Update #1: 3 Feb 2017: The new LibreOffice 5.3 has been released to the stable snap channel, which means the process of installing is quite easier. See at the end of this post for the simplified instructions, to install from fresh or switch channel from edge to stable.



LibreOffice 5.3 was released a few days ago, and it has several new nice features.

The LibreOffice project provides a tarball for Ubuntu with the new version, that can be downloaded, extracted and then we can run it.

However, we can install a snap with LibreOffice 5.3, which makes it convenient for testing and not messing up our system.

The following apply to Ubuntu 16.04 or newer. It also applies to Ubuntu 14.04 once you follow this tutorial.

Let’s check what snaps are available for LibreOffice.

$ snap info libreoffice name: libreoffice summary: "LibreOffice is a powerful office suite including word processing and creation of spreadsheets, slideshows and databases" publisher: canonical description: | LibreOffice is a powerful office suite – its clean interface and feature-rich tools help you unleash your creativity and enhance your productivity. LibreOffice includes several applications that make it the most powerful Free and Open Source office suite on the market: Writer (word processing), Calc (spreadsheets), Impress (presentations), Draw (vector graphics and flowcharts), Base (databases), and Math (formula editing). channels: stable: 5.2.3.2 (10) 364MB - candidate: 5.2.3.2 (10) 364MB - beta: 5.2.3.2 (10) 364MB - edge: 5.3.0.2 (14) 374MB - $ _

We learn that there are several channels for snaps, and the new version of LibreOffice is currently in the edge channel. This channel is that channel that is less stable than all others. That is, if we go for edge, we are bleeding edge in terms of LibreOffice. And some things may not work due to packaging. By installing this snap, we help in testing the packaging of the LibreOffice snap.

Let’s install LibreOffice from the edge channel:

$ sudo snap install libreoffice --channel=edge libreoffice (edge) 5.3.0.2 from 'canonical' installed $ _

Let’s get some info again from the installed LibreOffice snap.

$ snap info libreoffice name: libreoffice summary: "LibreOffice is a powerful office suite including word processing and creation of spreadsheets, slideshows and databases" publisher: canonical description: | LibreOffice is a powerful office suite – its clean interface and feature-rich tools help you unleash your creativity and enhance your productivity. LibreOffice includes several applications that make it the most powerful Free and Open Source office suite on the market: Writer (word processing), Calc (spreadsheets), Impress (presentations), Draw (vector graphics and flowcharts), Base (databases), and Math (formula editing). commands: - libreoffice.impress - libreoffice - libreoffice.math - libreoffice.writer - libreoffice.base - libreoffice.calc - libreoffice.draw tracking: edge installed: 5.3.0.2 (14) 374MB - refreshed: 2017-01-19 04:24:50 +0200 EET channels: stable: 5.2.3.2 (10) 364MB - candidate: 5.2.3.2 (10) 364MB - beta: 5.2.3.2 (10) 364MB - edge: 5.3.0.2 (14) 374MB -

We verify that LibreOffice 5.3 was installed and now we know the new commands to run the new version.

Let’s figure out now how to run the new LibreOffice. Because we already have LibreOffice (the stock Ubuntu LibreOffice) installed.

$ whereis libreoffice libreoffice: /usr/bin/libreoffice /usr/lib/libreoffice /etc/libreoffice /usr/share/libreoffice /snap/bin/libreoffice /snap/bin/libreoffice.calc /snap/bin/libreoffice.math /snap/bin/libreoffice.draw /snap/bin/libreoffice.writer /snap/bin/libreoffice.impress /snap/bin/libreoffice.base /usr/share/man/man1/libreoffice.1.gz $ _

The stock LibreOffice is under the /usr tree. The freshly installed LibreOffice is under the /snap tree.

The icons from both corresponding versions are the same. Empirically, the first for LibreOffice Writer would be the stock LibreOffice, while the second one is the snapped LibreOffice.

We can move the icons on the Launcher and then launch them. If we selected our preferred version, then we are fine. Otherwise, we try with the other same icon.

Here is how LibreOffice 5.3 Writer looks like.

