How To Install FreeOffice on Debian 12

In this tutorial, we will show you how to install FreeOffice on Debian 12. FreeOffice is a powerful, feature-rich office suite that offers a cost-effective alternative to other popular office suites. It includes a word processor, spreadsheet application, and presentation software, all of which are compatible with their Microsoft Office counterparts.

This article assumes you have at least basic knowledge of Linux, know how to use the shell, and most importantly, you host your site on your own VPS. The installation is quite simple and assumes you are running in the root account, if not you may need to add ‘sudo‘ to the commands to get root privileges. I will show you the step-by-step installation of the FreeOffice on a Debian 12 (Bookworm).

Prerequisites

• A server running one of the following operating systems: Debian 12 (Bookworm).
• It’s recommended that you use a fresh OS install to prevent any potential issues.
• SSH access to the server (or just open Terminal if you’re on a desktop).
• You will need an active internet connection to download the FreeOffice package.
• A domain name pointed to your server IP (optional but recommended for a production environment).
• A non-root sudo user or access to the root user. We recommend acting as a non-root sudo user, however, as you can harm your system if you’re not careful when acting as the root.

Install FreeOffice on Debian 12 Bookworm

Step 1. Keeping your system up-to-date is crucial for security and performance. Before installing any new software, it’s a good practice to update the system. Open the terminal and enter the following command:

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade

 This will refresh your package lists and upgrade all your installed software to the latest versions.

Step 2. Installing FreeOffice on Debian 12.

Next, we’ll download the FreeOffice package. We’ll use the wget command, a utility for non-interactive download of files from the web. Navigate to the directory where you want to download the file and enter the following command:

wget https://www.freeoffice.com/download.php?filename=https://www.softmaker.net/down/softmaker-freeoffice-2021_1068-01_amd64.deb

Once the download is complete, we’ll use the dpkg command to install the package. dpkg is a package manager for Debian-based systems that can install, remove, and provide information about .deb packages. Enter the following command:

sudo dpkg -i softmaker-freeoffice-2021_1068-01_amd64.deb

Sometimes, a package may depend on other packages that are not currently installed. If that happens, you can use the apt command with the -f option to fix broken dependencies:

sudo apt install -f

Step 3. Launching FreeOffice on Debian 12.

After the installation, you can launch FreeOffice from the terminal using the appropriate command for the FreeOffice application you want to use. For example, to launch TextMaker, the word processing application in FreeOffice, use the following command:

textmaker18

Step 4. Troubleshooting Common Issues.

While the installation process is generally straightforward, you may encounter some issues. Here are a few common problems and their solutions:

• Problem: The package is not installed due to missing dependencies.
  Solution: Run sudo apt install -f to install any missing dependencies.
• Problem: FreeOffice applications do not launch from the terminal.
  Solution: Ensure that the application is correctly installed and that you’re using the correct command to launch it.

Congratulations! You have successfully installed FreeOffice. Thanks for using this tutorial to install the latest version of FreeOffice on Debian 12 Bookworm. For additional help or useful information, we recommend you check the official FreeOffice website.