Alpha version of Ability Office 2000 for Linux

Installation (rpm format only)

1. Install the shared libraries (required):

The shared libraries must be installed first. Use the normal method for installing the rpm's - for example, right-click over ablibs-alpha-1.i686.rpm using your File Manager and select Install. Before installing the other rpm's, you need to set-up wine (if you are new to wine, see the wine setup notes and hints below).

File Title CD-ROM location

ablibs-alpha-1.i686.rpm Shared Ability/Wine Libraries /abilitylinux

File	Title	CD-ROM location
ablibs-alpha-1.i686.rpm	Shared Ability/Wine Libraries	/abilitylinux

2. Install one (or more) of the Ability applications:

Now install the rest of the Ability rpm's.

File Title CD-ROM location

abdata-alpha-1.i686.rpm Ability Database 2000 /abilitylinux

abwrite-alpha-1.i686.rpm Ability Write 2000 /abilitylinux

abpaint-alpha-1.i686.rpm Ability Photopaint 2000 /abilitylinux

abspread-alpha-1.i686.rpm Ability Spreadsheet 2000 /abilitylinux

File	Title	CD-ROM location
abdata-alpha-1.i686.rpm	Ability Database 2000	/abilitylinux
abwrite-alpha-1.i686.rpm	Ability Write 2000	/abilitylinux
abpaint-alpha-1.i686.rpm	Ability Photopaint 2000	/abilitylinux
abspread-alpha-1.i686.rpm	Ability Spreadsheet 2000	/abilitylinux

You can choose any or all of the Ability applications.

Special note for Database: The Database rpm attempts to run a post install script to "register" the database. This may not terminate correctly (in which case, you'll see an error message). If so, enter the following commands at an X terminal window:

cd /usr/X11R6/DAO
./regdao

Any problems, please email support@ability.com.

3. Run the applications using menus

For example, select Application/Ability Spreadsheet to start Spreadsheet. Please note that the first time the application runs, it may take a while before the screen is displayed.

Wine setup notes and hints

The wine configuration file is called wine.conf and is typically in usr/local/etc or /etc. Ability installs a sample wine.conf file called wine.conf.sample that is copied into /usr/local/etc. You can use this as a base for the instructions below.

The Ability applications do not require Windows to be present, so you can configure wine for a "no windows" setup. In brief, you'll need to:

a) Create the following directory structure:

/win/
/win/window
/win/windows/system
/win/windows/Profiles
/win/windows/temp

You can substitute your own path for /win - as long as it matches your wine.conf as described below. Make sure read/write permissions are available to everyone.

b) Change Drive C section of wine.conf to match above. Note the reference to "win95" is NOT a mistake! For example:

[Drive C]
Path=/win
Type=hd
Label=MS-DOS
Filesystem=win95

c) Include the Ability Database engine files, which are installed in /usr/X11R6/DAO, in the path section of wine.conf. For example, set up a Drive G to point to root and use it in the path:

[Drive G]
Path=/
Type=Network
Label=Root
Filesystem=win95

[Wine]
path = c:\;c:\windows;c:\windows\system;g:\usr\X11R6\DAO

d) Change the default load order (in wine.conf) in case you are using a real Windows installation, so that it reads:

DefaultLoadOrder = builtin, elfdll, so, native

e) Check /etc/ld.so.conf. It should at least contain:

/usr/x11R6/lib
/usr/local/lib

If you make changes to this file, make sure you run ldconfig.

See http://www.winehq.com/ for more installation and setup instructions.