[odf-discuss] New installer for Linux

[Daniel Carrera]

On Sun, 2006-12-17 at 21:37 +1000, Jean Hollis Weber wrote:
> That's what I meant by "run from the GUI" and I'm happy 
> with that.

Ok :)

> When I wrote earlier, I had thought that option wasn't working. 
> When I first tried it, clicking on the installer did not give me 
> the choice of "Run on Terminal" or "Open in Editor" or "Run" (as 
> I had expected and was used to seeing) -- it just tried to open 
> in an editor and failed.

Did you make it executable? This is going to be an issue with any
self-installer we write, no matter how good it is otherwise. In Linux
you have to make a program executable intentionally.

> Strangely, after I had installed the viewer that way, then the 
> next time I clicked on the installer, it did give me the choice 
> of "Run on Terminal" and "Run" as well as "Open in Editor".

Did you make it executable in between?

> BTW, that is the same thing that happened with your earlier 
> package file -- it didn't run when I clicked on it (tried to open 
> in an editor), but after I had successfully installed the viewer 
> using the terminal, then the package file opened like it should. 

This one I can explain:
* Autopackage (AP) is a tiny little package manager (not good enough for
use in a distribution, but fine for a third-party application).
* No distribution comes with AP installed. So every autopackage is also
a script that checks to see if you have AP installed and if you don't,
it downloads it, installs, and associates the .package extension with
it.
* The second time you install an AP you already have AP installed. When
you click on the package, your computer gives it to AP, in the same way
that it gives ODF files to KOffice/OOo, and your installed AP goes from
there.

Btw: One of the things that my installer does is include AP itself, so
that it doesn't require an internet connection to install.

Cheers,
Daniel.