whampton@staffnet.comThe purpose of this document is to discuss WordPerfect on Linux. Discussed are running WP for SCO, WP 6.0 from Caldera, and a discussion on the WordPerfect 7.0 beta.
This document is an update to the previous mini-howto that described notes on setting up WordPerfect 6.0 for SCO UNIX (ODT) on Linux.
This document is not endorsed nor sponsored by Corel Corporation or Software Development Corporation.
New versions of this document will be periodically posted to comp.os.linux.announce, comp.answers, and news.answers. They will also be added to the various anonymous ftp sites who archive such information including sunsite.unc.edu:/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO.
In addition, you should be generally able to find this document on the Linux WorldWideWeb home page at http://sunsite.unc.edu/mdw/linux.html.
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The WordPerfect mini-HOWTO is copyrighted (c)1995-1997 Wade Hampton.
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WordPerfect is a popular, fully-featured commercial word processor program that is available for multiple platforms including Linux. It was originally written and sold by WordPerfect Corporation, subsequently purchased by Novell, then purchased about a year or so ago by Corel Corporation (Ottawa, Ontario, CA). Corel has outsourced the development of WordPerfect for UNIX (including Linux) to SDC Corporation, a corporation including former WordPerfect developers, and specializing in development for UNIX and X windows.
Until the release of Microsoft Word, WordPerfect was the most popular word processor for personal computers (it still claims to be by volume of product shipped, some reports indicate that more copies were sold than Microsoft Word during recent months). WordPerfect was originally written for DOS and later ported to the UNIX and Windows environments. Initial versions of WordPerfect for Windows were very late to market and tended to crash a lot, hence opening the floodGATES for Microsoft Word. WordPerfect is still a better word processor than Word for large documents or documents that must be moved between Mac, UNIX, and Microsoft platforms.
WordPerfect provides a WYSWYG environment for editing text documents. One of the best features is the ability to check your spelling as you type. Included are grammar checker, spelling checker, graphics import and export, and the ability to edit HTML documents. Documents created by WordPerfect on one platform may be read, edited, and printed on other platforms (I have generated a lot of documents using WP 6.0 (Caldera's release) and distributed them to Windows 95 users using WP 7.0 or 8.0).
WordPerfect runs on the following platforms (release or beta versions):
I have been very impressed with the operation of WordPerfect 7.0 for Linux. I only recently downloaded it and tried it. It looks like WP 7.0 for Windows. The features appear to work properly. I especially like the spell-as-you-go feature!
The HTML publisher works a little better than that on WP 6.0, but still has some bugs. Someone reported that WP 7.0 requires a lot of swap space (I have not tested it at this time).
WP 7.0 is available as several LARGE tarballs from sdcorp's FTP site (or via the WWW). I tried for two days to download the 26MB archive using ISDN but only was able to get part of the file. I eventually had to use a commercial account with a T1 to the Internet to get the files. It would be much easier to download if each tarball was split into several smaller files (1-2 MB in size). Note, when you uncompress the tarballs, the result is a small number of medium sized files -- just what is needed.
The current version that you can download is time limited to 15 days. During this time, you can pay them and they will give you a license for it.
For WP 7.0 Beta:
ftp://ftp.sdcorp.com/pub/linux_betab/wp7linuxbetab.tar.gz
4887525 graphics_tar.gz
17652138 manual_tar.gz
450535 wp60ms01_us.all
290443 wp60ps01_us.all
26962514 wp7linuxbetab_tar.gz
To install, you must extract the tarballs, run the Runme program, answer some questions and then run xwp to start WP 7.0. Note, you need 58 MB just for WP 7.0, prior to the manuals, graphics, etc.
tar xvzf wp7linuxbetab_tar.gz
creates LINUX* files and Runme, the install program
./Runme
License Screen:
Hit OK
Demo Screen:
Hit OK
Corel Corporation: 800-772-6735
UNIX Support: 801-765-4019
Installation Directory:
Enter directory, e.g., /opt/wp7.0
Hit OK
Installation Size:
Full: 71-80M
Medium: 45-51M
Minimal: 37-41M
Existing Application:
If you have WP 6.0 (Caldera installs in
/opt/wp6.0 by default), you can keep your
settings for terminal drivers, printer drivers
and printer ports. Recommended.
Enter directory (if present)
Hit OK
Edit /etc/magic?
Will add WP files to /etc/magic. Will backup
/etc/magic as /etc/magic.bak
Select YES or NO
Hit OK
Selection of languages to Install
Only have English, it is selected
Hit OK
Select print divers:
Select your printers, may select more than one.
Hit OK
Assign Printer Drivers to Destinations:
Click on a printer
Click on the destination (name from /etc/printcap)
Hit OK
Repeat for each printer you selected in previous step.
Hit OK
Installation Review List:
Allows you to go back to any screen and make changes.
