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  • From: sindi keesan <keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org>
  • To: baslinux AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [BL] [Bug 7633] - Abiword won't load in 4-bit color Xvesa (fwd)
  • Date: Thu, 14 Oct 2004 18:11:45 +0000 (UTC)

I have attached some information about WP's various linux versions, in particular the one from 11/1/99 (8.1 PE ver 1.2) which can be used on a computer that does not already have libc5 and ld.so-1 (which BL3 does have). What would be nice is to get hold of WP 6, 7, or 8 Server Edition,
which comes with both xwp for X11 and plain console-based wp. They left that out of the Personal Edition which is what they based the smaller free download edition on (having left out technical support among many other things). It sounds like you have the free download version without text-mode.

There was also a 'lite' version with fewer fonts. I don't want any fonts, or templates.

There seem to be import filters for WORD 97 but not later (no surprise considering it is a 1999 program that got reissued in 2003 with libc5.3 and ld.so-1.9.5 added to the installation).

The installation program is said to put an icon on your KDE desktop.

They seem to be up to WP10 or maybe also WP2000 now.


On Thu, 14 Oct 2004, James Miller wrote:

On Thu, 14 Oct 2004, sindi keesan wrote:

Sure, something to keep me busy in the cold weather if I get RP8 working
and ghostscript compiled and mutt sending binary attachments. I have not
used GUI WP but I am familiar with the DOS CLI versions. How enormous is
WP8? I could run WP4.2 off one floppy disk (and spellchecker off
another). 360K floppy disk.


The download was something like 26MB. Floppy disks are, obviously, out of
the question. Don't know about keyboard functionality either.


I presume this recent WP will import .doc (WORD) and .rtf. WP51 won't.

I really haven't used it much, but my supposition is that it's probably
.doc compatible up to the versions of Word contemporaneous with it.
Perhaps dedicated users have produced import filters for newer Word
versions in the interim? I'd be *very* surprised if it won't handle .rtf.

Supposedly you can use DOS printer drivers with just a name change.


I'll plan on sending a CD of the tar.gz install file(s) I downloaded
a couple of years ago. I also have the stuff uncompressed on a CD I got
from Edmunds that includes Corel Draw, if you'd rather have that.

The download version was 'lite'.

Is this CD also Personal Edition without the CLI 'wp' just 'xwp'? If it is the Server Edition I would be really delighted to try it in console mode. The lite version also omitted equation editor, networking, and some other things I have never used. (What I would really like is a text editor that will produce rtf with centering, underlines, and bold, and display WYSIWYG in console mode on my TTL like WP51/DOS does).



James
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keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org
SDF Public Access UNIX System - http://sdf.lonestar.org #[1]WordPerfect on Linux FAQ [2]Introduction [3]Technical Problems.

WordPerfect on Linux FAQ
[4]Prev [5]Next
______________________________________________________________________

2. Taxonomy and History

2.1. Corel WordPerfect Product Strategy

To understand Corel's WP versions for Linux, and what they're like, it
helps to know the company's product history. As a proprietary software
company, Corel wants customers to buy its boxed-set products.
WordPerfect is one such product. CLOS was another. The Corel Netwinder
Linux-based computer was a third.

Proprietary software companies are motivated to keep development costs
down and product-development cycles short. So, Corel always attempts
to use one main codebase, the Win32 version (the MacOS one having been
axed in May 2001, per [6]http://www.geocities.com/bulgybear/wp.html)
as the flagship version, and minimises time and money spent on other
OSes' versions.

For similar reasons, the WP product line is always fundamentally less
diverse than it seems: To fill different niches and hit various price
points, WP is / was offered in different "editions", with more
features omitted or disabled from the base "Server" edition (about US
$500, boxed set) as one descends the price scale.

