ussg.iu.edu/pub/openoffice/stable/2.3.1/OOo_2.3.1_LinuxIntel_install_en-US_deb.tar.gz>
3. Made sure that everything was registered & working.
4. Created an folder to run my test version: mkdir ~/officetest
5. Brought up Nautilus as root (gksu nautilus) and copied everything
from /opt/openoffice.org2.3 over to ~/officetest
6. Then changed the ownership of all the files in ~/officetest to my
username & group:
sudo chown -R <username>:<usergroup> /home/<username>/officetest
7. Changed the permission on
/home/<username>/officetest/openoffice.org2.3/program/bootstraprc to
read-write. Then modified the user installation to:
UserInstallation=$SYSUSERCONFIG/.officetest
8. cd'd to /home/<username>/officetest/openoffice.org2.3/program/ and
ran (from a terminal) ./soffice - completed the registration/start
process and tested Writer etc to make sure they are working correctly.
9. I then used Synaptic to *uninstall* all of the 2.3.1 OOo that I'd
just installed using dpkg (search openoffice.org & remove all 2.3.1-9's).
10. I then re-installed 2.4.0 from OOo (sudo dpkg -i *.deb) and the deb
from desktop-integration to put everything back in it's place. Verified
after reinstall etc.

Now I can run 2.4 from the Application|Office menu and I'm back to
normal. So, I want to run 2.3.1 at officetest; I just create a new menu
item to /home/<username>/officetest/openoffice.org2.3/program/soffice.

If you wish, you can even run them both (2.3.1 and 2.4.0) at the same
time. Just remember, your profile settings for 2.3.1 will be in
~/.officetest and your profile settings for 2.4.0 will be in
~/.openoffice.org2 There also may be some eventual symlink problems due
to the 2.3.1 program move and run location, but so far I've not found any.

Have fun :-)