Select screen to make changes, or Hit OK to continue
Hit OK
Graphicsl Corel WordPerfect(UNIX) installation screen
includes progress bar
Readme Review screen:
Allows you to read any review notes....
Select item and View to view it, e.g., license
Note if you entered a license, you need to add the
license manager startup stuff to /etc/rc.d/rc.local!
Select Done when finished
/opt/wp7.0/wpbin/xwp& (or wherever you installed it)
Note, I have WP 6.0 from Caldera, the first time I started, I got a prompt to load defaults from 6.0. I selected YES and WP loaded the defaults and exited. I then restarted xwp and my defaults, including the last files I edited with WP 6.0 were used!
Upgrade pricing expected to be $149.99 (US) and retail pricing $199.99.
Caldera sells both a WordPerfect and Motif Bundle ($130 US) and the Caldera Internet Office Suite ($219 US). Both include WordPerfect 6.0 for Linux.
Overall, WP 6.0 has been good to me. I have generated 20-30 large documents and numerous small ones, probably 1000+ pages if I printed them all out. The only problem that I have is that I use WP Times font under Linux and it is not compatible with the WP True Type Times font under Windows.
The author has been using WordPerfect for Linux on Caldera Network Desktop (CND) for the past year. The system is a P6/200, 64M RAM, SCSI, CND 1.0 with RiskyHack patches to the Linux 2.0.30 kernel, updated RPM, and many, many RPMS from Redhat and Caldera's WWW sites.
Visit Caldera's WWW site at http://www.caldera.com
Installation was easy. I just followed the directions provided....
I did have to add wp to my fvwm menu (I am using FVWM95 on CND 1.0 with lots of patches) and to looking glass's menus.
My platform is a P6/200, 64M RAM, Caldera CND 1.0, RiskyHacks to libc 5.4.4, kernel 2.0.30 (Joliet and FAT32 patches), dual SCSI, CD-R, etc. WP uses 74 MB of disk space.
I started using WP 5.1 for SCO (which was statically linked) since January, 1995. In the Spring, 1995, I obtained a copy of WP 6.0 for SCO (dynamic linked) and was able to install it with some pain. I subsequently have had some problems with the license manager. I have it running under 1.2.8.
This section is mainly from the original WordPerfect mini-howto. It has not been used in a long time. Note, the more recent versions of WP for SCO included both the dynamic and static linked versions, and hence did NOT require SCO's shared libraries.
This is mainly for background information! If you really want WP for Linux, get the new WP 7.0!
WP for SCO seemed to work fine (once the installation problems were overcome). I used this distribution for about 6-12 months until I received a copy of WP 6.0 for Linux (Caldera) and CND 1.0.
Contact SCO or visit their WWW page at http://www.sco.com
The kernel should be setup for module support and ELF support. If you have already done this, skip this step, else, do the following as root:
Loadable module support is required for iBCS2 and hence to run WP 6.0. Get the latest from the ftp sites, build it, and install it. If you have already setup your system for loadable modules, skip this step. Loadable module support (/sbin/insmod, /sbin/rmmod, /sbin/lsmod) is required. With recent kernels, genksyms is also required.
The iBCS2 emulator allows you to run SCO binaries such as WordPerfect 6.0. Get the latest from the ftp sites, build it, and install it.
The interfaces to some subsystems occur at the device layer and thus you need to create some device files in order to use them:
* /dev/socksys and /dev/nfsd - interface for SVr3 STREAMS based
TCP/IP applications
# mknod /dev/socksys c 30 0
# ln -s /dev/socksys /dev/nfsd
[WARNING: the below may already be setup as /dev/inet,
/dev/arp, etc., they may have other major/minor numbers,
if so, skip this step]
* /dev/inet/{arp,icmp,ip,rip,tcp,udp} - more network hooks
# mknod /dev/inet/arp c 30 2
# mknod /dev/inet/icmp c 30 2
# mknod /dev/inet/ip c 30 2
# mknod /dev/inet/rip c 30 2
# mknod /dev/inet/tcp c 30 2
# mknod /dev/inet/udp c 30 2
[THIS IS REQUIRED AND WILL USUALLY HAVE TO BE DONE MANUALLY!]
* /dev/X0R - server side of SVR3 local X interface
(see comments in Doc/Local-X)
# ln -s /dev/null /dev/X0R
* /dev/spx - client side of SVR3 local X interface
(see comments in Doc/Local-X)
# mknod /dev/spx c 30 1
DO NOT VIOLATE SCO's COPYRIGHTS! You should get a copy of SCO's shared libraries and install them in /shlib. As root:
/shlib/libX11R5_s
/shlib/libXtXm*
Make sure that you have LOTS of space in your /tmp directory. If you do not have lots of space, make a tmp directory and set the environment variable TMPDIR to it. As root first try the following:
If you get the following error you may not have enough space in your /tmp directory, make a new tmp directory and set the environment variable TMPDIR (see above):
ERROR: not enough space in /tmp, or this is an unsupported machine.