2.2. Versions and Editions

WP versions 6 and 7 for Linux (native ports coded by SD Corp.) are
long gone from the market, at this date. The (premium-priced) Server
Edition boxed-set version included multiuser support and NFS locking,
and included both an X11 version ("xwp") and a text-mode / console one
("wp"). The lower-priced Personal Edition boxed set omitted both
multiuser / NFS support and the console version. (By "boxed set", I
mean that the product was not available for download, only in a retail
box, via stores or mail-order.)

WP 8.0 editions for Linux were mostly similar: The Server Edition and
Personal Edition boxed-set versions were as detailed for prior
versions. However, Corel also introduced a WP 8.0 Download Personal
Edition, which could be downloaded free of charge as a gzipped tar
archive, and was also redistributed for the cost of media on CD-ROMs,
in either tar.gz or RPM format. In late 2001, Corel disabled download
of WP 8.0 DPE from its ftp site, but it remains available elsewhere.

WP 8.0 DPE for Linux differed from the boxed-set versions in lacking
the other versions' drawing / charting module, their module to create
custom dictionaries and hyphenation databases, their equation editor,
their network support, their print-queue manager, their prepaid
technical support, their sample documents / templates / textures /
clip-art / photos, their font-installer module, most of their fonts,
their multi-language support, and their documentation. (The program
could call up an HTML manual from http://linux.corel.com/wpmanual, now
removed, and that entire Internet server was finally decommissioned on
Feb. 26, 2003.) Also, after 90 days, it refuses to run until you enter
a registration key, available free of charge (for now) on
[7]http://venus.corel.com/nasapps/wp8linuxreg/register.html or
[8]http://nas.corel.com/nasapps/wp8linuxreg/register.html (or use one
of the ones people have posted in public). Also, the licence permitted
only personal, non-commercial use. Last, it was compiled dynamically
linked against some now-obsolete libraries, which must thus be
furnished for its benefit (prior to installation).

Balanced against these drawbacks is supplies of 8.0 DPE being
effectively inexhaustible -- despite legal questions.

WP 8.0 Personal Edition for Linux was offered in boxed sets, and was
offered bundled with the book "WordPerfect for Linux Bible" by Stephen
E. Harris and Erwin Zijleman. It included 140 fonts, the
font-installer module "xwpfi" (see:
[9]http://www.rodsbooks.com/wpfonts/wpfonts-fonts.html), 5,000 clip
art images, support for grammar / spelling checkers and thesaurus
lookups in additional (non-English) languages, and a now-outdated set
of KDE 1.1 RPMs for Red Hat 5.1 / 5.2. The CD-ROM includes a text file
with a registration key. Be aware that the electronic-format WP manual
included is for character-mode WP, not the graphical X11 version.

Next came WP 8.1 Personal Edition for Linux (WP 8.1 PE), arguably the
best version to date, showing "Release 8.1 11/1/1999" in its About
screen. It came only in boxed sets of CLOS Deluxe Edition versions 1.0
and 1.2. (CLOS 1.2 was better known as "Second Edition", a name Corel
evidently pitched at MS-Windows users.)

WP 8.1 PE differed from prior versions in several ways. It wasn't
licensed for multiuser (only Server Editions included multiuser
support and console-mode WP; I know of no 8.1 Server Editions), but
was licensed for commercial use. As part of CLOS Deluxe Edition, it
was in .deb package format. Redistribution was / is strictly
prohibited. It came with a full set of 300 fonts, the font-installer
module, network support, WP Draw, an equation editor, and a printed
manual. It ships with and installs all required libraries.

WP 8.1 Light Edition for Linux was the bundled WP copy included in
boxed sets of CLOS Standard Edition. According to one report, it
differs from WP 8.1 PE only in having approximately 1/3 as many
included fonts (only one of the Deluxe bundle's three .deb-format font
archives).