Update #1 (3 Feb 2017)

Let’s try again to see whether there are new snaps for LibreOffice because we got a hint that the new LibreOffice 5.3 has hit the stable channel.

$ snap info libreoffice name: libreoffice summary: "LibreOffice is a powerful office suite including word processing and creation of spreadsheets, slideshows and databases" publisher: canonical description: | LibreOffice is a powerful office suite – its clean interface and feature-rich tools help you unleash your creativity and enhance your productivity. LibreOffice includes several applications that make it the most powerful Free and Open Source office suite on the market: Writer (word processing), Calc (spreadsheets), Impress (presentations), Draw (vector graphics and flowcharts), Base (databases), and Math (formula editing). channels: stable: 5.3.0.3 (17) 374MB - candidate: 5.3.0.3 (17) 374MB - beta: 5.3.0.3 (17) 374MB - edge: 5.3.0.3 (17) 374MB -

Indeed, the testing snap that was initially in the edge channel, has been moved up to the rest of the channels and reached the stable channel.

If a snap is in the stable channel, this means we can install from Ubuntu Software. GUI time!

That is, open Ubuntu Software and perform a search for libreoffice. For some reason, the snaps in Ubuntu Software have the nonfree tag, so we have a hint that the first result is the snap.

Let’s click on the first result in order to get more info, before installing.

Yep, it is LibreOffice 5.3.0.3. I suppose that since it is a snap, it is assumed that it may contain non-free components. Considering that Ubuntu Software does not offer any other indication whether a package is traditional or a snap, it is important to have that hint.

We click to install. If we did not already sign in with a Launchpad.net account, it will ask us to input the email/password now (since this is a snap). If you do not have a Launchpad Single-SignOn account, create one at https://login.launchpad.net/ (it’s free).

Here is how it looks like in Ubuntu Software, having installed LibreOffice as a snap.

Let’s click on Launch to start LibreOffice. If you actually do that, you (with snapd version 2.21) actually launch LibreOffice Base. It’s a bug, https://bugs.launchpad.net/snappy/+bug/1661590

Until the bug gets fixed, launch the LibreOffice snap from Dash :-).

Update #2: 3 Feb 2017

Suppose you already installed LibreOffice from the edge channel and you want to switch to the stable channel. How do you do that?

Channel switching in snaps is supported since the summer, Snapd 2.0.10: new media interfaces, channel switching

Let’s try it out.

$ snap info libreoffice name: libreoffice summary: "LibreOffice is a powerful office suite including word processing and creation of spreadsheets, slideshows and databases" publisher: canonical description: | LibreOffice is a powerful office suite – its clean interface and feature-rich tools help you unleash your creativity and enhance your productivity. LibreOffice includes several applications that make it the most powerful Free and Open Source office suite on the market: Writer (word processing), Calc (spreadsheets), Impress (presentations), Draw (vector graphics and flowcharts), Base (databases), and Math (formula editing). commands: - libreoffice.impress - libreoffice - libreoffice.math - libreoffice.writer - libreoffice.base - libreoffice.calc - libreoffice.draw tracking: edge installed: 5.3.0.3 (17) 374MB - refreshed: 2017-02-01 20:51:51 +0200 EET channels: stable: 5.3.0.3 (17) 374MB - candidate: 5.3.0.3 (17) 374MB - beta: 5.3.0.3 (17) 374MB - edge: 5.3.0.3 (17) 374MB -

We are tracking the edge channel and want to switch to the stable channel. The snap is identical, so it should merely change the tracking parameter.

$ snap refresh libreoffice --channel=stable snap "libreoffice" has no updates available

To switch channel, we need to refresh the installed snap, and indicate the new channel to switch to.

Unfortunately, both edge and stable have identical snaps and we probably have hit this bug (Channel switching (track new channel) does not work if the two channels happen to have identical snap packages). I tried with other snaps that had different versions between the channels and it worked just fine.

Therefore, for now, we can remove the snap and install again from the default channel.

$ snap remove libreoffice libreoffice removed $ snap install libreoffice libreoffice 5.3.0.3 from 'canonical' installed

That’s it!

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