If all else fails, you may have to do it manually per these notes:
cp -r WpTmP/wp60/SCO/* wp60
WordPerfect uses a license manager (see the manuals). This is a tricky beast that sometimes does not work properly under Linux (I have had it fail, done something else then I was able to start it). If you have problems call WordPerfect and they can assist you. Please RTFM the documentation section on the license manager.
To start the license manager, as root:
# cd $WPDIR/shbin10
# ./wplicense -s
If you get the errors:
/dev/XOR: No such file or directory Error: Can't open display: :0.0
You need to set up your DISPLAY environment variable (per above) and possibly setup the link to the device /dev/XOR (cd /dev; ln -s /dev/null /dev/XOR).
Note if WP "steals" the colors from your X server (a problem if the depth is only 256 colors), disable the display of the graphics banner page by doing the following:
You will need to add a line to your /etc/rc.d/rc.local script (or similar) to start iBCS2 and the WP license manager (if desired).
# /sbin/insmod /usr/lib/modules/iBCS &
# $WPDIR/shbin10/wplicense -s &
This was extracted from my original notes and includes changes to install.wp that are reported to work:
The install.wp on the CDROM did not work out of the box. I had to modify it to get it to work by moving all files to a temporary directory and changing this install script. The changes are:
48c48,49 < mkdir $LNK_DIR 2> /dev/null --- > echo making LNK_DIR=$LNK_DIR > mkdir $LNK_DIR 51c52 < --- > echo removing /tmp/TMPTMP 53a55,57 > echo /tmp/TMPTMP= > cat /tmp/TMPTMP > echo /tmp/TMPTMP -- to here 62,63c66,83 < for i in $myfiles < do --- > echo MYFILES=$myfiles THISDIR=$thisdir > ls $myfiles > echo making LNK_DIR=$LNK_DIR/ifiles > mkdir $LNK_DIR/ifiles > chmod 777 $LNK_DIR/ifiles > cp $thisdir/ifiles/* $LNK_DIR/ifiles > chmod 777 $LNK_DIR/ifiles/* > ls -l $LNK_DIR/ifiles > > # echo making links.... > # $LNK_DIR/ifiles/cdlink.sco -r $thisdir > # echo links should be done... > # exit > > > # for i in $myfiles > i=$thisdir/ifiles/cdlink.sco > # do 65a86,87 > echo /tmp/TMP= > cat /tmp/TMP 73c95 < rm -f /tmp/TMPTMP --- > rm -f /tmp/TMPTMP 77c99 < done --- > # done 368a391,394 > echo THISDIR=$thisdir > thisdir=/usr/local/wp60/cdrom > echo THISDIR=$thisdir > 469a496,498 > echo INIT DONE, THISDIR=$thisdir > ls $thisdir/ifiles/cdinst.* > 493a523,526 > > echo RUN_ME=$RUN_ME > RUN_ME=$thisdir/ifiles/cdinst.sco > echo RUN_ME=$RUN_ME
I did not keep a detailed list of bugs for WP/SCO, however:
Sometime in August, WordPerfect 7.0 for Linux should ship. It should be available from SDC for about $149.99 for a competitive upgrade or $199.99 retail.
Corel is working on porting their entire office suite to Java and releasing it as Corel Office for Java(TM). This currently is in Beta and works on Linux (I tried the first beta -- very slow). Check out http://officeforjava.corel.com/about.htm for more information. This promises to be something to watch.
SDC is currently working on WPLinux 8 with an expected beta mid 1998 and a release following by about 5 months. SDC has indicated that if there is not sufficient demand for WP for Linux, they will probably not ship it (they already stopped shipping for SGI and UNIXWare) -- so if you like it, buy it!
Software Development Corporation is the developer of WordPerfect for UNIX. Corel has outsourced the development of WordPerfect for UNIX to SDC. I have been in touch with the SDC product manager for WP for LINUX and he has been very helpful (I have provided him with a review copy of this document).
Software Development Corporation
512 East 1860 South
Provo, Utah 84606 USA
Phone: (801) 370-9600
Fax: (801) 370-9696
Email: info@sdcorp.com
WWW:
http://www.sdcorp.com/wpunix.html
Corel Corporation is the new owner of WordPerfect, having purchased it from Novell. They develop and market excellent products such as Corel Draw and WordPerfect.
Corel Corporation
Ottawa, Ontario, CA
Technical Support (WP UNIX): (801) 765-4019
WWW:
http://www.corel.com
< Caldera Corporation sells WordPerfect 6.0 for Caldera Network Desktop (CND) for $129.99 (WordPerfect and Motif Bundle). Note, at this time, I have no information on if Caldera is planning to sell WP 7.0.
Caldera, Inc.
633 South 550 East
Provo, Utah 84606 USA
(888) GO LINUX
(801) 377=7687
WWW:
http://www.caldera.com
As a last resort, email me at whampton@staffnet.com.