Starting in late 2003, an update to WP 8.1 PE, confusingly called
"WordPerfect 8 for Linux" (but showing "Release 8.1.0076 11/1/1999" in
the About screen), was available through the Corel Store e-commerce
Web site on eBay, then on Corel's own site intermittently from April
15, 2004 until around June 2004 as a "pilot project" aka "proof of
concept" market-testing limited offering, "to determine the
feasibility of developing future Linux versions of WordPerfect or
WordPerfect Office". It uses its own graphical installer routine
(eschewing the system package database) that prompts you for a licence
number (included), installs under /usr by default, provides the
necessary set of libc5 libraries and matching wrapper scripts,
provides 130 PostScript Type 1 fonts, and incorporates the equivalent
of Valentijn Sessink's Filtrix fix. Supported languages are English
(UK, US, CA and OZ) and French (CA and National), only -- which can be
fixed. Like prior releases of WP 8.1 PE, the 2003-4 "WordPerfect 8 for
Linux" pilot-project offering was licensed for commercial use, but not
multiuser.

The intended successor to 8.x was WP 9, promoted by Corel as
"WordPerfect Office 2000". This FAQ will have little to say about WP 9
for Linux, as it was not a true native port, but rather consisted of
Win32 code running in a Winelib environment -- with predictable RAM
bloat and instability, as a result. (Boxed sets only were offered.)
______________________________________________________________________

[10]Prev [11]Home [12]Next
Introduction Technical Problems.

References

1. http://www.linuxmafia.com/wpfaq/index.html
2. http://www.linuxmafia.com/wpfaq/introduction.html
3. http://www.linuxmafia.com/wpfaq/problems.html
4. http://www.linuxmafia.com/wpfaq/introduction.html
5. http://www.linuxmafia.com/wpfaq/problems.html
6. http://www.geocities.com/bulgybear/wp.html
7. http://venus.corel.com/nasapps/wp8linuxreg/register.html
8. http://nas.corel.com/nasapps/wp8linuxreg/register.html
9. http://www.rodsbooks.com/wpfonts/wpfonts-fonts.html
10. http://www.linuxmafia.com/wpfaq/introduction.html
11. http://www.linuxmafia.com/wpfaq/index.html
12. http://www.linuxmafia.com/wpfaq/problems.html
#[1]WordPerfect on Linux FAQ [2]Taxonomy and History [3]Downloadable
WP 8

WordPerfect on Linux FAQ
[4]Prev [5]Next
______________________________________________________________________

3. Technical Problems.

3.1. WP 8.0 DPE for Linux installs but won't start on my Linux distribution.
How do I fix that?

WP 8.0 for Linux was distributed as a dynamically linked ELF binary,
linked against libc5 (C library), libm (the related math library), a
set of five X11 libraries for libc5-based software, and
ld-linux.so.1.9.* (aka ld.so 1.9.*), the dynamic-linker/loader
software current on Linux at that time. Those old libraries are often
omitted from current Linux distributions. In such cases, you need to
retrofit those libraries. (You can see the exact library links by
running "ldd" = list library dependencies against the WordPerfect
"xwp" main executable file.) Specifically: Prior to running the WP 8.0
installer, you must install ld-linux.so.1.9.* (usually in an ld.so
package), libc of some version from 5.3.12 through 5.4.46, and
libm.so.5.* (both usually in the libc5 package), and a set of X11
backward-compatibility libraries compiled against libc5 (libXt.so.6,
libX11.so.6, libXpm.so.4, libSM.so.6, and libICE.so.6). Don't forget
to ensure the libraries' directories are listed in /etc/ld.so.conf,
and then re-run /sbin/ldconfig.

What binary packages these libs and dynamic linker/loader will occupy
differs between distributions. If in doubt, documents linked from
[6]http://linux-sxs.org/utilities/wp_index.html may give details for
your distribution. (Also, FAQ section "After I locate WP 8.0 DPE for
Linux, how do I install it, and what can I do to improve and fix it?"
has more details and remedies for installation problems.)

3.2. WP 8.0 DPE for Linux installs perfectly, and runs fine for the root
user, but quits with a segmentation fault if any non-root user starts it.
What's the cause?

You installed Accelerated-X, a proprietary X11 server, and included in
your installation its version of the X11 libraries, which were
compiled with glibc. You need the more-traditional XFree86 versions of
those libraries (libXt.so.6, libX11.so.6, libXpm.so.4, libSM.so.6, and
libICE.so.6), specifically ones that were compiled for libc5 X11
clients. Remove Accelerated-X completely, reinstall the XFree86 shared
libraries for libc5 clients (which may have any of various package
names, such as xlib-compat, oldlibs/xlib6, etc.), and then reinstall
the Accelerated-X server only (minimal installation). WordPerfect
should then run correctly.

3.3. How do I stop the WP 8.x installer from getting diagnostic message
"../install.wp: [: 18-10: integer expression expected" followed a short
while later by termination with a Segmentation Fault error?

You are running with "libsafe" enabled, a wrapper library that aims to
protect system security by blocking library calls that are known to be
vulnerable to buffer overflows. Unfortunately, that technique blocks
execution of any binary that attempts a dynamic library call to
libc5.x. Both the WP 8.x installer and WP 8.0's runtime binary were
compiled as libc5 executables.

To confirm that libsafe is the culprit, type "echo $LD_PRELOAD | grep
libsafe". You can turn off that setting by typing "unset LD_PRELOAD".
Then, remove the libsafe reference in /etc/ld.so.preload, if this
exists. You should now be able to successfully run the installer, and
can call the main "xwp" binary using a shell script that runs "unset
LD_PRELOAD" just prior to executing xwp.

3.4. How do I fix the WP 8.x installer's failures resulting from errors
copying files onto my NFS network drive?

You're probably using one of the personal editions of WP 8.x. Only the
server editions include code required to enable support of NFS file
locking (which in server editions you can enable via the WPadmin login
facility). Otherwise, neither the installer nor the WP program binary
will run if any components are on (or will be installed to) any NFS
mounted drive, including user settings in users' home directories and
temporary files in /tmp.

3.5. How do I fix MS-Word import / export filters (the Filtrix module) on WP
8.x for Linux?

The third-party Filtrix module, because of a programming oversight
concerning date-handling, doesn't work on systems whose current date
is set later than September 9, 2001: On attempts to import / export
MS-Word files, it fails with error message "Filtrix unable to convert
this file". The problem can be fixed by installing a wrapper by
Valentijn Sessink, available at
[7]http://olivier.pk.wau.nl/~valentyn/wp8fix/. (This fix isn't
necessary for the 2003-4 "pilot project" re-release, which includes an
equivalent fix.)

Note: Reportedly, the Filtrix module will not process MS-Word .doc
files that were saved in MS-Word with password-protection applied.
This is not a bug: Filtrix never handled such files. (Nor can Filtrix
handle MS-Word documents with embedded non-MS-Word COM objects such as
spreadsheet tables from MS-Excel.)

Import will also fail on any file saved in a post-Word97 version of
Microsoft's .doc format. This is not a bug, just an inevitable result
of the program's age and lack of maintenance.

3.6. Why didn't Corel itself release any fix for the MS-Word / Filtrix
problem, especially given its obligations to purchasers of boxed-set
versions?

Good question. By the time the problem cropped up, Corel had
discontinued all involvement in Linux. Just before that, Microsoft
Corporation made a major investment in Corel, preventing the latter
firm's collapse. It's possible that lack of Linux-competent staffing
was an issue, that Corel didn't wish to displease its investor, that
the firm perceived inexpensive Linux versions to be impairing sales of
its US $500 versions for other Unixes (especially given increasingly
common support for Linux-native binaries on those Unixes), or that
corporate inertia after liquidating the entire Linux division
accounted for this lapse. (Corel was later passed to Vector Capital,
Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen's venture-capital firm, which took
Corel private.)

Corel's only comment (November 5, 2001) was "The corporation is not
prepared to make any comment", and to post a comment on
http://linux.corel.com/support/updates.htm#wp8, unchanged since late
2001, that "Corel is currently working with the filter manufacturer to
resolve this issue." (That claim was still present when Corel took
down the linux.corel.com machine on Feb. 26, 2003.)

3.7. How do I make WP for Linux's integration with KDE Address Book ("kab")
work with KDE2 / KDE3?

You don't. WP is compatible with the "kab" version in KDE 1.1, only,
that being the KDE version shipped with CLOS. For unexplained reasons,
this feature also doesn't work on Linux 2.4.x or later kernels.

3.8. I get rendering problems with icons and other graphical objects when
running WP for Linux at greater than 16 bits per pixel. How do I fix that?

This is a frequent symptom of colour palette exhaustion. The only real
cure is to run X11 at a lower colour depth. 32 bpp will sometimes work
where 24 bpp doesn't, but 16 bpp always works (assuming hardware
support).

3.9. Can I make WP for Linux use TrueType fonts?

No. WP can use PostScript Type 1 fonts, only. The issue is covered
comprehensively by Rod Smith, here (including describing a utility for
generating PostScript Type 1 fonts from TrueType ones -- with, no
doubt, inevitable loss of detail resulting from "hinting"-routine
omission and other conversion artifacts):
[8]http://www.rodsbooks.com/wpfonts/

3.10. How do I get printing to work?

By default, WP for Linux (uniquely) ignores Linux's system printing
facilities, and uses its own print engine and drivers. (The latter are
the same as for WP on MS-DOS, giving the program very broad printer
support. More are available at
[9]http://www.columbia.edu/~em36/wpdos/, which should be reachable as
[10]http://www.wpdos.org/.) You need to configure the printing
subsystem. As the root user, start xwp with the -admin (or -adm)
command-line option, then select and install an appropriate printer
driver, using the Add Printer Driver widget. (In such cases but not
the Passthru Postscript option discussed next, specify "-oraw" in the
WP8 Printer Setup dialogue's Lpr options box on the Select Destination
sub-page, or define a "raw" printing destination in your system print
daemon, e.g., CUPS.) Alternatively, select "Passthru Postscript" to
hand off jobs to the system printing daemon, and use the latter's
print drivers, instead.

The 2003-4 "WordPerfect 8 for Linux" pilot-project offering retains
this print engine, except that it defaults to Passthru Postscript
using print destination WPSpool, a reasonable default for compatiblity
with modern Linux systems' existing system print regimes, which mostly
use CUPS. (You can still alternatively use WP's own print drivers, and
either specify "raw" printing in your system print spooler or "-oraw"
in WP's print options as described above.)

3.11. How do I keep the "WordPerfect 8 for Linux" re-release's installer
from crashing?

Because of a bug in the install script, the 2003-4 "WordPerfect 8 for
Linux" pilot-project release's installer must be run setting US
English option initially as default, or it will fail. You can then
choose one of the other installed language options after installation.

3.12. Can my language's absence from the "WordPerfect 8 for Linux"
re-release be fixed?

Yes. The "pilot project" re-release included language modules for
English (UK, US, CA and OZ) and French (CA and National), but not
Dutch, German, Italian, or Spanish. Those modules can be installed
from separate downloads mentioned elsewhere in this FAQ. After
installing them, you'll need to add "/usr/i386-compat-gnulibc1/lib"
(or as appropriate, if you didn't install WP to the /usr/wplinux
default) as a new line to /etc/ld.so.conf and re-run "ldconfig".
(Otherwise, you'll see an error about inability to find libm.so.5,
when you execute the language module's ./Runme script.)

3.13. Why aren't the PostScript Type 1 fonts I've installed available in WP?

You haven't yet run the xwpfi font-installer, to inform WP of their
presence. (A Readme explains how to use it.) Note that xwpfi is
intentionally omitted from WP 8.0 DPE. Please see FAQ section "How do
I add fonts to WP 8.1?" for more details.

3.14. Why aren't the PostScript Type 1 fonts I've installed available to
applications other than WP?

You haven't yet configured X11 to know about them, though perhaps
you've run xwpfi to inform WP about their existence. The two are
distinct, WP's font integration being incomplete relative to that of
standard Linux apps. Please see FAQ section "How do I add fonts to WP
8.1?" for more details.

3.15. I see the process "wpexc" still running in my system process table,
even after quitting WordPerfect. If the WordPerfect program is "xwp", what's
"wpexc", and why does it need to remain running?

Tests by Valentijn Sessink have confirmed that this process must have
something to do with printing: If you rename the wpexc binary, then
start WP, printing will malfunction but no other program features
will. The fact that it's left running even after you quit WP appears
to be a bug. You can safely kill it, when not running WP.

3.16. What is the "xwppmgr" process?

It's the WordPerfect Print Manager. WordPerfect by default manages its
own printing, and only optionally hands off jobs to the system
printing facility, if so configured.

3.17. How do I prevent "xwp" from starting the wrong version of WordPerfect?

(This problem obviously applies only to the minority who keep multiple
editions of WP for Linux on tap.) "xwp" in some editions, such as
2003-4's "pilot project" re-release and WP 8.1 PE, is a symbolic link
pointing to a launcher script. (Thus, you should rename any existing
/usr/bin/xwp, before installing, as the installer will overwrite it.)
In others, it's a binary: Run "file" on it to tell. You may have to do
some debugging and creation of your own symlinks to untangle multiple
editions' startup mechanisms.

3.18. How do I get WP to support my wheelmouse?

You need to run "imwheel -k" (which utility must, of course, be
installed) just prior to launching WP. This can be added as a line
near the top of WP's startup script (which you can create, if none
such exists).

3.19. WP9 stopped working / won't install, even with the upgraded support
packages and installer. How do I fix that?

Check the version of libc, which should be in /lib. If it's 2.3.2 or
above (as it is in essentially all current Linux distributions), and
you're using either the original bundled version of Corelwine or
Michael Torrie's corelwine-cvs-20010613-1.i386.rpm upgrade (or Andreas
von Heydwolff's corelwine-cvs_0.1-2_i386.deb [11]conversion to .deb
format of Torrie's release), that's why: There's a libc-support
problem, which will necessitate fixing and re-releasing Corelwine. (A
[12]bug in ld.so's dynamic linker/loader prevents solving this using a
wrapper to use an older libc and the existing Corelwine libs.)
However, in September 2004, Torrie graciously provided his
[13]Corelwine source code. It's hoped some volunteer will soon code
the patch required.
______________________________________________________________________

[14]Prev [15]Home [16]Next
Taxonomy and History Downloadable WP 8

References

1. http://www.linuxmafia.com/wpfaq/index.html
2. http://www.linuxmafia.com/wpfaq/taxonomy.html
3. http://www.linuxmafia.com/wpfaq/downloadwp8.html
4. http://www.linuxmafia.com/wpfaq/taxonomy.html
5. http://www.linuxmafia.com/wpfaq/downloadwp8.html
6. http://linux-sxs.org/utilities/wp_index.html
7. http://olivier.pk.wau.nl/~valentyn/wp8fix/
8. http://www.rodsbooks.com/wpfonts/
9. http://www.columbia.edu/~em36/wpdos/
10. http://www.wpdos.org/
11.
http://web.archive.org/web/20040225112645/http://members.chello.at/hrdisk/corelwine.html
12. http://sources.redhat.com/ml/bug-glibc/2003-05/msg00047.html
13. http://linuxmafia.com/pub/linux/apps/
14. http://www.linuxmafia.com/wpfaq/taxonomy.html
15. http://www.linuxmafia.com/wpfaq/index.html
16. http://www.linuxmafia.com/wpfaq/downloadwp8.html



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